Compromises of Bali Roadmap

The Bali Roadmap, as the breakthrough on intergovernmental negotiation of climate change mitigation, having brought United States on track, is still a result of compromises. The major compromises of the Bali Roadmap are centered around three issues of quantifying emission reduction targets, developing countries＇ obligations as well as quantifying developed countries＇ financial assistance in developing countries＇ capacity building on climate change. It is found that the rationalities behind these compromises are the national interests. Due to the fact, achieving cohesion among all nations in climate change actions is very difficult. Therefore, the Bali Roadmap may lead to a tough way with distant hope. However, technology innovation and well-designed economic instruments would be helpful and supportive for further international negotiation and cooperation.     

Physical limits to resource access and utilisation and their economic implications in Mediterranean economies

This paper applies Ecological Footprint accounting to Mediterranean countries to track ecological asset balances and investigate the long-term feasibility of fulfilling natural resource and service needs. Our findings are that the Mediterranean region currently uses approximately 2.5 times more natural resources and ecological services than their ecosystems can provide. We argue that when consumption exceeds local availability, countries either resort to depletion of ecological assets or turn to international trade in order to satisfy their demands. Access to outside resources is however limited by (a) the availability of resources on international markets and (b) their affordability. Countries highly dependent on natural resource imports therefore expose their economies to the macroeconomic consequences of price volatility. We find that trade-related effects of natural resource price volatility are significant for Mediterranean economies as a 10% increase in the price of natural resources corresponds with a change in the trade balance between +7% and −2.4% of the GDP. We conclude that, in a world characterised by the existence of physical limits to the availability of global ecological assets, a systemic risk may exist for Mediterranean economies due to the concurrence of (1) ecological asset scarcity, (2) increasing prices and (3) challenging financial situations.     

全球稀土贸易的资源环境净效益与公平性

为解决稀土资源贸易的资源环境不公平问题,结合生命周期评价方法与成本效益分析方法,核算了稀土资源产品国际贸易中所有国家的实际资源环境净效益,并判断未来国际制造业的三大主要发展趋势带来的影响.结果表明,2018年稀土资源产品国际贸易的实际资源环境净效益高达85亿美元,主要贡献来自于稀土原材料产品.未来国际制造业的发展格局下,尽管绿色发展与气候目标政策会降低17%的净效益,但依然是改善资源环境不公平问题的关键政策路径;产业链转移重构政策会减少11%的净效益,加剧经济水平较低国家的资源环境不公平问题;新兴制造业发展政策会增加76%的净效益,但经济水平较低国家的资源环境不公平问题依然较为严峻.     

中国环保企业竞争力评价指标体系研究及其实证应用

本研究在传统企业竞争力评价理论方法的基础上,结合环保产业发展特点,在评价体系内创新性地加入环保特色指标项,并通过层次分析法对指标权重的设定形成完整的评价指标体系。基于评价指标体系,本文以54家环保上市企业为例开展实证分析,有效验证了指标体系的合理性。结合各板块内企业竞争力分析结果,进一步开展中国环保子行业发展状况的研究,对环保行业整体及各子行业的发展特点和现状进行了深入解析。     

The livestock revolution, food safety, and small-scale farmers: why they matter to us all

Global consumption, production, and trade of livestock products have increased rapidly in the last two decades and are expected to continue. At the same time, safety concerns regarding human and animal disease associated with livestock products are increasing. Efforts to increase public health safety standards aimed at legitimately reducing the risks of human and animal disease have focused internationally on standards to regulate the movement of livestock products. There is concern, though, that measures to regulate these standards internationally, such as the WTO SPS measures that in part aim to open international markets, may marginalize small-scale poor producers. The cycle of poverty they are trying to escape through livestock production may, in fact, widen, leading to increased global poverty, malnutrition, and disease. Developing and developed nations alike should be concerned with public and private efforts to address appropriate food safety policies to reduce the likelihood of this effect. Analysis of the impact on small-scale livestock farmers is needed, as well as solutions that consider joint public and private sector initiatives. Costly farm to table tracking systems are not an option, but locally orchestrated vertically integrated systems may have merit in reducing food safety risks and in providing small-scale farmers with increased access to markets, locally and internationally. Increased scientific and technical capacity, and training of WTO officials from developing nations is also needed.     

Development of an Integrated Coastal Zone Management System for the Black and Caspian Seas

Six Black sea and five Caspian sea riparian countries began their way to modern managerial practice at their coasts in 1990s of the previous century. For five Black sea and four Caspian sea countries the time has coincided with launching complicated transitional period from socialism to market economy. The most important activities were carried out within framework of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea (CEP) Environmental Programs and resulted in National and Regional ICZM Reports (Coastal Profiles), ICZM Networks, Transboundary Diagnostic Analyses, Strategic Action Plans. The international assistance in ICZM development in the regions is very important, but the large specificity of the regions and countries required and keeps demanding improvement of the approaches, methods, criteria for efficiency and practical significance of the international activities. The paper analyses heritage, current situation and possible prospects of ICZM development in the regions under consideration. During the last decade, important steps have been taken for the improvement of managerial process at the Black and Caspian seas countries coasts, but the clear need should be emphasized now to move from planning to implementation stage. Among the main findings of this stage are: ICZM is very difficult for real implementation and takes years, it needs proper understanding, and it has to be implemented using both top-down and bottom-up approaches, it has to be implemented using all possible tools and procedures. At the moment the use of sustainable development approaches to the coasts depends, in the first place, on social responsibility and vital motivation of certain key decision-makers, especially at provincial and local levels. Meanwhile, two recent events: (a) new activity in the Black sea region initiated by EU, and (b) launching of the long-waited CEP second phase – produce real infrastructural opportunities for moving forward.     

Leakage and Comparative Advantage Implications of Agricultural Participation in Greenhouse Gas Emission Mitigation

The world is moving toward efforts to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions. Reduction efforts may involve the agricultural sector through options such as planting of trees, altering crop and livestock management, and increasing production of biofuels. However, such options can be competitive with domestic food production. In a free trade arena, reduced domestic food production could stimulate increased production and exports in other countries, which are not pursuing net emission reductions. As a consequence, emission reduction efforts in implementing countries may be offset by production increases stimulated in other countries. We examine the competitive effects of agriculturally related emission reduction actions on agricultural production and international trade. In doing this, we employ the assumption that U.S. emission reduction caused cost increases will also occur in other reducing countries. We consider emission reduction: 1) unilaterally by the U.S., 2) by all Kyoto Protocol Annex B countries, and 3) globally. The results, which are only suggestive of the types of effects that would be observed due to the simplifying cost assumptions, indicate compliance causes supply cutbacks in regulated countries and increases in non-regulated countries. The study results show that producers in regulating countries are likely to benefit and consumers lose due to commodity price increases. Seniority of Authorship is shared among the first three authors.     

Oil Exploration under Climate Treaties

In this paper we focus on how an international climate treaty will influence the exploration of oil in non-OPEC countries. We present a numerical intertemporal global equilibrium model for the fossil fuel markets. The international oil market is modelled with a cartel (OPEC) and a competitive fringe on the supply side, following a Nash–Cournot approach. An initial resource base for oil is given in the non-OPEC region. However, the resource base changes over time due to depletion, exploration, and discovery. When studying the effects of different climate treaties on oil exploration, two contrasting incentives apply. If an international carbon tax is introduced, the producer price of oil will drop compared to the reference case. This gives an incentive to reduce oil production and exploration. However, the oil price may increase less rapidly over time, which gives an incentive to expedite production and exploration. In fact, in the case of a rising carbon tax we find the last incentive to be the strongest, which means that an international climate treaty may increase oil exploration in non-OPEC countries for the coming decades and reduce OPEC's market share.     

国际贸易实务教学内容的探讨

《国际贸易实务》是一门专门研究国际间商品交换具体过程的学科,是一门具有涉外活动特点的实践性很强的综合性应用科学。本文对《国际贸易实务》的教学内容进行了一些探讨,主要包括:正确处理《国际贸易实务》与其它相关课程之间的关系;按照业务流程调整教学内容的结构安排;合理安排理论教学与实践教学的比例;不断更新教学内容;突出教学重点与难点;树立风险防范意识,有效防范风险。     

国际贸易实务教学内容的探讨

《国际贸易实务》是一门专门研究国际间商品交换具体过程的学科，是一门具有涉外活动特点的实践性很强的综合性应用科学。本文对《国际贸易实务》的教学内容进行了一些探讨，主要包括：正确处理《国际贸易实务》与其它相关课程之间的关系；按照业务流程调整教学内容的结构安排；合理安排理论教学与实践教学的比例；不断更新教学内容；突出教学重点与难点；树立风险防范意识，有效防范风险。