Governance via persuasion: environmental NGOs and the social licence to operate

The ‘social licence to operate’ (SLO) concept is increasingly associated with environmental activism in nations with prominent resource extractive industries. Environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) deploy it as a campaigning strategy to contest corporate activity, in particular, the environmental sustainability of existing or planned commercial projects. Drawing on two prominent Australian ENGO campaigns – against Seafish Tasmania’s Abel Tasman vessel and Tassal’s proposed fish farm operations on Tasmania’s east coast – the SLO strategy is assessed in the context of the governance literature, arguing that it constitutes ‘governance via persuasion’, a mode that incorporates appeals to normative values. Australian SLO campaigns are primarily directed at the state, promoting opportunities for ENGOs to shape reviews and revisions to environmental regulation alongside governmental and corporate actors. SLO campaigns are therefore a contemporary expression of environmental strategies seeking regulatory change in contrast to ENGO-led private governance initiatives that often bypass the state.     

环境财税政策的治污效应研究——基于区域和门槛效应视角

首先参照投入—产出比,利用环保财政投入占GDP比重与环境污染综合指数之比对各区域环境财政政策治污效应系数进行测算,按系数值域把中国30个省(市)分成两个区域,区域1包括北京、甘肃、贵州等19个省市,区域2包括上海、浙江、福建等11个省市。其次分析环境财政政策、环境税收政策和中国式环境分权的治污效应并分区检验,最后对中国式环境分权和经济发展水平的门槛效应进行实证检验。结果表明:环境财政政策治污效应显著,区域1财政政策取得了更好的治污效果,中国目前车船税、城市维护建设税、土地使用税、耕地占用税、资源税及排污费等"近似"环境税种总体治污效应不显著,中国式环境分权与污染物排放显著正相关,中国式环境分权和经济发展水平对财政政策的治污效应具有显著的门槛效应,当中国式环境分权度低于-0.164、经济发展水平低于4.174时,环境财政政策具有更好的治污效果。样本期内以中国式环境分权为门槛变量时,有安徽、广西等15%的观测值位于低门槛区域,以经济发展水平为门槛变量时,有贵州、云南等10%的观测值位于低门槛区域。中国目前的能源消费结构和工业结构是加剧环境污染的重要原因,城镇化和对外开放在一定程度上助推了高污染和高排放。鉴于此应加大环境保护财政支出,提升环保财政支出占GDP的比重,单独开征环境保护税种,中央政府适度地环境集权,全面提升环境质量。     

加大行政奖惩力度是中国环境绩效改善的主要原因吗?

"十一五"、"十二五"规划时期,中国单位GDP能耗、SO_2排放总量、COD排放总量等节能减排指标均实现了国家规划目标,这与"十五"计划三项指标均未完成形成鲜明对比。现有研究对此的解释存在宏观和微观层面上的不一致。其重要原因在于现有研究将环境绩效改善的原因完全归于行政奖惩所体现的正式制度的作用,而忽视了非正式制度对节能减排绩效的积极影响。本文建构了以包含正式激励和非正式激励的二元委托代理激励模型为基础的分析框架,利用基于717名不同级别官员的问卷数据,采用结构方程方法对上述模型进行了检验。实证结果表明,与约束性指标相关的正式制度中规定的11项奖惩措施所产生的激励对官员的环境治理行为力度并没有显著影响,而体现为顺应中央政府导向和上级领导注意力所代表的非正式制度激励对官员环境治理行为力度产生了显著影响。非正式制度激励对环境治理行为力度的影响存在两条路径。在第一条路径中,官员压力是中介变量,即非正式制度产生对官员压力的影响,官员压力又进一步影响官员环境治理行为。在这一路径中,晋升偏好、服从偏好为正向调节变量,正式奖惩的执行严格程度为负向调节变量。这一路径表明,官员晋升偏好越强、正式奖惩执行严格程度越弱,非正式制度激励对地方官员压力的影响越大;官员服从上级偏好程度越强,官员压力对环境治理行为力度的影响越大。在第二条路径中,非正式制度激励被认为直接影响环境治理行为力度,服务偏好是正向调节变量。这一路径表明,地方官员为人民服务的偏好越强,非正式激励对环境治理行为的影响越大。本文的研究发现调和了环境政策执行领域的理论冲突,为深化对中国"压力型"体制的理解提供实证证据。     

德国水法发展对我国治水的借鉴意义

本文从深受欧盟水政策影响的德国水治理的历史发展和基础理念出发,对德国《水平衡管理法》的法规框架和总则进行了阐述、分析与比较。德国经验表明,在法治框架下,依可根据持续性原则,对水事进行综合治理。只有根据可持续性原则和通过法治,才能长期确保水安全,维护人与自然的和谐,保持水体清洁和维护生态平衡,确保当代及后代人的环境与发展权。水事综合治理原则不仅要通过协调水体使用与保护之间的关系,来调整环保在相对于经济和社会的传统不平衡地位,更要遵循自然水循环的本质特征。建议我国在《水污染防治法》的修订中,需要基于我国现实技术支撑的易操作制度,来实践可持续性原则和水事综合治理原则,强化法律间的协调。同时,还在立法技术上提出了若干建议。     

Knowledge for environmental governance: probing science–policy theory in the cases of eutrophication and fisheries in the Baltic Sea

How science and policy interact has been a major research focus in the International Relations (IR) tradition, using the epistemic community (EC) concept, as well as in the alternative perspective of Science and Technology Studies (STS). Should science be autonomous and as apolitical as possible in order to ‘speak truth to power’, as suggested by EC or should the inevitable entanglement of science and politics be accepted and embraced so as to make advice more conducive to negotiating the explicit travails of political decision-making as suggested by STS? With this point of departure, we compare similarities and differences between science–policy interactions in the issue areas of eutrophication and fisheries management of the Baltic Sea. To examine how knowledge is mobilised, the concepts of ‘uncertainty’ and ‘coherence’ are developed, drawing on both EC and STS thinking. We then reflect on the explanatory value of these approaches in both cases and discuss how a separation of science and policy-making in the pursuit of achieving scientific consensus leads to ineffectual policies. Drawing on STS thinking, we urge for a re-conceptualisation of coherence in order to accommodate a more reflexive practice of science–policy interactions.     

Conditions for citizen co-production in a resilient,efficient and legitimate flood risk governance arrangement. A tentative framework

Across Europe, there is an increasing trend towards citizen involvement in the implementation of flood risk governance. Policy-makers increasingly advocate co-produced flood risk governance (FRG), whereby citizens are actively engaged in the implementation of flood risk policy, for example, by taking property-level protection measures. In doing so, they aim to make FRG more resilient, efficient and legitimate [Mees, H., Crabbé, A., Alexander, M., Kaufmann, M., Bruzzone, L., Levy, L., & Lewandowski, J. (2016a). Coproducing flood risk management through citizen involvement: Insights from cross-country comparison in Europe. Ecology and Society, 21(3), 7. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-08500-210307]. Co-production, however, also raises important questions concerning these aims. In this paper, the opportunities and limitations of and barriers to citizen co-production in FRG in terms of resilience, efficiency and legitimacy are investigated by an extensive review of literature on citizen co-production in other public services and on individual and community-based climate change adaptation and FRG. Based on this, a tentative framework is developed on the required conditions to enable co-produced FRG, which benefits both the resilience, efficiency and legitimacy of FRG.     

Community-based climate change adaptation: a review of academic literature

The focus on climate change adaptation, rather than mitigation, has become more prominent since the turn of the century. Given this, it is important to consider what has been achieved so far, particularly community-based approaches which have become the resolve for practitioners and donor agencies working in the sector. This review of 128 publications on community-based climate change adaptation, identified through a systematic database search, follows the development of this body of work in the academic literature. Commencing in the early 2000s, the literature detailed the emergence of community-based adaptation (CBA), driven by a number of factors: recognition of the human dimensions of changes; appreciation of the role of local knowledge for strengthening adaptive capacity; and a push to focus on the scale at which impacts are felt and link this action with pro-poor development outcomes. A more substantial body of work emerged in the literature from 2010 onwards, defining a series of key enablers for effective CBA, which included: use participatory approaches; recognise that adaptation is a social process; and support CBA at multiple scales. More recently, there has been a growing emphasis in the literature to re-conceptualise CBA, which will require focusing on innovation, learning and multi-sectoral approaches.     

全球气候治理背景下中国气候金融发展的挑战和应对

气候金融是全球气候治理的重要基础和关键要素。国际政治局势的变动和《巴黎协定》的签订使得全球气候治理格局发生了重大转变。文章基于这一时代背景和国际气候金融发展趋势,从气候金融政策发展、气候金融机构及其产品和服务、气候金融风险管理三个角度梳理中国气候金融发展现状和内外部障碍。基于此,文章提出了气候金融发展的中国应对策略,认为应健全政策体系,加强国际合作;扩大金融供给,完善行业体系;健全法规约束,提升管理水平。     

Forests under the Southern Cross: The forest environmental frontier in Australia and New Zealand

Australia and New Zealand share many historical and contemporary commonalities. These define five contemporary forest environmental frontiers—for First Nations peoples, between agriculture and forestry, in forest management, in urban and peri-urban environments, and in relation to climate change. In both countries, the First Nations frontier is expanding in scale and significance with those peoples’ rights to land and forests. Frontiers with agriculture and in forest management are longstanding but dynamic and as yet little realised in relation to the need for forest and landscape restoration. Both countries are highly urbanised, elevating the significance of the urban and peri-urban frontier, particularly in the context of climate change. In both countries, forests will be profoundly impacted by climate change and are central to mitigation and adaptation strategies. Experience within and intersections between the frontiers offer encouraging prospects for synergies and for learning between the two countries and more widely.     

转型期土地利用总体规划公共治理职能研究

土地利用总体规划具有较强的公共政策属性,在我国社会转型期,将“公共治理”理论引入土地利用总体规划中,对于公平、有效配置和永续利用土地资源具有重要意义.采用文献资料法和定性分析法,阐述“公共治理”理论的内涵,论证土地利用总体规划公共政策属性,探讨“土地利用总体规划公共治理职能”的含义及功效、主要表现和基本特征.概述我国社会转型期第一、二轮土地利用总体规划发展历程,总结取得的成绩,从转型时期的经济体制改革和社会主义市场经济发展角度分析两轮土地利用总体规划公共治理职能定位及实现过程中所存在的不足.论述转型期社会经济发展对土地利用总体规划公共治理职能的内在要求,从市场化经济、政治民主化进程、全球化和加入WTO背景分析转型期实现土地利用总体规划公共治理职能的社会条件.在此基础上,从公共治理目标、编制实施理念、规划内容、公民社会网络治理、市场配置土地资源功能、法律法规以及各类规划协调配合等七方面,提出实现与完善土地利用总体规划公共治理职能的对策建议.