Who cares about climate change reporting in developing countries? The market response to,and corporate accountability for,climate change in Bangladesh

Undoubtedly, climate change is one of the greatest problems facing today’s world. Despite this, traditional research has ignored the market response to, and accountability for, climate change reporting in developing countries. Hence, this study critically examines climate change reporting practices in the most affected countries in the world, with specific reference to Bangladesh. In the study, 32 semi-structured interviews and 71 annual reports are evaluated. Using legitimacy theory, the study contributes to building an understanding of companies’ attitude toward stakeholder accountability regarding climate change. The study finds that Bangladeshi companies are reporting climate change information on an average of 2.23 %. More specifically, the study demonstrates that large companies are reporting on more climate change issues than others because of their legitimized positions in the market. Again, a lack of regulation and a culture of low social accountability among the companies contribute to a very low level of disclosure on climate change. Surprisingly, multinationals are not providing satisfactory disclosure. The study has policy implications in developing countries for both local policy makers (the government) and international policy makers (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the European Union, the World Bank, the UN Environment Programme, the International Energy Agency and the World Economic Forum) as to how to engage local companies so that they become more socially accountable to climate change reporting.     

Analysis of cost–benefit in life-cycle of plastic solid waste: combining waste flow analysis and life cycle cost as a decision support tool to the selection of optimum scenario

Millions of tons of plastic are consumed annually in the world due to its significant characteristics such as durability, flexibility, and low weight. High consumption has made plastic one of the most important municipal solid waste compounds, the quantity of which has increased in recent decades. Plastic solid wastes are known as a threat to the environment, and its efficient management in various aspects such as cost–benefit requires decision-making tools. This study was assessing the cost–benefit of plastic solid waste management by development of an economic model, and definition of different scenarios to change plastic solid waste management status. The results showed that 8971 tons of plastic solid waste were generated annually in the studied city. The plastic solid wastes were finally transferred to either recycling or landfilling site through 5 identified routes. 83 percent of the total recycled plastic solid waste was due to post-separation routes, and only 7.7 percent of the total plastic solid waste was recycled from the source separation route. The economic comparison of scenarios showed that with the aggregation of post-separation routes, the net revenue of plastic solid waste management increases by 334,000 euro per year while increasing the public participation and the ratio of source separation route raises net revenue by 875,000 euro per year, which was the best economic condition among the scenarios. Using life cycle cost method and it’s respected developed economic model truly satisfied the conditions of both, the current plastic solid waste management and the alternative scenarios, and hence can be adopted as a tool for decision-making.

     

山东省经济发展与环境保护关系的计量分析

经济增长与环境污染之间的关系常用环境库兹涅茨曲线（EKC）来描述。典型的EKC一般量倒U形。本文选取1988-2002年的山东省环境与经济数据．建立单位GDP污染排放量横型和人均GDP污染排放量模型,对山东省经济发展与环境保护之间的关系进行了计量与分析。通过单位GDP污染负荷模型分析发现。单位GDP的污染负荷量下降态势。这说明山东省产业结构调整已产生明显成效。通过人均GDP污染排放量模型发现．山东省的EKC不完全符合典型的库兹涅茨曲线特征。呈显着的三次曲线特点。其中,工业废水曲线为“U＋倒U”形．两个转折点的理论计算值分别为3416元和9975元。废气与固废曲线近似于倒U形EKC的左半部分．尚来到达转折点。由此可见．环境质量的改善并非随着收入水平的提高而自动发生。除了收入因素。影响山东省EKC的因素还有国家或地区的环境政策、工业化进程等。     

Hazardous waste, impact on health and environment for development of better waste management strategies in future in India

Industry has become an essential part of modern society, and waste production is an inevitable outcome of the developmental activities. A material becomes waste when it is discarded without expecting to be compensated for its inherent value. These wastes may pose a potential hazard to the human health or the environment (soil, air, water) when improperly treated, stored, transported or disposed off or managed. Currently in India even though hazardous wastes, emanations and effluents are regulated, solid wastes often are disposed off indiscriminately posing health and environmental risk. In view of this, management of hazardous wastes including their disposal in environment friendly and economically viable way is very important and therefore suggestions are made for developing better strategies. Out of the various categories of the wastes, solid waste contributes a major share towards environmental degradation. The present paper outlines the nature of the wastes, waste generating industries, waste characterization, health and environmental implications of wastes management practices, steps towards planning, design and development of models for effective hazardous waste management, treatment, approaches and regulations for disposal of hazardous waste. Appraisal of the whole situation with reference to Indian scenario is attempted so that a better cost-effective strategies for waste management be evolved in future.     

武汉市工业“三废”污染状况计量模型研究

根据武汉市1987~2003年经济状况（以人均GDP表示）与工业“三废”污染物排放量的统计数据，借助SPSS和EXCEL软件系统，分析了人均GDP与工业“三废”污染物排放量之间的相关关系,并建立了两者之间的计量模型。通过研究发现：武汉市工业“三废”污染物（如工业废水、工业废水中的Cr+6、工业废气中SO2、工业粉尘和工业固废等排放量，工业固体废弃物产生量）除工业固体废弃物产生与排放量在EKC曲线的左边、还处于两难区间外，其余的曲线已过或正处于EKC转折点，说明武汉市工业“三废”污染状况开始向良性化方向发展。在武汉市环境没有遭到完全破坏、资源没有完全耗竭时，根据研究结果， 进行了“烫平”武汉市工业“三废” 排放量EKC曲线走势的可行性分析。     

中国固体废物管理政策变迁逻辑与完善路径

系统梳理固体废物管理政策的变迁逻辑,研究固体废物管理政策的聚焦内容和发展趋向,有助于明晰固体废物管理政策完善路径。研究立足于已颁布的固体废物管理政策,运用统计方法分析固体废物管理政策的文本结构和内容,找出中国固体废物管理政策变迁的内在逻辑;紧密结合当前“无废城市”建设的政策需求,提出政策优化完善路径。研究发现:固体废物管理政策文本类型多元、效力级别多样,政策框架体系逐步优化完善;固体废物管理政策热点具有鲜明的时代发展烙印和动态演变特征,政策涉及的领域越来越广,政策内容更具针对性和全面性,政策执行更具指向性和可操作性;无害化、减量化、资源化,污染防治、监督管理、二次污染、回收利用、循环经济等是政策关注焦点;政府从宏观层面强化顶层设计,以政策引导规范为主,注重政策协同、技术支撑、治理水平提升等助推无害化、减量化、资源化目标实现;固体废物管理政策实施的工具手段多元化、要素支撑多样化,固体废物管理的技术支撑关注度逐步提升、管理模式与治理路径已进入适应性转型。立足现实需要,固体废物管理的市场化政策与激励机制不足,适用性技术关注度不高,综合管理水平和治理能力亟待提升。结合国外“无废城市”建设的理论研究、实践行动和政策举措,从固体废物生命周期管理政策、技术范式政策、主体协同政策、引导激励政策及法律法规政策等方面提出中国“无废城市”建设的政策完善路径方向。     

Basic Environmental Requirements for EU Accession: An Impact Study on Hungary

It can be stated in general that (with the exception of agriculture) the Hungarian economy, because of its outdated technologies, is a bigger threat to the environment than countries of Western Europe. However, as the volume of economic output, per capita consumption and the number of motor vehicles is considerably lower than those in more advanced industrial nations, by most indicators low per capita figures put Hungary in a better position. Still, we must remember that the EU's environmental policy puts heavy emphasis on the efficient utilization of resources and environmental efficiency, calculated against pollution generated in the course of creating units of national wealth and the amount of energy and natural resources required to it. By these standards, Hungary lags far behind the West European model.The problem is compounded by the fact that, while nations of Western Europe had created environmental infrastructure (i.e., wastewater disposal and treatment, waste management) in an earlier phase of their economic development, Hungary is only now embarking on a similar project. Indeed, the existing gap between utility services of drinking water and sewage disposal and treatment, and large amounts of untreated and illegally dumped waste lead to serious environmental damage. Although the state of the country's natural environment is considered satisfactory, factors outlined above indicate there are many responsibilities ahead of us if we are to meet western environmental standards.     

海岛居民环境友好行为及其影响因素研究--以长岛县为例

海岛是海洋生态系统的重要组成部分,保护海岛生态环境是推进海洋生态文明建设、保护海洋生态环境的重要方面。海岛居民是保护海岛生态环境的主体之一,研究海岛居民环境友好行为的影响因素,引导和鼓励海岛居民主动采取环境友好行为是改善海岛生态环境的有效途径。本研究在梳理国内外相关文献的基础上,对海岛居民环境友好行为的概念、类型及影响因素进行理论分析,建立包含生态管理行为、消费行为、说服行为、公民行为四个环境友好行为变量,环境态度、环境保护知识、环境经历、社会政策、行为约束五个影响因素变量在内的理论模型。结合海岛生态环境和海岛居民的特点,设计海岛居民版环境友好行为测量量表,并在长岛县进行问卷调查,运用描述性统计分析、结构方程模型分析探究海岛居民环境友好行为的影响因素及影响因素间的内在关系。研究发现:①海岛居民环境友好行为总体水平差异较大,难度较低的环境友好行为实施较好,而难度较高的实施较差;影响因素变量中,环境态度积极,环境经历丰富,环境保护知识掌握较好,相关社会政策较为不利,行为约束偏中性。②环境态度、环境经历、社会政策对海岛居民环境友好行为具有显著正向影响。③环境保护知识对环境态度具有显著正向影响,但对海岛居民环境友好行为无显著影响,存在“知易行难”现象。行为约束对海岛居民环境友好行为无显著影响。④环境经历不仅直接影响海岛居民环境友好行为,而且通过环境态度对海岛居民环境友好行为施加间接影响。基于研究结论,提出了改善海岛居民环境友好行为的对策建议。     

Policy options to promote Chinese new energy vehicles consumption

Inspired by the green revolution, new energy vehicles (NEVs) provide a fresh, alternative mode of transportation for Chinese consumers that reduce their reliance on traditional, gasoline/diesel-based cars. However, despite strong government support for NEVs in China, the level of uptake by consumers remains slow. Using Shanghai as a case study, this article provides a much-needed insight into local consumers’ motivations to invest in NEVs through a survey of 100 Shanghai residents. Results indicate that current NEV promotion policies do not have a significant impact on the cognitive trade-off of NEV consumption under the “Integrated Consumer Behavior Model,” mainly due to inconvenient charging facilities, technical concerns regarding battery, higher prices, and wait-and-see attitudes regarding the pilot policy environment. Drawing on experiences from Sweden and New Zealand, this research serves to enhance knowledge on consumer attitudes towards NEVs and assist policy makers in developing more effective green consumption promotion campaigns in the future.     

人口增长、收入水平与城市环境

伴随着我国城镇化进程的不断加快,城市环境污染问题备受关注。本文以城镇居民生活垃圾污染行为为起点,通过比较居民与政府目标函数,首先从理论上做出判断,城镇人口数量增加以及居民生活质量提高均会导致城市生活垃圾数量增长,从而对城市环境产生影响。随后,进一步采取Panel data的分析方法,以我国2004-2008年省级面板数据为样本,从城市生活垃圾污染的角度对我国城镇人口增长、居民收入水平与城市环境间的关系进行计量检验。结果显示:我国城市生活垃圾产生数量分别与城镇人口增长、居民收入水平间存在着长期正向协整关系,即在我国城镇化水平和居民生活质量不断提升的背景下,城市生活垃圾数量的增长以及对城市环境的污染存在着内在必然性;另外,我国城市生活垃圾数量的自发增长对平均增长的偏离逐年下降,可见,存在政策、制度、行为等外生因素抑制我国城市生活垃圾数量的增长。最后,文章从生活垃圾控制和处理的角度,就改善我国城市环境和促进城市环境可持续发展提出了简要的政策建议。     

Understanding American and Korean Students’ Support for Pro-environmental Tax Policy: The Application of the Value–Belief–Norm Theory of Environmentalism

By using the value–belief–norm theory of environmentalism, this study investigates American and Korean college students’ support for pro-environmental tax policy as a way to address global climate change. The results indicate that environmental concern and the perceived severity of climate change were significant predictors of one's tax policy support. Perceived individual responsibility for addressing climate change mediated the relationship between environmental beliefs (i.e. environmental concern and perceived severity) and tax policy support for Koreans. Such relationship was not observed among Americans. This study also examines whether political ideology functions as a predictor of tax policy support. For Americans, political ideology was a significant factor in predicting one's tax policy support and that it remained significant even after the inclusion of more proximal predictors—environmental concern and perceived severity. For Koreans, however, political ideology was not a significant factor. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Effects of environmental illiteracy and environmental awareness among middle school students on environmental behavior

This study proposes and employs a structural model to examine the effects of environmental literacy, environmental awareness, environmental attitudes, and environmental behavior among middle school students in Eski?ehir on their purchase of environmentally friendly products. In the proposed structural model, environmental illiteracy and environmental awareness were the exogenous latent variables, while pro-environmental attitude, pro-environmental behavior, and the purchase of environmentally friendly products were the endogenous latent variables. The latent variable of environmental illiteracy did not have a statistically significant effect on environmental attitudes and purchase of environmentally friendly products, whereas environmental awareness had a positive effect on pro-environmental attitudes and the purchase of environmentally friendly products. These findings indicate that students with environmental awareness also develop positive attitudes toward the environment, and the presence of a positive attitude toward the environment leads them to display pro-environmental behaviors and adopt a positive attitude toward environmentally friendly products.     

Environmental justice of nuclear waste policy in Taiwan: Taipower, government, and local community

This paper is an investigation into Taiwan’s policy on nuclear waste disposal, concentrating on the ways in which dumping sites have been chosen, and on the wider implications of those choices. The central aim was to examine whether this policy breached the distributive and procedural principles of environmental justice by discriminating against disadvantaged areas and minority ethnic groups. The paper first clarifies the meaning of environmental justice and then applies it to the case study of Taiwan’s decision announced in 2009 that Da-Ren (達仁鄉) in Taitung County (台東縣) and Wang-An (望安鄉) in Penghu County (澎湖縣) were its two favoured potential sites for the final disposal repository of radioactive waste. The findings of the research suggest that the Taiwan government and the nuclear power provider, Taipower, failed to fulfil the requirements of environmental justice in reaching this decision. The contribution of this case study to the literature on the environmental injustice of nuclear waste siting policies is fourfold. First, it adds to the growing number of studies that show how siting decisions systematically and deliberately disadvantage vulnerable communities. Second, it finds the basis of this discriminatory policy to lie in the wider pattern of inequality that exists in Taiwanese society—a pattern that is rooted in historical traditions of racial and tribal prejudice, reinforced by contemporary forms of corruption. Third, it suggests that a solution to the problem of environmental injustice in nuclear waste siting policy may have to wait until these broader practices of unequal treatment in Taiwan are addressed. Fourth, it speculates that the need for a solution to the nuclear waste problem may be a catalyst for dealing with these broader patterns of unequal treatment.     

完善我国医疗废物集中处置收费政策的思考和建议

医疗废物处置收费政策是医疗废物处置产业化发展的重要前提和保障。当前,医疗废物处置收费政策执行难,欠费、漏费等问题非常突出,医疗废物集中收集十分困难。在对我国医疗废物处置收费政策进行全面分析和评估的基础上,对当前收费政策存在的主要问题和产生的原因进行了分析。以加快完善医疗废物处置收费政策为目标,从完善政策体系、加强监管执法、提高标准合理性、综合确定费用承担方、制定鼓励性的经济政策、提高宣传和缴费意识等方面,提出医疗废物处置收费政策改革完善的若干建议。     

Happiness and footprints: assessing the relationship between individual well-being and carbon footprints

This study investigates the nature of the empirical link between an individual’s well-being and their carbon footprint. It employs a novel approach matching data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey, to household expenditure and greenhouse gas-based carbon footprints. The carbon footprints are calculated using environmental factor multipliers from the detailed and globally integrated multi-regional input–output (MRIO) tables provided by the Eora MRIO database. The results indicate that higher carbon footprints are associated with marginally lower levels of well-being. This relationship appears to be linear. Furthermore, this relationship does not differ greatly for individuals across the well-being distribution. The findings of this study both: (1) add to the body of knowledge on the link between carbon footprints and well-being; and (2) provide policy makers with evidence and strategic guidance on the well-being implications of mitigating carbon footprints.     

排污税能够提高环境质量吗

排污收费制度是我国主要的环境政策工具之一。然而,自1982年这一制度正式建立实施以来,经过2003年的制度改良,始终未能解决征收成本高、使用效率低、寻租行为盛行的问题,这一系列的问题导致该制度的减排效果不佳。因此,近年来,排污费改排污税的改革提上议事日程。这一改革是否能够收到设计者们预期的效果?为从理论上回答这些问题,从中国现实出发,借鉴环境库兹涅茨曲线的研究方法,通过设计一个包含政府征收排污税行为和政府污染治理技术投资行为的经济系统,考察动态条件下排污税对环境质量的长期影响,以及征收排污税对厂商行为和消费者行为的长期影响。根据本文的分析,单一的征收排污税并不一定能够改善环境质量,不一定能够促进环境库兹涅茨曲线拐点的出现,也不能减少企业污染物排放;同时,排污税降低了资本积累速度和经济增长速度,但对消费者消费路径的影响是不明确的。最后,本文建议,政府应投资于污染治理技术的改进能够持续的减少最终污染物排放,达到改善环境质量的目的。     

Assessing of Environmental Quality in Six Areas in India,Sri Lanka and Bangladesh

Environmental quality for environmental health has been examined visually by describing general conditions and drinking water supply, sanitation and solid waste treatment conditions and practices in six South-East Asian villages with a dense population. The environmental review was supplemented by discussions with local people and political and administrative decision makers. Some drinking water analyses were done in order to show the water quality to the local people. The quality of the general conditions and the conditions and practices of drinking water supply, excreta disposal and solid waste treatment practices have been graded with the grading system presented below. The grading could be done in 1 or 2 days in each area by two persons, of which one was an environmental scientist and the other a social scientist, who also knew the local culture and worked as a translator.     

Effectiveness of EMS in Tunisian companies: framework and implementation process based on ISO 14001 standard

This paper reports environmental analysis results of food and tannery Tunisian companies to identify the features of environmental management system (EMS) that is implemented recently. EMS via ISO 14001 has become one of the principal tools used by companies to handle environmental aspects and impacts through their various complex activities interacted with environment. While several companies have implemented and maintained a formal EMS, it has related mainly to their benefits in short term without responding to the sustainable development recommendations and practices. This study focuses on the strong linkage between the EMS effectiveness of food–tannery Tunisian companies and sustainability. A proactive environmental management approach is proposed and adopts a qualitative and quantitative assessment for factor analysis. It provides a strategic EMS framework and principles for sustainability to evolve the future enterprises’ benefits that has a clear influence on environmental performance in long term.