The ‘hidden’ social costs of forestry offsets

The article quantifies the size of ‘hidden’ social costs that are incurred by forestry offsets in the voluntary market that promise to offset present emissions sometime in the future. It does this by estimating the difference between the social costs of carbon (C) emitted and of costs offset by removal of C from the atmosphere by reforestation/afforestation. All current attempts to make forestry offsets more reliable focus on quality control rather than the mismatch of the timing of emissions and their offset. Recommendations that follow from the analysis are twofold. First, that markets for carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) removals by voluntary offsets should be confined to the annual incremental removals actually achieved. Second, the promoters of voluntary offsets projects should declare the annual stream of carbon credits and debits expected so that buyers can place a present value on such projects.     

温室气体自愿性减排市场现状及其在中国的前景

自愿性减排（Voluntary emission reduction,VER）是指完全出于自愿的、相关法律没有要求或者超过法律要求的温室气体或者大气污染物的减排行为,是近年来最重要的温室气体减排的新兴形式之一。本文概述了自愿性减排与自愿性碳市场（Voluntary carbon markets）的特征,从目前国际上自愿碳市场的交易变化、采用标准、登记与交易等方面总结了自愿性碳交易演变趋势,探讨了我国自愿碳市场发展中存在的问题和前景,并提出了相应建议。     

Impact of groundwater markets in India on water use efficiency: a data envelopment analysis approach

In the hard rock areas of India, overdraft of groundwater has led to negative externalities. It increased costs of groundwater irrigation and caused welfare losses. At the same time informal groundwater markets are slowly emerging and are believed to improve water distribution and to increase water use efficiency in the irrigation sector. These claims are evaluated in this study. For this purpose data was collected from a sample containing three different groups of water users: water sellers, water buyers and a control group of non-traders. First the socio-economic characteristics of these groups are compared. Then the efficiency of water use of the three groups is studied using Data Envelopment Analysis. The results indicate that groundwater markets provide resource poor farmers access to irrigation water, giving them the opportunity to raise their productivity. Water buyers are furthermore shown to be most efficient in their water use, while water sellers are also shown to be more efficient than the control group. The differences in efficiency between the groups are statistically significant. The demonstrated potential of groundwater markets to improve the efficiency of water use and to increase equity in resource access should be taken into account by the Indian government when deciding on their attitude towards the emerging groundwater markets.     

Green clubs

This paper treats programs in which firms voluntarily agree to meet environmental standards as “green clubs”: clubs, because they provide non-rival but excludable reputation benefits to participating firms; green, because they also generate environmental public goods. The model illuminates a central tension between the congestion externality familiar from conventional club theory and the free-riding externality familiar from the theory on private provision of public goods. We compare three common program sponsors—governments, industry, and environmental groups. We find that if monitoring of the club standard is perfect, a government constrained from regulating club size may prefer to leave sponsorship to industry if public-good benefits are sufficiently low, or to environmentalists if public-good benefits are sufficiently high. If monitoring is imperfect, an important question is whether consumers can infer that a club is too large for its standard to be credible. If they can then the government may deliberately choose an imperfect monitoring mechanism as a way of regulating club size indirectly. If they cannot then this reinforces the government's preference for delegating sponsorship.     

Intensification,regulation and diversification: The changing face of inland aquaculture in China

Trends in aquatic food consumption were matched against farm production surveys within Hubei province and compared to official production data and statistics. Surveys showed that consumer tastes were changing to a much broader aquatic food menu as their spending power increased. Traditional aquaculture species were becoming less profitable due to reduced profit margins as input costs increased and consumption preferences changed. Consequently, many producers were diversifying their production to meet local demand. Some farmers were also de-intensifying by reducing commercial aquafeed inputs and reverting to more traditional methods of dyke-crop culture to optimise trade-offs between input costs and labour, and manage their risk more effectively. In addition, analysis of local data showed that wholesale changes were occurring to aquaculture production as environmental protection legislation took effect which reduced the growing area for carps considerably.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01503-3.     

Road Facilitation of Trematode Infections in Snails of Northern Alaska

Abstract:  Road disturbances can influence wildlife health by spreading disease agents and hosts or by generating environmental conditions that sustain these agent and host populations. I evaluated field patterns of trematode infections in snails inhabiting ponds at varying distances from the Dalton Highway, a wilderness road that intersects northern Alaska. I also assessed the relationships between trematode infections and snail densities and six environmental variables: calcium concentration, aquatic vegetative cover, canopy cover, temperature, pond size, and community structure. Presence of trematode infections and snail density were negatively correlated with distance from the highway. Of the pond characteristics measured, only calcium concentration and vegetation density declined with distance from road. However, neither variable was positively associated with snail density or trematode presence. One potential explanation for observed patterns is that vehicles, road maintenance, or vertebrate vectors attracted to the highway facilitate colonization of snails or trematodes. Emerging disease threats to biological diversity in northern ecosystems highlight the importance of understanding how roads affect disease transmission.     

环境pH条件下Fe2+活化过二硫酸盐降解有机污染物的效能与影响因素

利用Fe²⁺活化过二硫酸盐（PDS）产生SO₄^-·等高活性氧化物种是去除有机污染物的重要方法.然而该方法通常只有在酸性条件下才能获得良好的污染物去除效果,限制了Fe²⁺/PDS体系的实际应用.为此,分别从不同pH条件下Fe²⁺活化PDS降解水中有机污染物的效能、活性氧化物的种类和氧气的影响等角度,系统分析了中碱性条件下Fe²⁺/PDS体系难以氧化有机污染物的影响因素.结果发现,不同pH条件下Fe²⁺/PDS体系中均有SO₄^-·和Fe （Ⅳ）的生成;中碱性条件下溶解氧可与PDS竞争Fe²⁺,但此时仍有可观的PDS （37.6%~100%）得到了活化且排除氧气并不能提高污染物的去除效果.通过改变Fe²⁺的投量发现,过量的Fe²⁺会显著降低Fe²⁺/PDS体系对卡马西平的去除率,这表明过量的Fe²⁺对活性氧化物种是无谓消耗,是导致中碱性条件下Fe²⁺/PDS体系除污效能降低的重要原因.鉴于此,进一步探讨了零价铁或硫化零价铁替代Fe²⁺活化PDS去除污染物的可行性,并利用同步辐射技术分析了零价铁的腐蚀情况.结果为中碱性条件下PDS的有效活化和实际应用提供了理论支撑.     

石家庄道路灰尘中全氟/多氟化合物及其新型替代品的污染特征及健康风险评估

为探究石家庄市道路灰尘中全氟/多氟化合物(PFASs)的污染特征,利用高效液相色谱-串联质谱法(HPLC-MS/MS)分析主干和次干道路灰尘样品(部分采集于污水处理厂和消防站附近)中包括两类新型替代品在内的22种PFASs.结果表明,PFASs在石家庄道路灰尘中普遍存在,特别是新型替代品——六氟环氧丙烷二聚酸(HFPO-DA)的检出属国内首次.∑PFASs含量范围为2.62～137.65 ng·g^-1,全氟辛酸(PFOA)为主要组分,其次为全氟丁酸(PFBA)、 HFPO-DA和全氟辛基磺酸(PFOS).空间分布上,西北方向PFASs含量水平最高,东南方向最低.污水处理厂和消防站附近道路灰尘中PFASs组成存在明显不同,特别是新型替代品的检出类型.健康风险评估结果显示,道路灰尘摄入对于人体暴露PFASs和其新型替代品的风险相对较低.经口、呼吸道和皮肤接触3种途径中,经口摄入是目标化合物进入人体的主要途径.在同一暴露途径下,儿童的暴露量高于成人.     

Tying enforcement to prices in emissions markets: An experimental evaluation

We present results from laboratory emissions permit markets designed to investigate the transmission of abatement cost risk to firms' compliance behavior and regulatory enforcement strategies. With a fixed expected marginal penalty, abatement cost shocks produced significant violations and emissions volatility as predicted. Tying the monitoring probability to average permit prices effectively eliminated noncompliance, but transmitted abatement cost risk to monitoring effort. Tying the penalty to average prices reduced violations, but did not eliminate them. Some individuals in these treatments sold permits at low prices, presumably in an attempt to weaken enforcement. While tying sanctions directly to prevailing permit prices has theoretical and practical advantages over tying monitoring to prices, our results suggest that tying sanctions to prices may not be as effective as predicted without additional modifications.     

Quantification of TiO2 and ZnO nanoparticles in wastewater using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry

Abstract

The applicability of inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry has been examined for determination titanium dioxide and zinc oxide nanoparticles in industrial wastewater samples. The extraction and preconcentration of the nanoparticles were achieved using ligandless ultrasound-assisted surfactant-based dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction. Under optimized conditions, the developed method had limits of detection (LOD) of 2.7?ng L^?1 for Ti and 3.6?ng L^?1 for Zn resulting from dissolved TiO₂ and ZnO nanoparticles. The relative standard deviation values for intraday precision were 2.5% and 3.1% for TiO₂ and ZnO, while the interday precision was 4.5% and 5.0%. Percentage recoveries ranging from 98% to 100% were obtained. Finally, the applicability of the method was examined by analyzing spiked samples and wastewater samples collected from textile, cosmetic and paint industries.