Quality Control for Environmental Policy Appraisal Tools: An Empirical Investigation of Relations Between Quality,Quality Control and Effectiveness

The spectre of regulatory reform carried out in a range of Western countries has generated concern amongst parts of the environmental policy community. Quality and effectiveness are said to be at stake, but empirically there is a dearth of data on the relationship between provisions for quality control and the effects on quality and effectiveness. This research addresses this lacuna by analysing the effects of different quality control provisions in the Netherlands and Denmark for a globally institutionalized environmental appraisal tool—Environmental Assessment (EA). Extensive technical provisions for quality control in the Netherlands have led to it being described as the ‘Rolls Royce’ of EA systems, while in Denmark the polity is expected to take charge of quality control. The effects of quality control are investigated through surveys and in-depth interviews with actors centrally engaged with EA implementation. The results show that quality control provisions are poorly related to the perceived quality and effectiveness of EA. Only the appropriateness of the scope of EA reports is perceived to be strongly related to quality control provisions. The findings are relevant for environmental policy communities concerned with quality control systems and effectiveness of policy appraisal tools and policy-makers contemplating regulatory reforms.     

太湖流域水环境保护目标责任考核机制研究

建立科学规范的环境保护目标责任考核机制是实现我国环境保护目标的重要手段之一。作为一个自上而下的制度典范,基层环境保护管理部门是环境管理目标的落实者也是被考核的对象。本研究以太湖流域水环境保护基层管理部门面临的水环境保护目标责任考核机制为研究对象,从水环境保护考核指标的设定、考核评价的实施以及考核结果的应用三个方面分析太湖流域水环境保护目标考核机制的实施现状。结果表明,现阶段的考核体系存在考核指标设置不合理、考核过程实施过程成本较高,以及考核结果缺乏对管理部门的激励性等问题。最后,本文从提高现阶段太湖流域水环境保护考核指标设定的科学性、协调不同部门之间的关系以及加强考核结果的公开与合理应用方面对太湖流域水环境保护目标责任考核机制提出了政策建议。     

欧美经验对我国“十三五”大气污染防治战略的启示

当前,我国大气污染形势严峻,复合型污染特征突出。新修订的《中华人民共和国环境保护法》、《中华人民共和国大气污染防治法》、《环境空气质量标准》以及《大气污染防治行动计划》的发布和实施,对我国大气污染防治工作提出了更高要求。"十三五"时期是我国环境保护负重前行困难期和大有作为关键期,也是我国改善大气环境质量的攻坚期,需要系统谋划大气污染防治战略。欧盟和美国在制定大气污染防治战略时,以改善空气质量为核心,构建了涵盖一次污染物和二次污染物的多污染物目标体系,规定了环境浓度、排放量、直观感受(能见度)、健康以及管理等约束性指标,并且针对大气污染防治政策分析实施的成本与收益,开发相应的模型工具,基于收益成本比进行科学决策。本文对欧美环境规划和战略中的多污染物协同控制目标体系以及大气污染防治政策成本效益评估经验进行梳理,分析我国大气污染防治战略的现状和问题,并提出相关政策建议,以期为解决"心肺之患"、实现环保"十三五"总体目标提供参考。     

PACE2016中国环境治理国际研讨会综述

PACE2016中国环境治理国际研讨会就中国环境政府治理、环境市场治理、环境社会治理以及环境治理结构展开了深入研讨并达成以下共识:大国模式下的环境政府治理面临着突出的"污染避难所效应"、"公平与效率的两难"和"多层次治理体系"等问题;不成熟市场经济条件下环境市场治理必然面临"要不要走环境治理市场化之路"的疑虑,相关研究表明市场手段作为有效的环境治理方式正在逐渐地打消此等疑虑;中国环境治理最主要的短板在于社会治理,提高公众参与度的主要挑战在于改变地方政府的态度,然而社会企业家是环境社会治理的希望;多元环境治理结构是中国环境治理的必然选择,政府引领、企业自觉、公众参与的制衡机制是关键。     

环境管理战略转型研究综述

由于经济社会的发展伴随的环境问题越来越复杂,资源相对不足、环境容量有限越来越突出,环境管理转型问题引起越来越多的国内外学者关注。所谓环境管理转型,是指环境管理思维、策略和方式的转变,是以环境质量为目标导向,从被动应对向主动防控的转变。本文通过文献梳理的方法,综述了国内外学术界对于环境管理战略进行的多角度探讨。通过综述发现,国外学者主要注重环境管理理论研究,如环境管理的模型研究和不同环境管理战略的研究,且国外学者在研究不同环境管理战略时,研究对象多为微观层面的企业组织;而我国学者的研究则主要集中在宏观层面,即从国家的角度来探讨环境管理战略如何完成转型,从而促进我国经济社会的良性发展。现有的国内外研究是环境管理战略相关理论发展和实践推行的重要基础,在环境管理战略研究领域,本文认为还有一些问题需要进一步研究:一是环境管理的转型不仅需要宏观层面的统筹、微观方面的变革,也需要从中观层面来推进,所以中观层面的环境管理研究同样具有重要的现实意义。二是环境管理的转型不仅需要法律手段的支撑、经济手段的配置,也需要公民环保意识的觉醒,所以关于公民环保意识层面的研究也需要加强。     

基于工业生态化建设的工业园区环境管理研究

工业园区是产业集聚的载体,是区域经济发展的引擎。工业园区同时又是污染产生排放集中地,我国工业园区在发展过程中随着经济总量扩大、资源和能源消耗的增加,出现了大量的环境问题,阻碍了园区的可持续发展。工业园区的环境管理可以从园区层面出发解决污染问题,这是个既复杂又重要的工作。本文在分析工业园区发展历程的基础上揭示了目前工业园区存在的环境问题,以及管理方面存在的缺陷和不足,发现总体上园区环境管理水平较差。工业生态化建设为进行合理的园区环境管理提供了一个契机,本文针对我国工业园区的发展现状及发展趋势,提出基于工业生态化建设的工业园区环境管理的对策:1提升生态工业的意识,鼓励公众参与;2确立生态化建设思想,以生态化建设促进环境管理效率的提升;3加强工业生态化建设相关政策法规、规划的完善和实施;4构建工业生态化建设信息服务平台,以生态化建设来实现工业园区科学的环境管理。     

不完全竞争行业中的环境工具有效性研究:一个理论框架

各级政府贯彻落实绿色发展的理念,实现经济增长与环境保护的共赢,才能真正实现"绿水青山就是金山银山"。在经济"新常态"背景下,防治环境污染是个复杂而系统性的工程,需要进行经济追因与综合治理,其中,制定实施有效的环境政策工具尤为关键。本文把微观经济学中的双寡头产量竞争模型作为基准模型拓展用于环境经济分析,并把环境税、环境规制、排污权交易这三类主要环境工具对企业生产决策的影响纳入基准模型,旨在对比研究不完全竞争行业中环境工具的有效性问题。结果表明:主要基于市场机制的环境经济政策比行政色彩浓厚的环境规制更有效率。提高环境税率或排污权价格均能显著削减行业污染物排放量,如果环境税率恰好等于排污权价格,则环境税与排污权交易这两类环境工具的效力相等。这对进一步建立和完善我国尚处于探索或初始实施阶段的环境工具,促进石化、电力、钢铁等不完全竞争行业的主要污染物减排,具有一定参考价值和借鉴意义。     

A radical public administration? Green radicalism and policy influence among local environmental officials in Sweden

Green radicalism among local environmental officials in Sweden is examined with the aims of theoretically elaborating on different dimensions of Green radicalism in the context of public administration, exploring the dimensionality of Green radicalism among officials, and examining the extent to which Green radicalism is associated with policy influence. Three types of Green radicalism are identified: Green ethics, Green institutional change, and Green activism. Survey data (N = 701) show that the three theoretical dimensions are present among officials, and that there is no negative association between radicalism and influence. It is primarily officials with Green activism beliefs who perceive themselves as able to influence policy. These findings suggest a need for more nuanced understanding of and further studies into the role of public administration in the quest for more radical Green reforms.     

Hannah Arendt’s turn to the self and environmental responses to climate change paralysis

Environmentalists have struggled with how to mobilize people to act in the face of widespread and now inevitable consequences of climate change. Significant responses to this challenge, such as incentivizing individual Green choices in the market and avoiding the rhetoric of catastrophe, continue the philosophical and political trends, identified by Hannah Arendt, that contribute to world alienation and the decline of politics. Environmental thinkers are invited to use Arendt’s theories of the turn to the self and political action to think critically about contemporary strategies to address climate change.     

Simulative governance: on the collaborative narrative of civil society participation in the CDM stakeholder framework

The Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is often cited as an exemplar of new, hybrid forms of global environmental governance operating at the public–private interface. Practically, enacting this arrangement involves a wide range of non-state actors. This broad involvement is here assumed to mark a shift towards more polycentric and networked modes of governance in which agents collaborate as ‘stakeholders’ in the process of consensual rule-setting and implementation. Using post-political critique, the depoliticising effects of the stakeholder framework on civil society actors are interrogated, using formal and informal participation opportunities to raise concerns regarding specific CDM projects. The analysis suggests that the CDM’s collaborative narrative of stakeholding structurally fails to stimulate public (re)engagement and is, instead, a prime example of simulative governance that struggles to achieve the simultaneity of two incompatibilities: the participatory revolution and the post-political turn.