The corporate impact of addressing social issues: a financial case study of a project in Peru

Large, multinational resource development projects can affectmany aspects, including social, economic and ecological realities, in the regions where they operate. Social and environmental issues that are usually ignored in such projectsare increasingly affecting the financial future of multinationalcorporations in negative ways. In this article, we advance the argument that corporations can successfully manage these issuesand that if they choose to view these management efforts as an investment rather than an expense, they may well acquire a competitive advantage over companies that do not. We describe asa case study the Camisea natural gas and condensates developmentproject in Peru, operated by Shell Prospecting and Development Peru (SPDP). Camisea is one of the first projects anywhere inthe world to conduct a detailed analysis of key industry-relatedsocial issues and the processes, required investment and financial impact of managing them. The Camisea example supportsthe argument that addressing social and environmental concerns makes financial sense. In present value terms, the benefit ofmanaging these concerns was expected to surpass the cost investment by approximately US$50 million.     

The long time scales of the climate–economy feedback and the climatic cost of growth

This paper is based on the perception that the inertia of climate and socio-economic systems are key parameters in the climate change issue. In a first part, it develops and implements a new approach based on a simple integrated model with a particular focus on an innovative transient impact and adaptation modeling. In a second part, a climate–economy feedback is defined and characterized. The following results were found. 1) It has a long characteristic time, which lies between 50 and 100 years depending on the hypotheses; this time scale is long when compared to the system's other time scales, and the feedback cannot act as a natural damping process of climate change. 2) Mitigation has to be anticipated since the feedback of an emission reduction on the economy can be significant only after a 20-year delay and is really efficient only after at least 50 years. 3) Even discounted, production changes due to an action on emissions are significant over more than one century. 4) The methodology of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which neglects the feedback from impacts to emissions, is acceptable up to 2100, whatever is the level of impacts. This analysis allows also to define a climatic cost of growth as the additional climate change damages due to the additional emissions linked to economic growth.

凤凰城旅游景区转让后的效应评价

在我国经济市场化改革的大背景下，转让景区经营权、实行企业化运作成为一些风景名胜区经营管理改革过程中的一种制度创新模式。地处西部大开发战略图中的湘西凤凰县由于在旅游开发中受到了资金缺口和管理瓶颈的双重制约，于2001年底将其辖域内的八大景区（点）的50年经营权转让给了湖南黄龙洞投资股份有限公司。景区经营权转让是一个十分复杂而敏感的话题。本文避开关于景区经营权转让的各种是非争论，基于对旅游地社区各利益主体以及旅游者的实地调查和访谈记录分析，对凤凰景区企业化运作三年来的绩效与影响作了较为客观的评估，并就如何完善景区企业化运作模式、规避经营管理风险和负面影响等提出了相关理论思考和政策建议。     

中国大城市郊区化对城市可持续发展的影响分析

进入20世纪80年代以来，中国经济在改革开放的促进下飞速发展，城市化水平大大提高。随着城市的发展和人民生活水平的提高。以及城市产业结构的调整，我国一些大城市一部分工业尤其是污染扰民工业开始从中心区向郊区搬迁，大城市工业进入郊区化发展阶段。随着住房制度的改革，大城市中许多工薪阶层开始住进郊区的单位分房或自购房。人口郊区化及随之而来的商业郊区化也开始显现。我国大城市郊区化是中国城市发展过程中的一种重要现象。城市郊区化对城市发展产生了深远影响。本文以北京、上海、广州、杭州、苏州、沈阳、大连等大城市为例，概括了当前我国大城市郊区化的现状特点，指出了郊区化对城市可持续发展的影响，提出了相应的管理对策，为城市管理部门提供参考。     

Progress in Enclave Tourism Study of Overseas: A Literature Review

Abstract

In response to the “isolated island” phenomenon emerging from the development of tourist resorts in China, this paper reviews the study of enclave tourism overseas, which has similar features to the resort “island”. Based on the literatures related to enclave tourism from Tourism Management and Annals of Tourism Research, this paper reviews the study of enclave tourism from the following aspects: definition discussion, theories used, causation of enclaves, characteristics and impacts of enclave tourism. The understanding of the overseas researches on enclave tourism would provide instructions for the study on the problems of Chinese resorts, such as enclavity and “island effects”, and suggest measures for the sustainable development of resorts in China. This paper is divided into three sections. Section 1 briefly introduces the development of enclave tourism in developing countries and the outline of enclave tourism study. Section 2 elaborates on the contents of enclave tourism research and gives deep insights into the study on concepts, characteristics, causations and effects respectively, which is the key part of this paper; Section 3 concludes the review and proposes suggestions for the enclave tourism study in China.     

Snowstorm catastrophes in the United States

Extremely damaging snowstorms, those causing more than $1 million in property losses across the US, were studied, and the spatial and temporal characteristics of the storm activity during 1949–2001 were defined. There were 155 catastrophic snowstorms and they caused insured losses of $21.6 billion (2001 dollars). The northeastern US had the nation's maximum storm occurrences (79 storms), greatest total losses ($7.3 billion), and highest storm intensity. Two-thirds of all US losses occurred in the Northeast, Southeast, and Central climate regions, and storm occurrences and losses were least in the western US. The incidence of storms peaked during the 1976–1985 period and exhibited no up or down trend during 1949–2001. However, losses had a significant upward time trend, as did storm sizes and intensity. New York and Pennsylvania had the greatest number of storms with fewest in Montana, Idaho, and Utah. Time distribution of losses in the northeastern and southeastern US were U-shaped with flat time trends for 1949–2001. Losses in the western regions and Deep South had distinct upward trends in losses, storm intensity, and storm size. More than 90 percent of all storm losses in the western US have occurred since 1980. These findings indicate that rapidly growing population and property at risk have been major factors in increasing losses as well as atmospheric changes leading to greater storm intensity and size.     

Life cycle assessment of a pulverized coal power plant with post-combustion capture, transport and storage of CO2

In this study the methodology of life cycle assessment has been used to assess the environmental impacts of three pulverized coal fired electricity supply chains with and without carbon capture and storage (CCS) on a cradle to grave basis. The chain with CCS comprises post-combustion CO₂ capture with monoethanolamine, compression, transport by pipeline and storage in a geological reservoir. The two reference chains represent sub-critical and state-of-the-art ultra supercritical pulverized coal fired electricity generation. For the three chains we have constructed a detailed greenhouse gas (GHG) balance, and disclosed environmental trade-offs and co-benefits due to CO₂ capture, transport and storage. Results show that, due to CCS, the GHG emissions per kWh are reduced substantially to 243 g/kWh. This is a reduction of 78 and 71% compared to the sub-critical and state-of-the-art power plant, respectively. The removal of CO₂ is partially offset by increased GHG emissions in up- and downstream processes, to a small extent (0.7 g/kWh) caused by the CCS infrastructure. An environmental co-benefit is expected following from the deeper reduction of hydrogen fluoride and hydrogen chloride emissions. Most notable environmental trade-offs are the increase in human toxicity, ozone layer depletion and fresh water ecotoxicity potential for which the CCS chain is outperformed by both other chains. The state-of-the-art power plant without CCS also shows a better score for the eutrophication, acidification and photochemical oxidation potential despite the deeper reduction of SO_x and NO_x in the CCS power plant. These reductions are offset by increased emissions in the life cycle due to the energy penalty and a factor five increase in NH₃ emissions.     

IMPACTS OF RECREATION ON RIPARIAN SOILS AND VEGETATION1

ABSTRACT: The seemingly magnetic attraction of water resources for recreation has direct implications for proximate land resources which are needed to provide access and support facilities. This paper reviews and synthesizes the literature dealing with the impacts of recreation use on riparian soils and vegetation. Part one of the paper sets forth the major negative impacts of recreation use on soils and vegetation. A seven-step soil impact cycle is identified, beginning with the scuffing away of leaf litter and other organic material and working through the soil erosion and sedimentation process. Four major kinds of impacts of recreation use on vegetation are then outlined, and the‘Vicious circle” relationship between impacts on soil and vegetation is demonstrated through a Soil/Vegetation Impact Diagram. Part two identifies several spatial and temporal patterns of environmental impact caused by recreation use. The node and linkage pattern of recreation use, campground and trail expansion, ground cover response and succession, rates of soil compaction, and resource response to various intensities of recreation use are important aspects. The final part of the paper deals with measuring environmental impacts caused by recreation use. Management implications of the research findings are considered throughout the paper.     

MEASURING IMPACTS OF URBAN WATER DEVELOPMENT1

ABSTRACT The role of water resources in the urban economic and social environment, particularly in the inner city, has never been established to the degree necessary for making informed decisions on investments in urban waterway and shoreline improvements. The basic tools for measuring psychological and social impacts of waterway and shoreline developments in the inner city have not been fully developed and utilized to date. However, through a detailed analysis of the water resources in the urban core area of Cleveland, it appears that deliberate development of water-based recreation and other environmental resources can lead to improvement in some of the social problems of the inner city. In recreation analysis, there is currently a great gap between methodologies that are conceptually sound and those that have been applied by urban and water-resources planning agencies. New tools and methodologies can only be used successfully when public agencies are given the institutional and policy means for using them equitably in light of social needs. Present urban-water planning practices have been found to be biased against the inner city, often unintentionally.