Policy relevance of three integrated assessment tools—A comparison with specific reference to agricultural policies

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), a system of market support instruments, direct income transfers, and rural development measures, has been put through an ongoing reform process in recent decades. This paper introduces three policy impact assessment tools (SIAT, SEAMLESS-IF, MEA-Scope tool) and analyses how these tools have responded to a number of challenges for integrated assessment modelling as reported in the international literature. Significant progress has been made with regard to modelling linkages whereas other challenges, particularly those related to issues of scale and uncertainty management, require further efforts. It is also analysed which CAP instruments are represented and what kinds of effects can be analysed at different scales. Market instruments and direct payments are comparatively well represented, while the ability to model rural development measures is mostly beyond the scope of these tools. Because each tool has found a different solution for coping with the common challenges of integrated assessment modelling, the choice of one of the tools for a particular application depends strongly on the policy questions being asked. The SIAT provides the big picture via its ability to represent broad changes in policy instruments with EU-wide cross-sector impacts. The most comprehensive analysis of agricultural policy instruments can be obtained with SEAMLESS-IF. The MEA-Scope tool complements the other two approaches with detailed regional profiles.     

论预防性环境民事公益诉讼中"重大风险"的司法认定

针对"具有损害社会公共利益重大风险的污染环境、破坏生态行为"提起的民事公益诉讼是为预防性环境民事公益诉讼,有助于将预防为主环保原则落实于诉讼程序.但在司法实践中,作为核心要素的"重大风险"仍存在内涵模糊、认定主体错位、认定路径不清等认定困境.为此,应逐一做以下完善:通过界定基础对象和划定程度要求,进而明确内涵;矫正认定主体,澄清法院是唯一决定性认定主体,但同时为行政机关和专家辅助认定设计制度渠道;最后,还应适宜地构建具体认定路径.     

绿色技术专利强制许可法律问题研究

绿色技术专利强制许可要求将环境利益明确纳入公共利益范围,而专门的绿色技术专利强制许可制度则进一步要求针对绿色技术构建特殊许可通道。功能主义观念以环境保护目标的必要性来证成绿色技术专利强制许可的正当性,但没有解释绿色技术、环境保护、公共利益之间的具体联系,从而不能证明绿色技术专利强制许可背后的法律逻辑。法治主义视角下,从强制许可事由、审查程序以及许可费三方面来看,该制度会引起一系列的正当性问题。未来需要将专门的绿色技术专利强制许可制度限定在政府实施的范围内,并依据权利人自认来确定绿色技术的范围。     

失地农民土地权益流失的经济学分析

城市扩张速度的加快带来越来越多的农民丧失土地,从而引发的农民土地权益流失．这与我国“一切与农业为本,一切为农民着想”的扶农政策想违背,为解决这一问题,笔者从经济学角度探讨失地农民土地权益流失的原因,图1,参5．     

上海市固体废弃物的产生源现状分析

从排污行业、单位类别，经济类型和企业规模上对目前上海市危险废物、一般废物和其他废物的现状进行综述，并初步探讨了固体废弃物的资源潜力和管理技术。     

On the sustainability of common property resources

We provide a model where a common property resource is managed by two types of agents, cooperators and non-cooperators, who adjust their extraction strategies in response to persistent differential payoffs. In our model, the social approval of cooperators works as a reward mechanism which, as we show, favors both the pervasiveness of cooperative behavior and the sustainable management of natural resources. Specifically, we show that in the presence of such a reward mechanism a stable equilibrium can be reached with both strategies being practiced simultaneously and a decentralized and sustainable management of common property resources is possible.     

Provisioning rules and chick competition in asynchronously hatching common terns (Sterna hirundo)

Interactions between nestling birds and their parents are models for examining parent–offspring communication and sibling competition. Most studies have focused on species where young are restricted to a nest. However, offspring of many species are mobile and fed by parents for an extended period post-hatch. These chicks mobility may provide an opportunity to examine the role of signalling and physical competition on parental feeding decisions. We examined parental provisioning rules in relation to offspring behaviour and hatching order (i.e., competitive ability) in a species with mobile young, the common tern. We determined that about 95% of feedings were directed to the first chick to reach the parent when it landed with food. We developed a probabilistic model to predict the likelihood of a chick reaching the parent first, and thus receiving food. Our model showed that begging intensity, feeding history, and the interaction between begging intensity and relative proximity to the parent best predicted which chick would arrive first. Increased begging was associated with arriving first significantly more when a chick was relatively further from the parent than when it was closer than its siblings. Independently of these factors, larger, earlier-hatched chicks were more likely to be fed than smaller, later-hatched chicks. Additional analyses showed that parents landed closer to more intensively begging chicks, however, increased begging did not explain the advantage of earlier-hatched chicks because begging intensity did not vary with hatching order. Instead, earlier-hatched chicks were more likely to outrun later-hatched siblings and reach the parent first.     

The effect of diesel fuel on common vetch (Vicia sativa L.) plants

When petroleum hydrocarbons contaminate soil, the carbon:nitrogen (C:N) ratio of the soil is altered. The added carbon stimulates microbial numbers but causes an imbalance in the C:N ratio which may result in immobilization of soil nitrogen by the microbial biomass, leaving none available for plant growth. As members of Leguminosae fix atmospheric nitrogen to produce their own nitrogen for growth, they may prove more successful at growing on petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated sites. During a wider study on phytoremediation of diesel fuel contaminated soil, particular attention was given to the performance of legumes versus other plant species. During harvesting of pot experiments containing leguminous plants, a recurring difference in the number and formation of root nodules present on control and contaminated Common vetch (Vicia sativa L.) plants was observed. The total number of nodules per plant was significantly reduced in contaminated plants compared to control plants but nodules on contaminated plants were more developed than corresponding nodules on control plants. Plant performance of Common vetch and Westerwold's ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum L.) was compared to illustrate any difference between the ability of legumes and grasses to grow on diesel fuel contaminated soil. Common vetch was less affected by diesel fuel and performed better in low levels of diesel fuel contaminated soil than Westerwolds ryegrass. The total amount of diesel fuel remaining after 4 months in Common vetch planted soil was slightly less than in Westerwolds ryegrass planted soil.     

Positive framing does not solve the tragedy of the commons

We investigate whether positive framing increases cooperation in three social dilemmas with slightly different properties: a linear public goods (PG) game, a non-linear PG game, and a common pool resource (CPR) game. Results from our laboratory experiments show that contributions to a linear PG are higher if the externality is framed positively, rather than negatively, corroborating earlier findings by Andreoni (1995). By contrast, we find no such framing effects in the non-linear PG game or the CPR game. In these games, the best response in the material payoffs is to contribute less if others contribute more, counteracting effects of pro-social preferences. Positive framing therefore does not help to solve the tragedy of the commons.     

Agricultural landscapes as multi-scale public good and the role of the Common Agricultural Policy

During the last 50 years, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has impacted the evolution of European agricultural landscapes by driving changes in land use and farming practices. We propose a typology characterising the scales relevant for agricultural landscapes management and argue that action is required on three scales: (1) a landscape oriented management at the farm level; (2) the coordination of land managers’ actions at the landscape level; and (3) the conservation of the diversity of agricultural landscapes in the EU. We provide evidence that until now the CAP has mainly focused on the first scale. We also illustrate how agricultural policy could encourage coordinated actions at the landscape- and EU-scales. In particular, we propose policy instruments to coordinate actions of individual land owners (e.g. collective bonus in agro-environmental contracts or support to environmental cooperatives (scale 2)). We also analyse how the recognition and transposition of the European Landscape Convention could promote trans-frontier landscape cooperation in order, not only to conserve high-quality rural landscapes, but also to ensure the conservation of the diversity of EU landscapes (scale 3). This paper provides a knowledge base to support an integrated CAP design in the direction of improved landscape management, as an important component of the EU project towards more sustainable agriculture.