From Policy Document to Implementation: Organizational Routines as Possible Barriers to Mainstreaming Climate Adaptation

This paper aims to understand the role of organizational routines as possible barriers to the mainstreaming of climate adaptation at the implementation stage. While the mainstreaming of climate adaptation into policy documents is relatively easy, the implementation of these policies seems to be more problematic. Barriers to climate adaptation often occur during this stage as the implementation of the policies is generally undertaken by other actors than the policy-makers. These actors act based on organizational routines. As organizational routines aim to provide stability, they tend to be reaffirmative. Reorganizing the resources and practices of these actors to initiate mainstreaming then proves difficult. Consequently, the routines could prevent change that might be necessary to address new policy objectives such as climate adaptation. An analytical framework consisting of four self-reinforcing mechanisms is used to understand and explain why and how organizational routines can hamper the mainstreaming of climate adaptation during implementation. A case study is used to illustrate organizational routines as possible barriers. The paper concludes by stating that to optimize the possibilities of mainstreaming climate adaptation, a change in routines is necessary. In order to stimulate change in organizational routines, the focus should be on reflecting on existing routines, legitimacy building and learning.     

Efficiency of active barriers attaching biofilm as sediment capping to eliminate the internal nitrogen in eutrophic lake and canal

Three active barrier materials (zeolite, ceramicite and light porous media) were applied for preventing nitrogen (N) release from eutrophic lake sediments. Long term experiment of two di erent lake sediments were carried out and the e ect of zeolite dose was evaluated. The results indicated that about 90%–100% of total N in overlying water was eliminated by using zeolite. While the N removal e ciency by ceramic was lower than that by zeolite, and light porous media present the lowest e ciency of 59%. Long term sediment incubation experiments indicated that two eutrophic sediments were both e ective in preventing N release in spite of di erent release characteristics. Bio-zeolite capping technology was able to e ectively inhibit the release of N from the sediment, and the zeolite dose was independently from N removal.     

“十二五”我国绿色贸易转型方案研究

改革开放以来,出口导向型的增长模式在拉动我国经济快速发展的同时,对资源环境造成了巨大压力,转变外贸发展模式、实现绿色贸易转型已经成为十二五贸易发展的重要方向。本文设计了绿色贸易转型的快速转型、中速转型与慢速转型三种具体方案,并运用中国能源-经济-环境CGE模型,在对2010-2020年期间中国对外贸易引致的进出口虚拟碳排放量、进出口虚拟SO2排放量、进出口虚拟COD排放量模拟计算的基础上,考察了不同转型方案对经济产生的影响及其减排效果。研究结果表明,快速、中速和慢速转轨方案对宏观经济指标的影响均较小,但快速和中速转轨方案对少数几个部门出口影响较大,三种转轨方案均能在方案既定的时间内实现贸易的环境平衡。     

关于排污权交易的若干探讨

从排污权交易的基本概念，排污权的初始分配，交易机制等方面讨论中，提出应按我国的环境管理模式排污权交易政策，发挥其在总量控制以及环境管理的特殊作用；排污权初始分配应实行偿形式；其交易适宜在较大的总量控制区域；政府在交易中可抽取一定比例排污权作为“交易税”等观点。     

污染物排放总量交易政策及实施

文章对污染物排放总量交易政策的重要影响、在总量控制和许可证制度中的地位与作用进行了论述 ,提出了污染物排放总量交易原则、交易条件、交易方式和总量交易的实施与管理。     

WTO对与环境有关的贸易争端的解决机制

环境与贸易的联系日趋紧密,与环境有关的国际贸易争端将越来越多.WTO为解决这类争端做出了有益尝试和不懈努力,并初见成效.该组织的争端解决机制包括法律渊源、参与争端解决的机构、解决纠纷的程序三个方面,其中解决纠纷的程序包括磋商、成立专家小组、专家小组工作、专家小组报告、上诉、复审、仲裁,已有明显的司法化特点.这一机制仍有许多不足之处,应从多方面进行完善和发展.但它使国际贸易法史上有了一个能有效进行国际环境、贸易争端处理的超国家机构,具有重大意义.中国入世后,更要研究这一机制,利用其规则维护国家环境权益.     

Can a water market avert the “double-whammy” of trade reform and lead to a “win–win” outcome?

This paper focuses on the linkages between water and trade policies, using Morocco as a case. This country is typical of many in that policy protects its import competing agricultural and industrial sectors while water in irrigated agriculture is priced below its marginal value product. Changing water policy without correcting for these other distortions leads to a more inefficient allocation of water. On the other hand, reforming trade policy alone can make farmers growing crops protected pre-reform worse off. Using an intertemporal, applied general equilibrium model, we find that trade reform actually creates an opportunity to pursue water policy reform. Creating a water user-rights market post trade reform not only compensates for the decline in farmers’ profits caused by the trade reform, but also raises the efficiency of water allocation and hence benefits the economy as a whole.     

Achieving environmental goals in a world of trade and hidden action: the role of trade policies and eco-labeling

Importing countries often resort to trade policies and consumer actions in order to reduce negative environmental impacts of the products they consume. Traditionally, these policies were non-discriminatory, i.e., they treated all imports equally, without considering the actual damages caused by the product. More recently, there is a trend towards process-discriminatory policies which attempt to discriminate against environmentally unsound imports while encouraging sound alternatives. We develop a theoretical model of the consuming country's optimal trade policy, allowing for asymmetric information and costly monitoring, and analyze what type of policy is preferable under what conditions.     

Investigating the influence on safety of retrofitting Italian motorways with barriers meeting a new EU standard

Objective: A new European Union (EU) regulation for safety barriers, which is based on performance, has encouraged road agencies to perform an upgrade of old barriers, with the expectation that there will be safety benefits at the retrofitted sites. The new class of barriers was designed and installed in compliance with the 1998 (European Norm) EN 1317 standards for road restraint systems, which lays down common requirements for the testing and certification of road restraint systems in all countries of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN). Both the older and new barriers are made of steel and are installed in such a way as to avoid vehicle intrusion, but the older ones are thought to be only effective at low speeds and large angles of impact. The new standard seeks to remedy this by providing better protection at higher speeds. This article seeks to quantify the effect on the frequency of fatal and injury crashes of retrofitting motorways with barriers meeting the new standards.

Methods: The estimation of the crash modification was carried out by performing an empirical Bayes before–after analysis based on data from the A18 Messina–Catania motorway in Italy. The methodology has the great advantage to account for the regression to the mean effects. Besides, to account for time trend effects and dispersion of crash data, a modified calibration methodology of safety performance was used.

Results: This study, based on data collected on 76 km of motorway in the period 2000–2012, derived Crash Modification Factor point estimates that indicate reductions of 72% for run-off-road fatal and injury crashes and 38% in total fatal and injury crashes that could be expected by upgrading an old safety barrier by complying with new EU 1317 standards. The estimated benefit-cost ratio of 5.57 for total crashes indicates that the treatment is cost effective.

Conclusions: The magnitude of this benefit indicates that the retrofits are cost-effective even for total crashes and should continue in any European country inasmuch as the estimated Crash Modification Factors are based on treatment sites that are reasonably representative of all European motorways.     

Facilitators and barriers to occupational health and safety in small and medium-sized enterprises: a descriptive exploratory study in Ontario,Canada

Purpose. The purpose of this particular study was to test a newly created instrument in describing the facilitators and barriers to occupational health and safety in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ontario, Canada. Methods. A cross-sectional design was used to identify the occupational health and safety culture of SMEs in public and private sectors in Ontario. Results. A total of 153 questionnaires were completed. The majority of respondents were female (84%) with a mean age of 49.8 years (SD 10.6). Seventy-four percent were supervisors. Seventy percent of respondents were from the private sector while 30% derived from the public sector including healthcare, community services, and non-profit organizations. Further, conducting regular external safety inspections of the workplace was found to be statistically associated with a safe work environment 2.88 95% CI [1.57, 5.27]. Conclusions. Strategies and training opportunities that focus on how to adapt occupational health and safety legislation to the nature and diversity of SMEs are recommended. Furthermore, employers may use such information to improve safety in their SMEs, while researchers can hopefully use such evidence to develop interventions that are applicable to meeting the occupational health and safety needs of SMEs.