The power of environmental norms: marine plastic pollution and the politics of microbeads

Emerging environmental norms gain strength and diffuse more quickly when scientific evidence of harm is consolidating, when activism is intensifying, and when political and corporate resistance is relatively weak. The anti-microbead norm – that plastic microbeads should be removed from personal care products – has been gaining global influence since 2012; witness the upsurge in anti-microbead activism, public concern, voluntary corporate phasedowns and governmental bans. By 2018, the world was on track to eliminate microbeads from ‘rinse-off’ products within a decade, reducing microplastics flowing into oceans by 1–2%. This confirms the power of environmental norms, but how and why this phaseout is occurring – unequally across jurisdictions, with firms creating loopholes, missing deadlines and limiting the scope of reforms – also reveals innate weaknesses of bottom-up, ad hoc norm diffusion as a way of improving marine governance. These weaknesses are heightened when economic stakes are high, solutions are complex and costly, authority is fragmented across jurisdictions and corporate resistance is strong.     

区域大气污染协同减排补偿机制研究

在环境规制逐步从污染排放控制向环境质量管理转型的背景下,现行的单一行政区属地治理和管理模式对区域性流动性的大气污染已力不从心,导致减排目标与环境质量改善不对应,因此,跨行政区域的合作治理亟需管理手段和机制的创新。本文基于大气环境质量目标视角,构建了区域上层管理部门(如国家或区域)和下层所辖各区的双层博弈模型,明确了大气污染减排成本与减排量的函数关系,利用定量分析方法模拟计算出区域减排总成本最小化状况下的污染协同减排补偿标准及各辖区所承担的污染物减排量,提出对实际减排量低于(超过)责任减排量的辖区给予补偿费的征收(奖励)的管理机制,通过市场调节手段实现区域内大气污染协同减排的目的。在此基础上,以我国大气污染重点防控区(长株潭城市群)为例,采用2004—2015年的统计面版数据,对区域内所辖各区二氧化硫减排量和协同减排补偿标准进行了定量测算。计算结果表明:为达到国家设定的2030年环境空气质量总体目标,长株潭区域二氧化硫协同减排的补偿费标准为1 506元/t,以该补偿标准作为区域层面二氧化硫协同减排调控手段,可在区域污染治理总成本最小化的同时,实现域内各辖区自身利益的最大化。文章最后就区域污染协同减排补偿机制提出了实施思路及保障措施。基于此研究,区域环境管理部门应设立专项的协同减排基金,专门用于区域大气质量的改善和提高:一方面用于激励大气污染实际减排量超出本行政区域责任减排量的辖区,目的是为区域空气质量比预期目标更高、对居民健康产生的正向外部性买单;另一方面用于对历史包袱重、减排压力大、治理能力弱的辖区给予一定的政策倾斜或扶持;同时,区域环境管理部门还应从组织机构、交易平台、法律法规等方面提供保障措施,确保协同减排补偿机制的顺利实施。     

农地整理项目治理绩效及影响因素研究——以浙江省48个国投项目为例

从农村土地整理的内涵及现实情境出发构建投入产出绩效评价指标体系,运用DEA方法对浙江省已竣工验收的48个国家投资土地整理项目效率水平进行测度,借此深入分析农村土地整理项目的治理绩效以及影响因素,旨在为改善我国农村土地整理项目治理绩效研究提供新的理论与方法。研究结果显示:(1)浙江省48个国家投资项目的综合效率均值为0.851、技术效率均值为0.903、规模效率均值为0.936,说明项目总体治理绩效较好,但项目之间的差异比较明显;(2)超效率分析发现,杭州北部、宁波南部和温州东南部等自然和社会条件较好地区的项目绩效水平较高,衢州西部和奉化西南等丘陵地区绩效水平较低;(3)影响因素分析发现,生态防护林种植数量、灌溉渠系长度、土地平整土方量、田间道路长度等工程投入过量,作物总产值增加量、单位面积涉及人口数、植被覆盖率等产出不足是导致绩效不高的主要原因;(4)DEA分析法是一种有效的治理绩效分析法,有助于从技术改进和规模调整角度来理解农村土地整理项目治理绩效内涵。根据结论,提出应该从生产技术上增强项目投入产出的转化能力,以改善绩效水平。     

Addressing challenges for future strategic‐level emergency management: reframing,networking, and capacity‐building

The mounting frequency and intensity of natural hazards, alongside growing interdependencies between social‐technical and ecological systems, are placing increased pressure on emergency management. This is particularly true at the strategic level of emergency management, which involves planning for and managing non‐routine, high‐consequence events. Drawing on the literature, a survey, and interviews and workshops with Australia's senior emergency managers, this paper presents an analysis of five core challenges that these pressures are creating for strategic‐level emergency management. It argues that emphasising ‘emergency management’ as a primary adaptation strategy is a retrograde step that ignores the importance of addressing socio‐political drivers of vulnerabilities. Three key suggestions are presented that could assist the country's strategic‐level emergency management in tackling these challenges: (i) reframe emergency management as a component of disaster risk reduction rather than them being one and the same; (ii) adopt a network governance approach; and (iii) further develop the capacities of strategic‐level emergency managers.     

Can public engagement democratize environmental policymaking in a resource-dependent state? Comparative case studies from Alberta,Canada

What factors shape the democratic potential of public consultation in environmental policymaking? Here, the motivations, purposes, designs, and outcomes of recent public engagement on land use planning, climate change policy, and water resource management in Alberta, Canada are reviewed in order to show how the power dynamics of the political and economic context shape the democratic potential of public and stakeholder consultations, especially where dominant resource interests are at stake. At the same time, political leadership, interactions between civil society actors and key design elements are shown to be important to democratization.     

Protected areas and deforestation: new results from high‐resolution panel data

This paper investigates the effectiveness of protected areas in slowing tropical forest clearing in 64 countries in Asia/Pacific, Africa and Latin America during the period of 2001–2012 by comparing deforestation rates inside and within 10 km outside of the boundaries of protected areas. Annual time series of these deforestation rates were constructed from recently published high‐resolution data on forest clearing from Hansen et al. (2013). For 4,028 parks, panel estimation based on a variety of park characteristics was conducted to test if deforestation was lower in protected areas because of their protected status, or if other factors explained the difference. From a sample of 726 parks established since 2002, a test was also conducted to investigate the effect of park establishment on protection. Findings suggest park size, national park status and management by indigenous people all are significantly associated with effective protection across regions. For the Asia/Pacific region, the test offers compelling evidence that park establishment has a near‐immediate and powerful effect.     

Natural resource industry involvement in collaboration for water governance: influence on processes and outcomes in Canada

Natural resource industries are increasingly significant actors in environmental decision-making. Possessing vast institutional and technical capacity, firms have an important role to play in ‘new’ governance strategies such as collaboration. These strategies are often based upon assumptions of equitable influence. This paper investigates the nature of resource industry participation in collaborative water governance in Canada, and the potential consequences of that participation as investigated using power theory. The study used comparative cases to reveal that resource industries are able to shape collaboration, and the issues collaborated upon, at multiple analytical levels both internal and external to the collaborative process in ways not available to other actors. Analysis also revealed that resource industry participation in collaboration did not reflect a commitment to engage in shared learning and the reexamination of values and interests as presupposed by collaborative theory. Collaboration is thus challenged in producing equitable, representative outcomes when resource industries participate.     

Transboundary marine spatial planning: a reflexive marine governance experiment?

Because seas and coastlines are shared between states, the formulation and implementation of marine spatial planning (MSP) should be transboundary by nature. The main argument of this paper is that MSP should be organized as a transboundary policy-making process, but this is hampered by the conceptual and institutional fragmentation MSP is facing. Based on an analysis of four transboundary planning processes in different European seas, the paper gives insight into the possibilities to develop and implement transboundary marine spatial planning (TMSP). To overcome the conceptual and institutional challenges, TMSP should be developed as a reflexive governance arrangement, in which the actors involved are able to change the rules of the game and to challenge the existing (national-oriented) MSP discourses. The paper develops four forms of reflexivity (unreflectiveness; performative reflectiveness; structural reflectiveness; and reflexivity) to assess TMSP processes and to formulate conditions which are crucial to develop TMSP as a reflexive marine governance arrangement.     

农村环境治理中的政府责任再论析:元治理视域

当前,我国农村环境问题日益突出。如何实现农村环境的有效治理,学者从不同角度进行了探讨。无论学者如何强调PPP模式的意义、如何强调社会公众以及社会组织的作用,研究最后基本都会指向政府责任。本论文的创新之处就在于重新强调农村环境治理中的政府责任,特别是将其置于元治理视域下进行论析。元治理即治理的治理,元治理并不排斥治理主体的多元化,但更加重视和强调政府在社会治理中的重要性。根据元治理理论,政府在农村环境治理中的责任可以界定为:农村环境治理成本的承担者和多元治理体系的构建者,PPP模式的设计和监督者,社会组织参与治理的支持者和农民参与治理的引导者。当前,农村环境治理中政府责任担当存在的主要问题包括,政府农村环境治理投入不足和治理体系不完善、PPP模式中政府监督责任弱化、对社会组织参与治理的支持不足以及对农民参与治理的引导不够。元治理视域下农村环境治理中政府责任的实现,不仅需要政府承担起最主要治理主体责任,而且需要政府积极引领其他主体参与到农村环境治理中来,形成治理合力。具体而言,应以财政投入增加和多元治理体系构建实现政府最主要主体责任,同时,政府应以监督责任强化为重点保障PPP模式实施,以发展能力提升积极支持社会组织参与,以环境意识和制度信任水平提高等引导农民参与。