Pro-social behaviours,waste concern and recycling behaviour in Italy at the end of the 1990s

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - This paper examines both theoretically and empirically the link between pro-social behaviours, individual attitudes regarding waste prevention and...     

Climate engineering and human rights

ABSTRACT

In this Forum, three scholars discuss how climate engineering will pose novel human rights challenges, and may well force reconsideration of how human rights are applied as a guide to action. Following a short introduction, the first section introduces three competing approaches to human rights, arguing views which emphasize fairness or attempt to maximize satisfaction are more promising than one viewing human rights as inviolable ‘side-constraints’. The second section draws lessons from climate migration that are relevant for climate engineering in terms of incorporating a human rights approach to duties, rights, and participation. The final section compares the ‘needs-based’ and ‘rights-based’ approaches to humanitarian work in the face of climate change and climate engineering, raising concerns for duty-bearers and right-holders. The Forum’s conclusion draws together points of overlap and suggests a path forward for policy and research on this topic.     

Future energy: in search of a scenario reflecting current and future pressures and trends

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - Growing societal pressures, technological trends and government and industry actions are moving the world toward decarbonization and away from the...     

The contested politics of the Asian atom: peripheralisation and nuclear power in South Korea and Japan

South Korea and Japan have been unwaveringly committed to a nuclear-focused energy supply system despite the contested nature of that technology and the Fukushima accident in 2011. The socio-political consequences of four nuclear-related facilities (Ulju, Gyeongju, Futaba, and Rokkasho) are explored through the lens of social peripheralisation. This framework suggests that nuclear facilities will migrate to communities that are geographically remote, economically marginal, politically powerless, culturally defensive, and environmentally degraded. Nuclear infrastructures in the four cases are imposed on peripheral regions, impairing not only the structure of local economies and political power, but also creating a discriminative structure in terms of social and environmental inequality. Peripheralisation suggests a deeper dynamic by which pro-nuclear attitudes become ‘locked in’ socially and culturally so that communities come to depend on the very processes that made them peripheral. Community dynamics, subnational struggles, and contests over local power relations may determine the future of nuclear power.     

Uncertain penalties and compliance: experimental evidence

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - We present the results of a series of economic laboratory experiments designed to study the compliance behavior of polluting firms when penalties are...     

Discriminatory tax and subsidy on environmental behaviors

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - This paper investigates the consumption tax and subsidy as an environmental policy instrument for environmentally aware consumers by applying the model...     

Standards and social welfare in Cournot oligopolies

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - This paper ranks two widely used command-and-control environmental instruments, in terms of relevant equilibrium variables such as output, profits,...     

Sociopolitical ideology and the morality of green behaviour

Combating climate change and protecting the environment is a significant topic amongst political leaders and concerned citizens across the globe. The degree to which individuals perceive green issues as important is connected to their politics, those subscribing to conservative ideologies being less supportive of pro-environmental initiatives and less concerned about climate change than those endsorsing liberal ideologies. Examining political ideology as a uni- and bi-dimensional construct, the present research investigated whether political liberals (vs. conservatives), those higher (vs. lower) in right-wing authoritarianism, and those higher (vs. lower) in social dominance orientation differ in their perceptions of the morality of green behaviours. In Studies 1 (n = 200) and 2 (n = 150), liberal (vs. conservative) ideologies related to perceiving pro-environmental behaviours as more moral. Further, in Study 2, the relation between ideology and perceptions of green behaviours as moral was explained by positive feelings associated with the self engaging in green behaviours.     

Capital markets and the costs of climate policies

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - Globalization is accompanied by increasing current account imbalances. They can undermine the positive impacts of increasing international cooperation...     

Energy mix,technological change,and the environment

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - This paper studies the relationship between the energy mix and the environment using a theoretical framework in which two alternative energy sources are...     

International recycling firm joint ventures and optimal recycling standards

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - In this paper, we consider a Southern economy consisting of an upstream duopoly market for recycled materials and a downstream perfectly competitive...     

Exploring the link between energy based taxes and economic growth

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - This paper provides empirical evidence regarding the effect of energy based taxes on economic growth. The analysis is based on a panel dataset of 31...     

Accounting for adaptation and its effectiveness in International Environmental Agreements

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - This paper analyses, within a standard International Environmental Agreement game, the effect of the introduction of adaptation on climate negotiation....     

The impact of economic factors and governance on greenhouse gas emission

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - Governance is a basic factor explaining the poor economic, social and environmental performance of many developing countries. Since good governance...     

Heat warnings and avoidance behavior: evidence from a bike-sharing system

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - Governments throughout the globe usually implement early warning systems to prevent health-related costs from exposure to extreme heat. In a warming...     

Pathways to policy: Partisanship and bipartisanship in renewable energy legislation

The effort to transition energy sources away from dependence on fossil fuels has become highly divided along partisan lines in some countries, but the social-science literature has not yet caught up with this important problem. Policy-adoption studies do not address the specific problem of polarization and gridlock, and the literature on gridlock does not examine conditions for breaking gridlock for renewable energy and energy efficiency (REEE) policy. Qualitative research can help to fill the void by identifying strategies that legislators use for achieving support for REEE policy where there is gridlock, polarization, and/or strong opposition. Interview data from a stratified sample of US states reveals three strategies that state-government legislators use to enhance REEE policy development under these conditions: bring to the process countervailing industrial interests to align REEE with business; transfer decision making to public service commissions; and use extra-legislative consultation processes to develop stakeholder consensus.     

The rapid reproducers paradox: population control and individual procreative rights

This article argues that population policies need to be evaluated from macro and micro perspectives and to consider individual rights. Ecological arguments that are stringent conditions of liberal democracy are assessed against a moral standard. The moral standard is applied to a series of reasons for limiting procreative rights in the cause of sustainability. The focus is directly on legally enforced antinatalist measures and not on indirect policies with incentives and disincentives. The explicit assumption is that population policy violates the fairness to individuals for societal gain and that population policies are incompatible with stringent conditions of liberal democracy. The author identifies the individual-societal tradeoff as the "rapid reproducers paradox." The perfect sustainable population level is either not possible or is a repugnant alternative. 12 ecological arguments are presented, and none are found compatible with notions of a liberal democracy. Three alternative antinatalist options are the acceptance of less rigid and still coercive policies, amendments to the conception of liberal democracy, or loss of hope and choice of noncoercive solutions to sustainability, none of which is found viable. If voluntary abstinence and distributive solutions fail, then frugal demand options and technological supply options both will be necessary.     

Environmental technology development and diffusion: panel data evidence from 56 countries

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - This study analyzes environmental technology development and diffusion patterns in 56 countries and for the time period 2005–2014 to provide an...     

Trade,equilibrium prices and rents in European auctions for emission allowances

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - This paper analyzes the price behavior of Phase III (2013–2020) EU-ETS emission allowances of CO2 by focusing on the dynamics of daily auction...