China’s carbon neutrality: an extensive and profound systemic reform

● China has pledged ambitious carbon peak and neutrality goals for mitigating global climate change. ● Major challenges to achieve carbon neutrality in China are summarized. ● The new opportunities along the pathway of China’s carbon neutrality are discussed from four aspects. ● Five policy suggestions for China are provided. China is the largest developing economy and carbon dioxide emitter in the world, the carbon neutrality goal of which will have a profound influence on the mitigation pathway of global climate change. The transition towards a carbon-neutral society is integrated into the construction of ecological civilization in China, and brings profound implications for China’s socioeconomic development. Here, we not only summarize the major challenges in achieving carbon neutrality in China, but also identify the four potential new opportunities: namely, the acceleration of technology innovations, narrowing regional disparity by reshaping the value of resources, transforming the industrial structure, and co-benefits of pollution and carbon mitigation. Finally, we provide five policy suggestions and highlight the importance of balancing economic growth and carbon mitigation, and the joint efforts among the government, the enterprises, and the residents.     

Relationships of the dimensions of sustainability as measured by the sustainable society index framework

This article presents a study of the interrelationships between the different dimensions of sustainability as measured by the sustainable society index framework. We examine the statistical relationships between the four indices making up the sustainable society index framework. The analysis uses the complete existing data set provided by Sustainable Society Foundation for the years 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012 and for 151 countries. While the time period where data are available is quite short, we can make some preliminary observations about the apparent trends in the interrelationships of the different dimensions of sustainability. This study shows that the three dimensions of sustainability are far from all being synergic and positively correlated. There is a strong negative correlation between human well-being and environmental well-being. This is problematic from the point of view of the Brundtland Commission’s three-pillar definition of sustainability. However, the trade-off relationship between economic and environmental development measured by the economic well-being index and environmental well-being index is decreasing and the dimensions are becoming more de-linked. This trend is promising from the sustainability perspective.     

The design of decision-making: participatory budgeting and the production of localism

This paper examines participatory budgeting (PB) as an instrument of localism – the devolution of political governance with the aim to produce sustainable democratic communities. This will be achieved through a detailed exploration of the decision-making mechanisms for creating local governance through PB schemes designed and organised by the Cornwall Council (UK). First introduced in the UK by the previous Labour administration in 2008, PB has become a tool of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government and is central to the neoliberal ethos of Big Society and localism. In a time of rapid political change, we respond to Eaton's [2008. From feeding the locals to selling the locale: adapting local sustainable food projects in Niagara to neocommunitarianism and neoliberalism. Geoforum, 39, 994–1006, 996] suggestion that greater attention be paid to “the specificities of particular neoliberal projects” by focusing on the micro-politics of PB. We draw upon empirical evidence from PB pilot schemes run in rural Cornwall in 2008, examining the effect of “nudging” decision-making. Grounding this inquiry in the existing literature on neoliberal statecraft, this paper investigates the role of government technologies which seek to frame local governance using mechanisms of libertarian paternalism [Painter, J., 2008. European citizenship and the regions. European Urban and Regional Studies, 15, 5–19; Painter, J., 2010. Rethinking territory. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, 42, 1090–1118; MacLeavy, J., 2008. Neoliberlising subjects: the legacy of new labour's construction of social exclusion in local governance. Geoforum, 39, 1657–1666]. We argue in this paper that neoliberal ideology has integrated the epistemology of behavioural economics. We draw conclusions commensurate with the outcomes of PB projects conducted in Latin America, namely that citizens can be steered towards making certain decisions. We assert that in order to direct decision-making successfully, governmental “top-down” frameworks and goals need to be married with local geographies and “bottom-up” local desires and aspirations, thereby enabling a “countervailing power” [Sintomer, Y., Herzberg, C. and Rocke, A., 2008. Participatory budgeting in Europe: potentials and challenges. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 32, 164–178] to develop. This power is exercised by a participating and scrutinising citizen that contribute towards, and balance, governmental practices of PB. With a wider governmental emphasis on designing or “architecting” choice in opportunities for local governing, there is now an even greater necessity to recognise the context of geography in local government community-orientated initiatives.     

Mapping civil society: the ecology of actors in the Toronto region greenbelt

ABSTRACT

Civil society’s potential as a force for solving complex societal problems – particularly those that require a challenge to the status quo – has provoked practical and theoretical interest, with its potential largely reliant on the perception that it is a ready if variable source of social capital resources. However, there are no guarantees that civil society will use its social capital for the greater good. Civil society encompasses a range of groups, some more inward-looking and oriented to private interests, and others more outward-looking and oriented to public interests. This divergent character of civil society was evident in the three campaigns for greenspace protection that eventually led to the creation of the Toronto region greenbelt, where civil society organisations (CSOs) from both growth and conservation camps contended for influence, each succeeding at different times. But over time (a time when state actors were increasingly in need of non-state partners to help solve complex governance problems), coalitions of environmental CSOs in the three campaigns – to protect the Niagara Escarpment, Oak Ridges Moraine and surrounding countryside – became more effective at influencing government to protect greenspace. A comparison of the coalitions using a framework based on key attributes of CSOs – missions and memberships – suggests that the environmental coalitions were more effective when they recruited more members with a diverse set of resources arising from both bonding and bridging social capital. In general, the more inclusive and public-interested the CSOs, the more effective the challenge to the status quo.     

浅谈大学生诚信教育

诚实守信是中华民族的传统美德,是做人的基本道德标准之一。然而,在市场经济的影响下,在社会处于转轨时期的历史条件下,大学生诚信却存在着不少不尽如人意的地方,其产生原因主要是社会环境、学校教育以及家庭教育之间存在着缺失。鉴于此,应从课堂、教师、校园、社会、法制等方面入手,制造诚信氛围,加强大学生的诚信教育。     

Is Agriculture in Need of Ethics?

The minister of Agriculture, Nature Management andFisheries of the Netherlands reflects on the question``Is agriculture in need of ethics?'' Changingnorms and values in society, the influence of newtechnologies (such as biotechnology) and theinternational trade liberalisation (WTO) providearguments for a positive answer on this question.     

中国不同城市群的经济社会与环境可持续发展协调度分析

采用定量为主和定量定性相结合的分析方法,研究了中国不同城市群的经济社会与环境协调度。通过分析发现：第一,中国城市经济社会环境整体协调度不高,绝大部分属于轻度失调类,经济发展是其主要影响因素;第二,协调度呈现出由东部沿海城市向内陆城市递减的梯度变化,而社会与经济的滞后性影响力却呈现出东高西低的现象;第三,协调度呈现＂三高两低＂的城市集聚格局,其中3个协调度高值城市集聚群分别位于珠三角、长三角、环渤海地区;2个协调度低值城市集聚群位于内陆中部地区。     

“后小康”时期我国排污许可制改革实施路线图研究

排污许可制度是发达国家普遍实行并证明行之有效的点源管理制度。"十三五"以来,我国以排污许可制度为核心的固定污染源管理体系进入快速高效构建期。2020年后,我国将进入"后小康社会"时期,排污许可制度改革与实施也将进入一个新时期。本文在充分研究目前排污许可制度改革面临问题的基础上,参考国际经验,提出"后小康"时期排污许可制改革的路线图。围绕环境质量改善,通过"后小康"时期排污许可制度的进一步改革与创新,使得中国排污许可制度更加完善、内容规范细致,让排污许可制真正成为固定污染源环境管理的核心制度,为确保"十九大"提出的"环境质量根本好转"的目标打下坚实基础。     

基于农户行为的土地利用人工社会模型的构造与应用

为探讨人工社会在土地利用变化研究领域中的应用,研究创建了一个模拟土地利用变化过程的人工社会模型(LUC-ASM)。该模型以农户和农民为两类主体(agents),模拟分析不同社会经济条件和政策影响下,两类主体对自己承包土地利用方式的微观决策所可能产生的宏观效应及其时空变化特征。以鄱阳湖区一个现实村落为主要研究对象,以农户从事各类生产活动的行为特征为准则,利用LUC-ASM模型模拟未来30年内该村落土地利用变化过程。结果表明,未来这一地区土地利用的变化与人口增长结构调整方式、国家土地利用与环保政策、社会经济发展态势等因素密切相关;在城市化的影响下,该地区的农业劳动力将会出现短缺,农村土地有可能被撂荒,需要及早采用政策措施予以避免。总体而言,LUC-ASM模型能够形象地反映土地利用变化过程的微观驱动机理及各种社会经济与环境因素影响的宏观效应,有助于深化我们对人与自然环境相互作用的认识。     

从环境-社会系统的角度看"建设和谐社会"

环境-社会系统的三元结构是指人、社会和自然三元。可持续发展取决于对这三元运动机制的协调。从环境-社会系统的视角看。可持续发展是指通过三种生产的和谐运行与环境—社会系统的稳定演进．获得“经济-社会-环境”整体的高效益。人类社会发展的两大基本矛盾是资源生产的矛盾和资源配置的矛盾．因此。建设和谐社会的关键在于：在争取“人-社会-自然”和谐演进的前提下。处理好人与社会、人与自然、自然与社会以及自然的、社会的方方面面的“关系”。