Environmental policy innovations in China: a critical analysis from a low-carbon city

The Chinese state is squarely ‘back’ in the business of environmental governance with an increasing number of policy innovations or experiments to resolve environmental issues. These have been mostly enacted through the ‘experimentation under hierarchy’ framework, undergirded by compensation-for-performance incentive structures for local agents. Based on on-site ethnography in local China, a critical analysis is presented of low-carbon city policy experiments – one of the most prominent environmental policies introduced in the past decade. Using lessons from the agency theory, it is hypothesized that outcomes of these policy innovations are contingent on different policy dimensions. Although a number of positive outcomes have been achieved in output-oriented dimensions, the fundamental difficulty of specifying all aspects of complex, multidimensional work tasks involved in low-carbon city development has frequently led to policy unmaking. The findings raise important questions about China’s tendency to rely excessively on compensation-for-performance structures to promote environmental policies.     

城市生活垃圾分类强制实施背景下“一主多元”治理模式的主体策略演化分析

随着经济不断发展和人民消费水平提升,垃圾分类治理问题日益严峻。实践经验表明,强制实施背景下政府主导与承包商、公众和环保组织为核心的多元主体共同参与的“一主多元”协作模式,对于我国垃圾分类治理具有较好适用性。但该模式也存在“一主”突出、“多元”不足及其他系统性冲突。为明确多元主体参与策略对“一主多元”治理模式稳定性的影响,首先,本文分析了城市生活垃圾分类强制实施背景下该模式运行机制及主体动因。然后,构建以承包商、公众和环保组织为主体的三方演化博弈系统,对不同策略组合下系统的演化结果进行演绎。最后,借助数值仿真分析了参与成本、环境收益和政府补贴对主体策略选择及系统稳定性的影响。结果表明：环保组织参与垃圾分类治理的积极性最高,公众最低;对于系统运行风险,承包商属于风险偏好者,环保组织属于风险回避者,公众属于风险中立者;承包商对参与成本最敏感,对政府补贴最不敏感,公众则正好与之相反;环境收益的提升有助于提高多元主体的参与积极性。这些发现对于如何提升多元主体参与垃圾分类治理的积极性及“一主多元”治理模式的运行效能具有启示意义。     

Collaborative Science, Policy Development and Program Implementation in the Transboundary Georgia Basin/Puget Sound Ecosystem

The transboundary Georgia Basin Puget Sound ecosystem is situated in the southwest corner of British Columbia and northwest comer of Washington State. While bountiful and beautiful, this international region is facing significant threats to its marine and freshwater resources, air quality, habitats and species. These environmental challenges are compounded by rapid population growth and attendant uiban sprawl. As ecosystem stresses amplified and partnerships formed around possible solutions, it became increasingly clear that the shared sustainability challenges in the Georgia Basin and Puget Sound required shared solutions. Federal, state and provincial institutional arrangements were made between jurisdictions, which formalized small scale interest in transboundary management of this ecosystem. Formal agreements, however, can only do so much to further management of an ecosystem that spans international boarders. A transboundary regional research meeting, the 2003 GB/PS Research Conference, opened the doors for large-scale informal cross-boarder cooperation and management. In addition to cooperation, continued efforts to stem toxic pollution, contain urban growth, and protect and restore ecosystems, require a commitment from scientists, educators and policy makers to better integrate research and science with decision-making.Former Director of Planning and of Special Projects in the British Columbia Ministry of Municipal Affairs.     

外部压力＋内部能力：政府治理双重维度对碳排放强度的影响研究

碳排放峰值和碳中和的“30/60目标”对政府环境治理提出了更高的要求,如何从政府治理压力和治理能力的视角探寻其与碳减排的关系,为助力中国“双碳”目标的实现提供了新的思路。本文选取中国 30个省（区、市） 2010—2020年的面板数据,通过直接效应、中介效应、空间溢出效应系统考察了政府外部治理压力和内部治理能力对碳减排的协同影响路径。研究发现,外部治理压力和内部治理能力均显著降低了碳排放强度,且内外部治理双重维度产生了显著的协同减排效应,在运用倾向得分匹配法和工具变量法进行稳健性检验时,该结论依然成立。此外,内外部治理双重维度对碳减排的驱动作用因地区分布差异和产业结构差异而存在异质性。中介效应分析结果表明绿色技术创新是内外部治理双重维度降低碳排放强度的重要机制。空间溢出效应分析表明内外部治理双重维度对邻近地区的碳排放强度存在负向空间溢出效应。     

The coalitional politics of the European Union’s environmental forest policy: Biodiversity conservation,timber legality,and climate protection

European forest policymaking is shaped by progressing European integration, yet with notable ideological divisions and diverging interests among countries. This paper focuses on the coalitional politics of key environmental forest issues: biodiversity conservation, timber legality, and climate protection policy. Combining the Advocacy Coalition Framework and the Shifting Coalition Theory, and informed by more than 186 key informant interviews and 73 policy documents spanning a 20-year timeframe, we examine the evolution of coalitional forest politics in Europe. We find that the basic line-up has remained stable: an environmental coalition supporting EU environmental forest policy integration and a forest sector coalition mostly opposing it. Still, strategic alliances across these coalitions have occurred for specific policy issues which have resulted in a gradual establishment of an EU environmental forest policy. We conclude with discussion of our findings and provide suggestions for further research.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01644-5.     

From conflict to collaboration: Atewa Forest governance

The problem of forest degradation and loss has become the concern of many countries. To address this challenge, some collaborate in sustainable forest management. The most successful outcomes, however, are observed where local participation is an essential part of conservation efforts. In Ghana, forests have experienced various degrees of exploitation over the years, resulting in their ecological decline. Despite its designation as a protected area for biodiversity and ecosystem services, the Atewa Range Forest Reserve in Ghana has been significantly impacted by deforestation, illegal mining, and other destructive activities. The purpose of this paper is to examine ecologically based management approaches that could be adopted to generate beneficial outcomes for all forest stakeholders and actors in Ghana. The study sampled forest stakeholders in Kwabeng, the administrative capital of the Atewa West District, to understand forest governance challenges and outline strategies for overcoming them. The study revealed that a bottom-up all-inclusive approach to managing forest resources is necessary. This paper, therefore, proposes an integrated forest governance that prioritizes the UN Sustainable Development Goal 15—Life on Land-related to forest preservation.     

Blue economy,blue finance and ocean governance for achieving sustainable development goals

This research paper is an attempt to define and analyse the concept of the blue economy (BE) and its implications for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study covers aspects such as building a blue economy to achieve SDGs, the importance of a healthy ocean for current and future generations, maintaining the momentum to save the ocean, achievements of the United Nations (UN) conference on the Sustainable Blue Economy, and the highlights of the UN World Water Development Report 2020. This study specifically analyses the health effects and threats to biodiversity, adaptation and mitigation, improved wastewater management, prioritizing water, accessing climate funds, water and climate change, and the relationship between the blue economy and UN SDGs as well as identification of key stakeholders. This is achieved through a detailed literature review on the blue economy that identifies global organizations working on creating a blue economy, elements of the blue economy and current development efforts, United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, sustainability and equity, ocean governance, international law and frameworks, and improvement in governance frameworks among other issues. The methodology used attempted to develop a macro, comprehensive, and systematic aggregate database at the country level on macro parameters, namely blue economy, blue finance, BE-SDGs linkages, water development, marine sector, SDGs data on SDG-14 (life underwater), SDG-6 (access to safe drinking water and sanitation), SDG-3 (good health and well-being), and optimal management of water resources through scientific techniques, such as building several small reservoirs instead of mega projects, develop small catchment dams and protect wetlands, soil management, micro catchment development, recharging of underground aquifers thus reducing the need for large dams, which has encountered challenges due to data limitations. The results of this research study emphasize broader stakeholder consultations at the global level to resolve the issues relating to blue economy, blue finance, and ocean governance. The most important conclusion and policy implications of the study are that international organizations including the United Nations, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank are working towards achieving the SDGs in general, and the blue economy, blue finance, and ocean governance in particular.     

基于CAS视角的供应链环境协同治理研究

为探究供应链环境协同治理问题,本文从复杂适应系统视角分析了供应链环境协同治理中内部主体之间以及内外部主体间的协同作用机理,以此为基础构建了供应链环境协同治理模型。为探究协同治理机制在该模型中的实际成效,本文运用多主体仿真技术,对二级供应链模型进行仿真模拟,验证了协同治理在企业运营发展以及供应链整体环境绩效方面的提升作用,并针对协同模型中制造商零售商间减排成本分担系数进行调整,检验上下游企业间减排成本分担系数变化对供应链环境治理效果的影响。仿真结果显示,虽然供应链整体利润随着制造商承担的减排成本增加而增加,但供应链单位产值排放量却随之呈现先下降后上升的趋势,进一步验证了协同治理的效果。     

可持续能源转型:模型构建与分析

为研究可持续能源系统转型路径,以转型理论为概念框架,从宏观、中观和微观多层次对能源系统进行分析,建立了基于代理的系统动力学转型模型。模型选取当前能源消费结构中占较大比重的煤炭、石油、天然气、风能、水电、光伏和核能作为复杂代理,选取消费者作为简单代理,根据中国能源数据对其进行参数化,并模拟运行了能源系统从2016—2050年间各种类型能源消费比重变动的情形。研究结果显示:①外部景观信号的输入对于能源系统的可持续转型有着至关重要的作用。随着景观信号的输入,各类能源的相对比重发生复杂的相互作用,景观信号持续时间越长、强度越大,向可持续能源系统转型的速度越快、规模越大。②到2050年,可持续能源将占一次能源消费比重的60%左右,实现能源系统的可持续转型,其中,水电将在能源系统的可持续化转型中发挥重要的作用。③2030年以前,石油和天然气将是能源系统中煤炭消费比重下降的主要替代品,因为它们的应用技术已经发展成熟,而且它们更适应当前的基础设施,从短期来看相比可持续能源石油和天然气更有优势,在这种情形下,仍然需要继续支持可持续能源的发展,否则能源系统的可持续转型将不会发生。该研究主要探索通过当前能源系统的景观压力强度以及转型的进度,来量化未来需要输入的景观压力强度;通过模拟转型发生的具体情景,对转型的进展进行更清楚的界定,借此来评估二氧化碳的排放路径;模拟模型也可以评估各类能源在不同时间点上的各种可能性,以及探索各类可持续能源的发展潜力。     

Political transition and emergent forest‐conservation issues in Myanmar

Political and economic transitions have had substantial impacts on forest conservation. Where transitions are underway or anticipated, historical precedent and methods for systematically assessing future trends should be used to anticipate likely threats to forest conservation and design appropriate and prescient policy measures to counteract them. Myanmar is transitioning from an authoritarian, centralized state with a highly regulated economy to a more decentralized and economically liberal democracy and is working to end a long‐running civil war. With these transitions in mind, we used a horizon‐scanning approach to assess the 40 emerging issues most affecting Myanmar's forests, including internal conflict, land‐tenure insecurity, large‐scale agricultural development, demise of state timber enterprises, shortfalls in government revenue and capacity, and opening of new deforestation frontiers with new roads, mines, and hydroelectric dams. Averting these threats will require, for example, overhauling governance models, building capacity, improving infrastructure‐ and energy‐project planning, and reforming land‐tenure and environmental‐protection laws. Although challenges to conservation in Myanmar are daunting, the political transition offers an opportunity for conservationists and researchers to help shape a future that enhances Myanmar's social, economic, and environmental potential while learning and applying lessons from other countries. Our approach and results are relevant to other countries undergoing similar transitions.