企业环境寻求、污染密集型生产区际转移与环境监管

在当前强调产业结构调整的政策背景下,产业有序转移必须以有利于或者加强环境保护为基本目标。环境规制差异造成了不同经济地域之间污染密集型生产的比较优势调整,强化了高污染产业进行生产区位选择的动机,以规避来自政府的环境监管。环境治理成本的不同是高污染企业区际转移的重要驱动因素,企业环境寻求策略推动了污染密集型生产由环境规制强度高的地区向环境规制松弛地区的转移。企业污染密集型生产的区际转移受到环境要素产品生产比较优势的明显影响,这些环境要素产品与区际环境规制差异、企业市场内部化战略以及污染密集型产品的生命周期密切关联。借鉴一般均衡分析框架,可以明晰企业环境寻求策略下污染密集型生产转移的内在机制。一方面,环境成本差异决定了非环境友好产品生产转移的意愿,高强度的环境规制使得企业生产的边际环境治理成本和平均环境治理成本提高,污染密集型生产外迁的动力加强,生产效率高的企业对环境规制强度更加敏感。污染密集型生产承接地提高环境规制强度能形成对环境负面影响的有力对冲,遏制环境恶化趋势。另一方面,合理的区际环境政策差异能在产业有序转移中发挥重要作用。合理设定区际环境规制级差与碳信征信系统建设,加强分类监管与行业节能减排,建立拟承接生产项目的效率筛选机制,提高区域市场开放程度、降低产业优惠政策所形成隐性市场保护等环境监管手段是保证欠发达地区通过产业承接实现跨越式发展的关键所在。     

我国农村环境保护立法现状及完善建议

面对日益严峻的农村环保形势,针对目前我国农村环保问题现状,从立法角度分析目前我国农村环境保护法律规定、存在问题,并提出了完善我国农村环保立法的建议。     

Risk management: Time for innovative approaches

Risk management practices under the current environmental regulations is a long, complex process that considers scientific, technologic, and management factors to develop various regulatory standards and pollution control measures. Using the mandatory enforcement approach, sometimes referred to as “command-and-control”, a set of preliminary environmental goals, such as better air and water qualities, were achieved. However, the information-intensive nature of the risk management process and the lack of flexibility in conventional regulatory methods to changing economic and technologic realities of the decade has created interest among risk managers to examine some innovative management approaches. Above all, environmental problems of a global scale require novel management methods while striving to achieve the desired environmental goals. As the principal analytical tool in risk management, quantitative risk assessment exerts considerable influence on the risk management process. Therefore, advances in risk management are closely associated with scientific developments that enhance the risk assessment process, particularly those efforts aimed at improving human exposure and toxicity assessments. Market incentives, information dissemination, creative enforcement practices, and interagency and intergovernmental interactions were identified as the key elements of innovative environmental risk management practices. This paper will present an overview of the emerging innovative risk management approaches.     

What Is a Good Public Participation Process? Five Perspectives from the Public

It is now widely accepted that members of the public should be involved in environmental decision-making. This has inspired many to search for principles that characterize good public participation processes. In this paper we report on a study that identifies discourses about what defines a good process. Our case study was a forest planning process in northern New England and New York. We employed Q methodology to learn how participants characterize a good process differently, by selecting, defining, and privileging different principles. Five discourses, or perspectives, about good process emerged from our study. One perspective emphasizes that a good process acquires and maintains popular legitimacy. A second sees a good process as one that facilitates an ideological discussion. A third focuses on the fairness of the process. A fourth perspective conceptualizes participatory processes as a power struggle—in this instance a power play between local landowning interests and outsiders. A fifth perspective highlights the need for leadership and compromise. Dramatic differences among these views suggest an important challenge for those responsible for designing and carrying out public participation processes. Conflicts may emerge about process designs because people disagree about what is good in specific contexts.     

生态市建设的战略环境影响评价初探——以淮南市为例

生态市建设是一项系统工程，是实现可持续发展的必然途径。通过对战略环境影响评价理论、方法的探讨，开发出了针对生态市建设的战略环境影响评价技术框架，并以淮南市为例，构建了一套完整的战略环境影响评价指标体系。最后分析了淮南生态市建设SEIA的主要内容：土地利用规划、产业政策结构调整以及各项战略的环境影响评价，为生态市建设SEIA提供方法和技术支持。     

The effect of environmental regulation on firms' competitive performance: the case of the building & construction sector in some EU regions

There is a considerable debate on the effects of environmental regulation on competitive performance. Based on survey data, this paper analyzesthe two main research questions, derived from literature, on the links between environmental regulation and competitiveness, by focusing on firms operating in the building and construction sector, i.e.: 1) whether environmental policy stringency affects the competitive performance of firms in the building and construction sector 2) and how a specific form of environmental regulation (direct regulation, economic instruments and soft instruments) affects this performance? By applying a regression analysis, we find that a more stringent environmental regulation, measured by inspection frequency, provides a positive impulse for increasing investments in advanced technological equipment and innovative products and on business performance. Moreover, a well-designed “direct regulation” appears to be the most effective policy instrument for prompting the positive impact of environmental policies on innovation and intangible performance while economic instruments do negatively affect business performance.     

Estimates of health benefits due to reductions in ambient NO2 levels

A method is presented here by which the actual numbers of individuals in the U.S. population who would be expected to suffer respiratory illness as a result of exposure to ambient nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) concentrations in excess of the Federally-designated ambient air quality standard can be estimated. At the same time we have attempted to quantify how these adverse health effects would be alleviated by various degrees of reductions in current ambient concentrations. In addition, the health benefit expected to be derived by various NO_x emission control strategies will be examined utilizing the health benefit estimation method presented.It is estimated that there were approximately 33.2×10⁶ excess cases of respiratory illnesses in the U.S. in 1973 associated with ambient NO₂ concentrations in excess of the national ambient standard. A reduction of approximately 50 to 60 percent below 1973 NO₂ levels is needed to essentially eliminate excess respiratory illness associated with ambient NO₂ concentration.     

No evidence of systematic pre-emptive loggings after notifying landowners of their lands’ conservation potential

Landowners can intentionally impair biodiversity values occurring on their land to pre-empt biodiversity protection. This often leads to significant negative effects on biodiversity. We studied whether landowners in Finland engaged in pre-emptive loggings after they were notified that their wooded mires are candidate sites for a mire protection program. After the notification, harvesting rates of the candidate wooded mires were significantly lower compared to harvesting rates of similar but non-candidate wooded mires. Annual and monthly harvesting rates indicated that notifying landowners of the conservation potential did not launch systematic pre-emptive logging behavior. Nevertheless, part of the candidate wooded mires were logged, so some landowners place more weight on other values than the biodiversity ones. Pre-emptive behavior has been observed in other studies suggesting that many country- or system-specific factors such as cultural background or level of compensation can affect landowners’ behavior.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s13280-020-01354-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.