IPCC框架下木质林产品碳储核算研究进展:方法选择及关联利益

木质林产品的碳储功能可有效降低大气中二氧化碳的浓度,其碳储量核算已被纳入气候变化缔约国温室气体清单报告,各国基于CBDR原则对木质林产品的碳储计量及贸易流动核算方法学在国家层面的争议及协调,关系到未来在气候变化谈判中的减排责任分配及利益分享。本文首先概括了IPCC历次会议关联木质林产品碳储核算议题及谈判进程,纵向梳理了碳储计量问题的研究进展。其次,对比不同国家和地区关于核算方法的应用及争议,总结不同核算方法在各国间的适用情况及其关联利益。最后,从清单报告和国际贸易角度分析了生产法与储量变化法对林产品碳储计量的不同影响,归纳了不同角度下两种核算方法的适用属性。研究表明:1缔约国附件Ⅰ国家在第二协议期内报告本国木质林产品的碳储量及其变化,在假设本国木质林产品碳储贡献不为零时采用生产法核算碳储量,核算源于本国采伐木的产品碳收支已成为当前缔约国履行气候责任的基本要求;2从清单报告的角度,缔约国基于森林管理参考水平报告碳储量,生产法区别森林管理活动并核算源于可持续森林经营管理的木质林产品碳储量,符合报告的要求;3从国际贸易角度,对于中国等涉及林产品国际贸易的净进口国,储量变化法因考虑到进出口的碳计量,以储量变化法核算碳储量对中国等林产品贸易大国更具优势。     

中国石油资源的资产负债表编制初探

我国境内石油行业总体呈现原油开采量上升的态势,为之付出的经济和生态成本也越来越大。开展我国境内石油资源资产负债表的编制工作对于摸清我国石油资源的家底、评估我国石油资源开采的经济—资源—环境综合成本、探讨我国石油开采战略的合理性具有重要的意义。本文首先探讨了石油资源资产负债表的编制方法和框架,构建了集"生态系统服务"、"环境污染"和"资源消耗"三位于一体的"生态负债"账户。其次,收集并整理了重要的污染物处理成本和生态系统服务的价值评估成果,构建了价值化因子数据表。最后,基于2012年数据尝试编制了目前我国的第一份石油资源资产负债表。结果显示,(1)2012年末,我国石油资源的资产总额为1.47×109万元,负债总额为9.03×107万元,所有者权益为1.38×109万元;(2)石油资源资产总额占到当年政府资产总额的14.43%,占政府资源性资产比重达31.12%;(3)石油行业的资产负债率为6.15%,负债权益比达到了6.56%;(4)"生态系统服务"构成了负债的最大比重,达到了98.16%。总的来说,我国石油开采行业整体处于"高资产、高负债、强生态压力和弱可持续性"的状态。从这份资产负债表我们可以看出,我国境内石油开采的生态成本不容忽视。随着资源的不断开发,石油开采的边际生态成本只会越来越大,因此,能指向经济和生态两方面的综合成本应该取代账面成本成为政府进行石油资源开发的决策依据之一。此外,要落实石油资源资产负债表对于生态保护的实际指导意义,我们建议应该将石油资源开采的资产负债率、负债权益比等指标纳入官员的绩效考核体系。     

2000—2014年中国经济系统物质流核算与资源产出率研究

本文利用经济系统物质流分析框架核算了我国2000—2014年的主要物质流、资源产出率等指标。结果表明：① 2000—2014年本地采掘物质量、进口量和本地处置后排放均有较快增长。2011—2014年本地采掘中生物质采掘量逐年稳步增长,非金属矿石和化石燃料采掘量处于下降趋势。本地处置后排放中空气排放物贡献了绝大部分比例并逐年增长,水污染排放物逐年下降。② 2000—2014年人均资源的采掘、投入和消耗量均有大幅增长,2014年人均物质消耗量比2000年增长1倍以上。资源产出率和单位GDP本地采掘、投入物质量处于波动式增长趋势,本地采掘每吨物质所贡献的GDP已连续三年超过资源产出率。③ 2014年中国资源产出率约为欧盟28国平均水平的1/4。2010年我国省级资源产出率差异较大,小部分地区已超过欧盟同期水平,但仍有大部分地区的资源产出率较低,未达到全国平均水平。     

京津冀地区环境资产负债表编制研究

环境容量资产的核算是自然资源资产负债表编制中的主要组成部分。本文基于环境容量提出京津冀地区环境资产负债表编制方法,阐明该地区环境资产负债表的编制内容、核算范围以及编制路径,对2013年该地区及13个城市的环境容量资产进行核算,并编制了实物量资产负债表。在此基础上,提出了京津冀地区降低环境资产负债的政策建议,指出我国环境资产负债核算工作逐步规范化、制度化的方向。结果表明,京津冀地区大气及水环境容量均处于严重负债状态,其中,主要大气污染物SO2、NOx和PM2.5环境容量资产负债率分别为-235%、-263%和-316%,主要水污染物COD和NH3-N环境容量资产负债率分别为-414%和-850%。本文研究成果可为京津冀地区资源环境与经济发展决策提供科学基础,同时也可为其他地区开展环境资产核算研究提供参考。     

Energy and resource basis of an Italian coastal resort region integrated using emergy synthesis

Sustainable development of coastal zones must balance economic development that encourages human visitation from a larger population with desires that differ from the local residents with the need to maintain opportunities for the local resident society and conserve ecological capital, which may serve as the basis for residents.We present a case study in which the sustainability level of a coastal zone (Riviera del Beigua), located along the Ligurian coast of north-western Italy, was assessed through the lens of systems ecology using emergy synthesis to integrate across economic, social and environmental sub-systems.Our purposes were (1) to quantify the environmental sustainability level of this coastal zone, (2) to evaluate the role of tourism in affecting the economy, society and environment, and (3) to compare emergy synthesis to Butler's Tourism Area Life Cycle model (TALC). Results showed that 81% of the total emergy consumption in the coastal zone was derived from external sources, indicating that this tourist-heavy community was not sustainable. Tourism, as the dominant economic sub-system, consumed 42% of the total emergy budget, while local residents used the remaining 58%. The progressive stages of the TALC model were found to parallel the dynamic changes in the ratio of external emergy inputs to local emergy inputs, suggesting that emergy synthesis could be a useful tool for detecting a tourist region's TALC stage. Use of such a quantitative tool could expedite sustainability assessment to allow administrative managers to understand the complex relationship between a region's economy, environment and resident society so sound policies can be developed to improve overall sustainability.     

Emergy Evaluation of the Natural Value of Water Resources in Chinese Rivers

Emergy theory and method were used to evaluate the economy of China and the contributions of water resources in Chinese rivers to the real wealth of the Chinese economy. The water cycle and energy conversion were reviewed, and an emergy method for evaluating the natural value of water resources in a river watershed was developed. The indices for China calculated from the emergy evaluation were close to those of developing countries. Despite a small surplus in its balance of payments, China had a net emergy loss from its trade in 2002. The efficiency of Chinese natural resource use was still not high and did not match its economic growth rate. Furthermore, the Chinese economy placed a stress on its ecological environment and natural resources. Several indices of Chinese rivers from the emergy evaluation were close to those of average global river water. The main average indices of Chinese rivers were transformity (4.17 × 10⁴ sej/J), emergy per volume (2.05 × 10¹¹ sej/m³), and emdollar per volume (0.06 $/m³). The total value of all the rivers’ water made up 13.0% of the GDP of China in 2002, and that of water consumption accounted for 2.1%. The value of the water resources in the Haihe-luanhe River (11.39 × 10⁴ sej/J) was the highest, followed by the Yellow River (10.27 × 10⁴ sej/J), while the rivers in Southwest China had the lowest values (2.92 × 10⁴ sej/J).     

The Organizational and Operational Boundaries of Triple Bottom Line Reporting: A Survey

This article responds to Gray’s (2002) call for normative research on social and environmental accounting (SEA) and Parker’s (2005) call for active engagement in the process of designing SEA systems. More specifically, our investigation focuses on the study of boundary setting for triple bottom line (TBL) reporting, an issue that has been given more attention by practitioners than by researchers. The study reviews the consequences of boundary setting for the discharge of organizational accountability, from which it develops a framework to investigate TBL reporting boundaries and then reports on an empirical survey of best practice. It concludes that organizations are strategically setting and disclosing their boundaries instead of discharging their accountability and argues that such strategies have far-reaching consequences, because reporting boundaries are not only reflective of organizations but also have a constitutive role in their definition. A further consequence is that it calls into question the use of voluntary labeling, such as “in accordance” with Global Reporting Initiative; one implication being that further research into technical developments in TBL reporting could contribute to the discharge of organizational accountability.     

The joint use of LCA and emergy evaluation for the analysis of two Italian wine farms

The aim of this paper is to evaluate two agroindustrial productive processes in their entirety (one organic and one semi-industrial), focusing on the comparison of impacts derived from the inputs and outputs of the system (life cycle assessment, LCA), integrated with a physical evaluation of the resources and natural services, on a common basis (emergy). Methods based on the joint use of LCA and emergy evaluation are useful, as they measure the contribution of environmental services and products to the productive process thus focusing primarily on the environmental impact of emissions and non-renewable energy inputs. The complementarity of the methods used in this paper contributes important elements and information useful for the comprehension of the organization of agriculture within Siena's territory. The results show important elements and useful information: (1) for the comprehension of the two agroecosystems' organization; (2) for the use of the energy flows that determine their development. Moreover, the combined use of emergy and LCA gives a comparative thermodynamic performance evaluation between organic and semi-industrial farming.     

A new and integrated hydro-economic accounting and analytical framework for water resources: a case study for North China

Water is a critical issue in China for a variety of reasons. China is poor of water resources with 2300m(3) of per capita availability, which is less than 13 of the world average. This is exacerbated by regional differences; e.g. North China's water availability is only about 271m(3) of per capita value, which is only 125 of the world's average. Furthermore, pollution contributes to water scarcity and is a major source for diseases, particularly for the poor. The Ministry of Hydrology [1997. China's Regional Water Bullets. Water Resource and Hydro-power Publishing House, Beijing, China] reports that about 65-80% of rivers in North China no longer support any economic activities. Previous studies have emphasized the amount of water withdrawn but rarely take water quality into consideration. The quality of the return flows usually changes; the water quality being lower than the water flows that entered the production process initially. It is especially important to measure the impacts of wastewater to the hydro-ecosystem. Thus, water consumption should not only account for the amount of water inputs but also the amount of water contaminated in the hydro-ecosystem by the discharged wastewater. In this paper we present a new accounting and analytical approach based on economic input-output modelling combined with a mass balanced hydrological model that links interactions in the economic system with interactions in the hydrological system. We thus follow the tradition of integrated economic-ecologic input-output modelling. Our hydro-economic accounting framework and analysis tool allows tracking water consumption on the input side, water pollution leaving the economic system and water flows passing through the hydrological system thus enabling us to deal with water resources of different qualities. Following this method, the results illustrate that North China requires 96% of its annual available water, including both water inputs for the economy and contaminated water that is ineligible for any uses.     

Environmental accounting for waste management: A study of local governments in Australia

Local governments in Australia, especially in large urban areas, have faced a challenge of the growing quantity of waste generated and the diminishing space for waste disposal in recent years. The central government has demonstrated the importance of developing strategies to make full environmental costs and impacts of waste disposal and material recovery accountable for waste management decision-making. However, research into this field is limited. This paper investigates environmental accounting practices in local government waste management. From a survey conducted with local government authorities in New South Wales (NSW) Australia, it is found that overall the level of direct waste flow and activity accounting is higher than the level of hidden and external environmental cost accounting, though local governments tend to identify and use more physical information associated with waste flows and activities than relevant monetary information. External environmental impacts of waste disposal are often overlooked and show the lowest level of practices. The survey results also indicate that urban local governments have taken more environmental information into account than rural local governments, but such difference is not significant between local governments of different sizes. The complexity of waste technical services and operations is confirmed to have a positive and significant effect on the level of environmental accounting for waste management across local governments surveyed.