'British Columbia Is Open for Business': Environmental Justice and Working Forest News in the Vancouver Sun

This paper analyses the Vancouver Sun's coverage of the Working Forest Initiative, which the provincial government of British Columbia (BC), Canada, introduced in 2002. The Working Forest originally defined forestry as the primary use of all forested Crown land in BC that was not within protected areas. By 2003, this policy initiative was transformed into a largely symbolic recognition of the importance of the forest industry. Through the Sun, the debate over the Working Forest is simplified into a conflict between a discourse of 'certainty and stability' for the forest industry and an oppositional discourse that challenges the conflation of the interests of forestry corporations with a reified 'general interest'. In the Sun, debate over the Working Forest is dominated by sources from government, environmental organizations and the forest industry. Other important news sources are rendered silent, including First Nations and forestry labour voices.     

Fair fracking? Ethics and environmental justice in United Kingdom shale gas policy and planning

The exploitation of shale gas resources is a significant issue of environmental justice. Uneven distributions of risks and social impacts to local site communities must be balanced against the economic benefits to gas users and developers; and unequal decision-making powers must be negotiated between local and central governments, communities and fracking site developers. These distributive and procedural elements are addressed in relation to UK policy, planning, regulatory and industry development. I adopt an explicitly normative framework of policy evaluation, addressing a research gap on the ethics of shale gas by operationalising Shrader-Frechette’s Principle of Prima Facie Political Equality. I conclude that UK fracking policy reveals inherent contradictions of environmental justice in relation to the Conservative Government’s localist and planning reform agendas. Early fracking policy protected communities from harm in the wake of seismic risk events, but these were quickly replaced with pro-industry economic stimulation and planning legislation that curtailed community empowerment in fracking decision-making, increased environmental risks to communities, transferred powers from local to central government and created the conditions of distributive injustices in the management of community benefit provisions. I argue that only by “re-localising” the scale of fracking governance can political equality be ensured and the distributive and procedural environmental injustices be ameliorated.     

City Partners Maintain Climate Change Action Despite National Cuts: Residential Energy Efficiency Programme Valued at Local Level

Cities, regional governments and their local utilities are taking leading roles in programmes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Agenda 21 highlighted the need for such local action to achieve the goals of the 1992 Earth Summit and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This trend of increasing local action was demonstrated dramatically in Canada in 2006 when the newly elected federal government cancelled many of the previous government's climate change programmes. The EnerGuide for Houses Program illustrates the growing importance of local decisions where the federal government developed a home energy rating system that was delivered through a range of partnerships across the country. Despite all political parties voting to increase funding for the programme in 2005, the Conservative government cancelled it in May 2006. The response by provincial and local governments was immediate. Their actions revealed the ability and desire among lower-tier governments to sustain popular climate change initiatives. Both the political responses and financial implications are included in the examination of the shift in environmental responsibility from the national to the local sphere.     

Participatory and multi-level governance: applications to Aboriginal renewable energy projects

As provinces across Canada seek to diversify their domestic electricity supply and cope with the accelerating effects of anthropogenic climate change, new models of sustainability-focused economic development are being pursued. One critically important emerging paradigm involves First Nation (a Canadian term for indigenous) collaboration and leadership in renewable energy projects. In this comparative case study analysis, we consider two different governance approaches pursued in distinct renewable energy project contexts: the clean energy projects of the Ojibway Pic River First Nation band in northwestern Ontario and the NaiKun Offshore Wind Project proposed in the ocean territory of the Haida Nation off the coast of British Columbia (BC). Focusing on themes of participation and multi-level governance, the case studies highlight the importance of authority and control in decision processes, the primacy of ensuring that scale and quality of design are carefully scoped, and the shaping role of inclusiveness in planning for wholly sustainable energy futures. Taken together, these cases illustrate that fluid governance arrangements which exploit the particular capacities of each actor may give rise to trust that ultimately forms the foundation of a co-produced model of renewable energy governance. We argue that while collaboration might aim to be inclusive of all interested actors, it is important to consider the extent to which a project design might sufficiently incorporate a community's long-term vision. We conclude that truly sustainable renewable energy development requires a project design that reflects community values, incorporates community control, and incentivises indigenous ownership.     

Understanding the impact of democratic logics on participatory resource decision-making in New Zealand

This paper claims that participatory approaches to water resource management in New Zealand are highly influenced by how institutional and community actors understand and practise democracy, including indigenous Māori rights under the Treaty of Waitangi. Drawing on case study analysis from a six-year research programme in which the aim was to evaluate existing and new methods for participatory decision-making, we highlight how different but co-existing democratic beliefs and practices, referred to as democratic logics can shape relationships between governance/decision-making bodies and affected communities. One particular case is examined in detail to illustrate how the various “logics” were strengthened, extended and challenged through participatory research methodologies. Our key message is that revealing and articulating existing democratic logics for participation can help promote and facilitate new participatory approaches, as well as increase robustness and community buy-in to local government decision-making.     

中国实现2030年可持续发展目标进程分析与对策

本文基于联合国可持续发展行动网络牵头发布的可持续发展目标指数和指示板报告，对中国实现2030年可持续发展目标状况进行了分析，认为尽管中国的SDG指数在全球整体排名中呈逐步上升趋势，但生态环境相关指标总体依然面临严峻挑战：中国与生态环境相关的目标评级偏低；SDG指数和指示板报告采用的评价指标与中国生态环境保护重点工作关联性不强；中国的统计数据难以满足测量2030年议程的数据需求等。为实现联合国倡议的2030年可持续发展目标，中国应打好污染防治攻坚战，提高环境治理水平，加快建立中国本土化评估指标体系，形成SDGs指标年度报告制，建立SDGs实施机制，建立与2030年议程相适应的统计支撑体系。     

City Partners Maintain Climate Change Action Despite National Cuts: Residential Energy Efficiency Programme Valued at Local Level

Cities, regional governments and their local utilities are taking leading roles in programmes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Agenda 21 highlighted the need for such local action to achieve the goals of the 1992 Earth Summit and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This trend of increasing local action was demonstrated dramatically in Canada in 2006 when the newly elected federal government cancelled many of the previous government's climate change programmes. The EnerGuide for Houses Program illustrates the growing importance of local decisions where the federal government developed a home energy rating system that was delivered through a range of partnerships across the country. Despite all political parties voting to increase funding for the programme in 2005, the Conservative government cancelled it in May 2006. The response by provincial and local governments was immediate. Their actions revealed the ability and desire among lower-tier governments to sustain popular climate change initiatives. Both the political responses and financial implications are included in the examination of the shift in environmental responsibility from the national to the local sphere.     

PACE2016中国环境治理国际研讨会综述

PACE2016中国环境治理国际研讨会就中国环境政府治理、环境市场治理、环境社会治理以及环境治理结构展开了深入研讨并达成以下共识:大国模式下的环境政府治理面临着突出的"污染避难所效应"、"公平与效率的两难"和"多层次治理体系"等问题;不成熟市场经济条件下环境市场治理必然面临"要不要走环境治理市场化之路"的疑虑,相关研究表明市场手段作为有效的环境治理方式正在逐渐地打消此等疑虑;中国环境治理最主要的短板在于社会治理,提高公众参与度的主要挑战在于改变地方政府的态度,然而社会企业家是环境社会治理的希望;多元环境治理结构是中国环境治理的必然选择,政府引领、企业自觉、公众参与的制衡机制是关键。     

Off-grid: community energy and the pursuit of self-sufficiency in British Columbia's remote and First Nations communities

Remote or off-grid communities in Canada primarily rely on diesel generators for the provision of their electricity. Often surrounded by potential renewable resources, they are characterised as the low-hanging fruit of greenhouse gas mitigation strategies. While much is said about the promises of community energy projects, as well as technologies and policy mechanisms for addressing the needs of these communities, little attention has been paid to what communities, themselves, might want for their energy projects and what the implications of those desires might be for both technology development and community energy policies. This paper aims to fill this gap by exploring the on-going energy pursuits of a number of remote First Nations communities in British Columbia. It identifies a desire for community self-sufficiency as a primary motivation for engaging with energy projects on the part of the communities and discusses the various meanings and implications of self-sufficiency in the context of community energy projects. These meanings and implications primarily include the two dimensions of material self-sufficiency and political self-determination, the latter of which suggests a view of community energy projects as processes of decolonisation among First Nation communities in British Columbia. It then suggests that the pursuit of this goal is somewhat incongruent with the approach that government and industry have taken in addressing community energy, especially the way in which remote communities are viewed as the low-hanging fruit of various sustainability projects.     

Environmental Protection Bureau Leadership at the Provincial Level in China: Examining Diverging Career Backgrounds and Appointment Patterns

This paper analyses the career backgrounds of local government officials in provincial Environmental Protection Bureaus (EPBs) in China and explains the appointment patterns of Chinese EPB bureaucrats. Using biographical information of provincial EPB heads and drawing on fieldwork conducted in Shanxi Province and Inner Mongolia, this paper finds that only one-fourth of the provincial EPB heads were promoted through the bureau ranks within the EPBs, while the remaining three-fourths were appointed from positions outside the environment field. Further, nearly all EPB heads' professional backgrounds and associated networks can be clearly categorized as environmental, business, provincial government, or local government oriented. This paper delineates these four types of Chinese EPB leaders and explains why an awareness of the different professional orientations is critical to understanding environmental regulation and protection in China. These findings have implications for inferring the unique characteristics of a province's EPB leadership, the implementation capacities of provincial EPBs, and the appointment preferences of provincial leaders.     

Emerging dynamics of environmental governance in northern post-productivist regions

The northern, resource-dependent regions of Canada have long faced distinctive social, economic, and environmental challenges and vulnerabilities. However, these regions and communities increasingly find themselves in a transitional and post-productivist context – the implications of which are largely unclear. Therefore, research is needed to identify the current and emerging challenges facing such regions and how environmental governance and planning must adjust to meet these challenges. We utilise the case study of the Northeast Superior region of Ontario to identify and analyse the dynamics developing in post-productivist, resource-dependent regions and what the implications may be for environmental governance. Several key themes and issues that emerged include an increasingly pluralistic context, new regionalism and north–south tensions, First Nation initiatives and power imbalances, and northern identities which are tied to ideas of historical resource-dependence, remoteness, and intimate and complex links to the landscape, all of which inform environmental governance and sustainability debates. As a result, the Northeast Superior case provides insight into these ongoing dynamics which encompass individuals, government, industry, organisations, and the landscape, with the resultant lessons being transferable to initiatives in other northern, remote, and circumpolar regions.     

Back to the basics – Estimating the sensitivity of freshwater to acidification using traditional approaches

This study examines the effects of acidifying sulphur emissions on freshwater ecosystems in the traditional territory of Treaty 8 First Nations in British Columbia (BC). Due to the absence of detailed water chemistry data for most lakes in the region, revised empirical methods for estimating freshwater sensitivity to acidification are formulated using linear regression relationships between individual chemical measurements, and critical loads of acidity calculated using the Steady State Water Chemistry (SSWC) model. Lake alkalinity is the most effective chemical indicator of acidification sensitivity in northeast BC. Critical loads of acidity (CL(A)) estimated using alkalinity range from 0.0827 to 9.48 keq ha^?1 yr^?1. Sulphur deposition estimates range from 0.0113 to 0.303 keq ha^?1 yr^?1 and do not exceed the estimated CL(A) at any of the study lakes. The spatial situation of both the lakes and the emission sources is responsible for the lack of exceedances, and expanded/continued monitoring is recommended to account for geological variability and source proliferation. Measurements of lake conductivity and alkalinity provide a means of community monitoring for freshwater acidification sensitivity as part of cumulative effects management strategies.     

Shellfish aquaculture and First Nations' sovereignty: The quest for sustainable development in contested sea space

Aquaculture tenures or leases have become an increasingly important management tool for regulating access rights to coastal and offshore marine habitat. Tenure, as a form of private property rights to marine space, is generally considered a prerequisite for aquaculture development, as are the associated exclusive access rights which provide necessary incentives for producers to invest in infrastructure. The shellfish industry in British Columbia (BC), Canada, is presented as a case study of a transition from a primarily common property wild fishery to a rights‐based system for aquaculture. In BC, seafood production has grown substantially during the past two decades as a result of aquaculture production. However, despite the inherent economic advantages of the tenuring system for increasing seafood production, rights to aquaculture sites in BC remain highly controversial, particularly in response to environmental concerns and infringements on Aboriginal territorial claims. Shellfish farming has, to‐date, been far less controversial than salmon farming; however, shellfish aquaculture has not been uniformly adopted across the province, and analyses of industry capacity or economic opportunities for coastal communities have failed to adequately explain development patterns. This paper, which identifies perceptions of the risks and benefits of the shellfish aquaculture tenuring system, presents the results of 56 interviews conducted with individuals involved in shellfish production in BC. Results indicate that heightened perceptions of risk about shellfish aquaculture tenuring are related to unresolved Aboriginal territorial claims, economic dependence on wild shellfish resources, as well as place‐based values favouring access to wild resources. Underlying values and cultural understandings also strongly shape public perceptions of the risks of aquaculture, and as such, influence local decisions to either accept or resist industry growth. In this case, interviewees' risk perceptions were found to be more important indicators of the potential for industry expansion than studies of capacity or economic cost‐benefit analyses.     

HYDROELECTRIC POWER AND SCENIC PROVISIONS OF THE 1950 NIAGARA TREATY1

ABSTRACT: An important international Niagara River management issue concerns allocation of the average 202,000 cubic feet per second river discharge for hydroelectric power and scenic purposes. Major water diversions from Niagara Falls are necessary for power production. Flow is allocated by the 1950 Niagara Treaty which is intended to maximize power benefits and preserve and enhance the scenic fals spectacle. This paper examines the extent to which the Treaty objectives have been achieved. Based on analyses of government documents, engineering data, and falls-viewing patterns, it is concluded that the 1950 Treaty led to enhancement of the falls spectacle and increased power generation. But significant additional power diversions probably are attainable without adverse effect upon the existing falls spectacle. Reducing daytime summer Horseshoe Falls flow and scheduling spring and autumn flow according to viewing patterns are possible means of increasing power diversions. Existing generating facilities could use considerably more water and the value of additional Niagara hydroelectricity is very high in terms of generation-cost savings over alternative power sources. Because of the cultural importance of the falls, Treaty modifications to permit increased power diversions are not recommended without prior public opinion sampling and on-site viewing experiments. These findings highlight the need for more careful study before long-term international agreements are concluded and illustrate the need for more flexible treaty arrangements to permit periodic adjustments for changing conditions.     

Sustaining Technologies? Agenda 21 and UK Local Authorities' Use of the World Wide Web

The Agenda 21 treaty adopted at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development set out new goals for the provision and management of information in a sustainable society. New information and communications technologies (ICTs) have the potential to be used as tools for managing information and consequently have a role in sustainable development. This paper considers the use of ICTs to manage local information areas and the extent to which these new technologies are compatible with the broader goals of Agenda 21 such as social inclusion and public participation in decision making. The use of the World Wide Web by local authorities in the UK to manage local information and promote Agenda 21 is explored through a critique of website contents. It is concluded that, although the use of ICTs is not incompatible with the broader aims of Agenda 21, and has many possible positive applications, current use of the World Wide Web by local government in the UK does not yet fulfil this potential.     

Interrogating Social Sustainability in the Biofuels Sector in Latin America: Tensions Between Global Standards and Local Experiences in Mexico,Brazil, and Colombia

Across the Americas, biofuels production systems are diverse due to geographic conditions, historical patterns of land tenure, different land use patterns, government policy frameworks, and relations between the national state and civil society, all of which shape the role that biofuels play in individual nations. Although many national governments throughout the Americas continue to incentivize growth of the biofuels industry, one key challenge for biofuels sustainability has been concern about its social impacts. In this article, we discuss some of the key social issues and tensions related to the recent expansion of biofuels production in Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil. We argue that a process of “simplification” of ecological and cultural diversity has aided the expansion of the biofuels frontier in these countries, but is also undermining their viability. We consider the ability of governments and non-state actors in multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSI) to address social and environmental concerns that affect rural livelihoods as a result of biofuels expansion. We analyze the tensions between global sustainability standards, national level policies for biofuels development, and local level impacts and visions of sustainability. We find that both government and MSI efforts to address sustainability concerns have limited impact, and recommend greater incorporation of local needs and expertise to improve governance.     

(Local-) community for global challenges: carbon conversations,transition towns and governmental elisions

This article addresses the narrowing interpretation of community when governmentalised: that of community's elision with local. First it surveys five broad academic and policy interpretations of the community implied in low carbon transitions. These demonstrate the persistence of community's broad and open-ended polysemy today. Second it looks more closely at the role community plays in UK environmental governance today, including specific evidence from two such government-funded community initiatives used to meet global environmental challenges: Transition Towns and Carbon Conversations. Third it provides a critique of community governance-beyond-the-state. It argues that community used to “jump scales” in response to global challenges like climate change, is often at its most narrow: local and governmentalised. Doing so helps contextualise the governmentalisation of (local-) community in UK environmental governance. Often it is localised in order to delegate (perceived) agency and responsibility onto individual actors at a local level.     

Salmon Farming in First Nations' Territories: A Case of Environmental Injustice on Canada's West Coast

This paper argues that salmon aquaculture operations situated in First Nations' claimed territories on Canada's West Coast create issues of environmental injustice. Salmon farms are associated with various environmental problems including pollution of the aquatic environment, risks to wild salmon, and food safety issues. These environmental problems constitute issues of environmental injustice due to the disproportionate, and different, impacts they have on coastal First Nations in comparison with other Canadians. The paper draws on material from several reviews of British Columbian (BC) salmon aquaculture to analyse coastal BC First Nations' claims and concerns about salmon farming along three environmental justice dimensions: distribution, participation and recognition. Qualitative evidence is obtained suggesting that coastal First Nations face disproportionate health risks from salmon farms, are excluded from decision-making processes with respect to the farms, and feel that their worldviews, identities, and ways of life are both ignored and at risk from the farms.     

Questioning the local: environmental regulation,shale gas extraction,and the politics of scale

ABSTRACT

The exploration and potential extraction of shale gas – better known as fracking – has emerged as one of the most contentious dimensions to local environmental politics in the UK. Local residents and environmental activists have raised concerns about health, noise, ground water contamination, seismicity, environmental amenity, and other impacts of the industry on communities. Despite the complexities of shale gas extraction, an emphasis on the local has shaped key dimensions of the debate around the appropriate location for well pads to the relative exclusion of other issues. This paper draws on fieldwork in Lancashire, UK, to reflect on the political construction of scale in order to explore how an emphasis on “the local” can restrict political debate over shale gas to narrow concerns with land-use planning thereby obviating a fuller engagement with wider questions concerning risk, energy policy, and climate change. It is concluded that a more nuanced conception of scale is necessary for understanding how concerns with shale gas are diminished rather than strengthened through the current planning policy and regulatory regime operating in the UK.     

Partnerships for local sustainability and local governance in a Tasmanian settlement

This research is concerned with effects and actions at the local level, where it is argued that local governing processes are key to developing sustainable communities. The roles of the citizen and of formal government are changing such that the implementation of sustainability praxis at the local level requires that citizens and governments reconsider both the meaning and techniques of governance. Indeed, how we are governed, participate in governing processes and internalise and accept the need for change will affect how local communities make constant and lasting a dynamic praxis of sustainability. Actors in local governments and communities may be crucial in this task—especially as facilitators, enablers, leaders and partners. In this paper we focus on the Huon Valley Council and some members of one of its communities. We examine how they are experimenting with partnerships as a form of governance to unify, control, mobilise and regulate the conduct of various actors, and how such partnerships may foster sustainability praxis in the Valley's diverse communities of place and interest.