Local governments in the driving seat? A comparative analysis of public and private responsibilities for adaptation to climate change in European and North-American cities

The division of responsibilities between public and private actors has become a key governance issue for adaptation to climate change in urban areas. This paper offers a systematic, comparative analysis of three empirical studies which analysed how and why responsibilities were divided between public and private actors for the governance of local urban climate adaptation. For 20 governance arrangements in European and North-American cities, the divisions of responsibilities and the underlying rationales of actors for those divisions were analysed and compared. Data were gathered through content analysis of over 100 policy documents, 97 in-depth interviews and 2 multi-stakeholder workshops. The comparative analysis reveals that local public authorities are the key actors, as they bear the majority of responsibilities for climate proofing their cities. In this stage of policy emergence, local authorities are clearly in the driving seat. It is envisaged that local public authorities need to more actively engage the different private actors such as citizens, civil society and businesses through governance networks along with the maturation of the policy field and the expected acceleration of climate impacts in the coming decades.     

Insurance sector management of climate change adaptation in three Nordic countries: the influence of policy and market factors

The insurance industry is important for facilitating climate change adaptation. Insurance companies’ involvement is, however, influenced by national adaptation policy. The literature suggests that especially policy factors – government interventions, political priorities and public–private cooperation – and market factors – cost offset, cost mitigation, planning flexibility and business opportunities – shape private actor approaches. To increase the understanding of insurance company involvement in adaptation, this study examines how insurance companies’ approaches are influenced by policy and market factors in three countries: Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The study found that the policy factors tested significantly shaped the approaches of the companies assessed, while market factors currently appear less influential. This is likely due to the absence of climate risk and adaptation in political debates and among insurance policyholders. The study discusses the potential role of the insurance industry in adaptation governance and suggests how barriers facing insurance companies could be overcome.     

The environmental nation state in decline

The environmental nation state is not a formal category but a substantive one. The current set of national environmental state institutions originated in the late 1960s/1970s but has since changed in character. Many scholars note that since the new millennium, the environmental nation state in OECD countries is losing power and authority and is thus in decline, in line with wider concerns about the positions of states versus markets under conditions of (neo-liberal) globalisation. Assessing the decline of environmental nation state authority, three conclusions are drawn. States do not lose power in all sectors vis-à-vis markets. Hence, environmental nation state decline does not follow a general tendency. Second, the decline of environmental nation state powers cannot be equated with less effective or lower levels of environmental protection, as other environmental authorities have stepped in, and the jury is still out on their environmental effectiveness. Third, declining powers of environmental nation state institutions increasingly become a self-fulfilling prophecy of environmental policymakers, but non-state environmental authorities cannot take over all environmental state functions.     

Effects of investment on energy intensity: evidence from China

This article explores the effects of investment upon energy intensity by applying a unique panel data of China’s 27 provinces between 2004 and 2013. In addition, it also particularly studies other factors, such as energy price, economic structure, and urbanization. The results, based on four econometric regression model results, suggest that in general, the indigenous investment on research and development is a more powerful tool to decrease China’s energy intensity regardless of region disparity. The foreign direct investment (FDI) has a prominent but not persistent effect on energy intensity. However, the outward direct investment has not shown its significant impact on energy intensity. At the level of an aggregate economy and China’s eastern region, the results demonstrate that FDI improves energy efficiency significantly. For the central and western provinces, FDI does not support the similar conclusion. Based on these analyses, we present the corresponding regional policies for policymakers.     

Forest owners’ perceptions of ecotourism: Integrating community values and forest conservation

The use of forest land for ecotourism has been well accepted due to its ability to provide income to local people and to conserve the forest. Preparing the forest with infrastructure to attract and educate visitors has been reported of importance. This study applied Q methodology in a small rural community of the State of Puebla, Mexico, to reveal forest owners’ perceptions to build infrastructure in their forest as part of their ecotourism project. It also discloses forest owners’ underlying motives to use their forest for ecotourism. Ecotourism is perceived as a complementary activity to farming that would allow women to be involved in community development. Low impact infrastructure is desired due to forest owners’ perception to preserve the forest for the overall community well-being.     

环境税的企业绿色投资效应研究——基于面板分位数回归的实证研究

企业绿色投资有助于我国企业建立良好的社会声誉,实现企业的可持续发展。本文试图从环境税的角度,探讨环境税对企业绿色投资的边际效应是正向还是负向?环境税对企业绿色投资效应是否具有异质性?本文运用我国重污染行业上市公司的2008-2013年的经验数据,用分位数回归的研究方法对环境税的企业绿色投资效应进行了研究。分位数回归方法相比普通最小二乘法回归,分位数能够更全面的描述自变量对于因变量的变化范围以及条件分布形状的影响;分位数回归方法与最小二乘法使用残差平方和为最小化的目标函数相比,不易受到极端值的影响,估计结果更为稳健。研究发现:环境税对企业绿色投资的边际效应为正向并具有异质性,表现在:1从平衡面板的固定效应模型估计结果来看,环境税对企业绿色投资投资额的影响是正向的,换句话说,在其他因素不变的情况下,随着环境税额的不断提高,企业绿色投资额也会随之提高;2从面板分位数回归的估计结果来看,环境税对企业绿色投资的边际效应为正向并具有异质性,即低分位企业的环境税绿色投资效应为正,但并不显著;高分位企业的环境税绿色投资效应为正,但呈递减趋势;中间分位企业的环境税绿色投资效应为正,并呈递增趋势。本文研究结果的启示是:1环境税的出台具有积极的意义;2环境税的相关法律制定要注意因企业制宜,考虑企业承担能力的同时兼顾效率和公平。本文研究结果为环境税的出台提供了证据支持、为完善环境税的设计提供了经验证据。     

Mercury Levels in Pristine and Gold Mining Impacted Aquatic Ecosystems of Suriname, South America

Mercury levels in sediment and predatory fish were measured for 53 localities in Suriname. The average mercury level in bottom sediment surpassed the Canadian standard for sediment in most localities, except the coastal plains. Of the predatory fish, 41 % had a mercury level above the European Union standard for human consumption of 0.5 μg g⁻¹. Highest mercury levels were found in fish from the Brokopondo Reservoir and from the Upper Coppename River. High levels of mercury in fish in pristine areas are explained by atmospheric transportation of mercury with the northeastern trade winds followed by wet deposition. Contrary to gold mining areas, where mercury is bound to drifting sediments, in “pristine” areas the mercury is freely available for bio-accumulation and uptake. Impacts on piscivorous reptiles, birds, and mammals are unknown, but likely to be negative.     

环保科技投入与环保产业发展的区域差异研究

采用多维区域差异指数衡量了 1994— 2 0 0 0年间环保科技投入的地区差异和 1996— 2 0 0 0年间环保产业年产值的地区间差异 ,得到了两者的年度变化趋势 ,并分析了近年来环保科技投入地区差异扩大的原因。     

Assessing intervention effectiveness at promoting voluntary conservation practice adoption in agrienvironments

Although implementing conservation practices on private farms and forests can produce substantial environmental benefits, these practices are not being adopted widely enough to result in measurable improvements at regional scales. Researchers have investigated the production and program factors influencing producer choices to voluntarily adopt these practices. However, the findings of reviews are inconsistent, raising questions about review methods, including the omission of relevant variables. Further, applying lessons from past work to promote adoption is difficult because many reviews investigated dispositional or demographic variables that practitioners and policy makers cannot directly observe or influence. We conducted a new review of 146 empirical studies that tested the effects of different interventions (e.g., financial incentives, outreach events, and nudges) on increasing the likelihood of producers adopting conservation practices. We conducted a metaregression of quantitative studies from diverse disciplines that filtered studies by quality (i.e., use of randomization and clear analysis reporting). We synthesized these results with a thematic analysis of qualitative studies on producer perspectives about conservation practices. Financial incentives had the strongest evidence of increasing producers’ likelihood of adopting conservation practices (odds ratio 1.86, p < 0.05). However, this effect was only apparent after filtering by study quality, which also improved model fit and identified significant regional differences (odds ratio –1.69, p < 0.01). The thematic review of qualitative studies revealed that peer groups may be successful in reinforcing adoption behaviors due to homophily effects and that financial incentives not only offset implementation costs but also mitigated perceived risks of adoption. Given the problems we encountered in testing hypotheses about the magnitude of variability explained by intervention types and practice characteristics, we recommend additional experimental and longitudinal work that accounts for financial incentives and pairs qualitative and quantitative data to clarify relationships between program design and practice adoption rates.     

外商直接投资对中国城市雾霾(PM_(2.5))污染的时空效应检验

本文利用了1998—2012年中国241个城市的空间面板数据对中国雾霾污染和FDI的区域分布特征及空间溢出效应进行经验考察,结合系统广义矩估计(SGMM)方法构建了动态空间面板模型,采用了Moran’s I和Geary’s C指数对中国FDI与雾霾(PM_(2.5))污染空间自相关性进行了全域和局域分析。结果发现:(1)雾霾(PM_(2.5))污染与FDI存在显著的空间正相关性,证明了雾霾(PM_(2.5))污染空间的溢出效应以及FDI的辐射效应的存在。同时FDI高值集聚区域一般是雾霾(PM_(2.5))高值集聚区,FDI低值集聚区域一般是雾霾(PM_(2.5))低值集聚区,表明一个地区的引资效果和雾霾(PM_(2.5))污染在地理上的集聚密切相关。雾霾(PM_(2.5))污染表现出显著的"叠加效应"和"溢出效应",说明中国雾霾(PM_(2.5))污染在空间维度、时间维度以及时空维度上分别表现出交叉、累积、持续的演变特征。(2)全样本下,FDI对雾霾(PM_(2.5))浓度的影响表现出增促效应。FDI存量每升高1%,雾霾(PM_(2.5))浓度升高0.011%。(3)分地区样本下,东部城市FDI存量每升高1%,雾霾(PM_(2.5))浓度升高0.001 9%;中部城市FDI存量每升高1%,雾霾(PM_(2.5))浓度升高0.018 3%;而西部城市FDI存量对雾霾(PM_(2.5))浓度影响不显著。上述实证结果说明中国雾霾污染存在着显著的空间依赖性和区域异质性,FDI对中国大部分城市的雾霾污染存在显著的增促效应。