Sustainability of silicon feedstock for a low-carbon society

We need to ensure the sustainable management of advanced materials, such as purified silicon, that contribute to a low-carbon society. Because a drastic increase in the demand for photovoltaic (PV) systems is tightening the supply of silicon for PV cells, the sustainability of silicon feedstock needs to be explored. For this purpose, a material flow analysis of silicon in Japan from 1996 to 2006 is presented in this paper. Our analysis finds that rapid growth in demand for polycrystalline silicon (pc-silicon) and single crystalline silicon (sc-silicon) has changed the structure of the purified silicon supply. The strong demand for purified silicon for solar cells is responsible for this change. While off-grade silicon obtained as a by-product of electronic-grade silicon (EG-Si) covered the demand for solar sells before 2000, pc-silicon is currently produced independently for solar cells via an energy-intensive process. Analysis of the resource effective-use index (REI), which indicates how effectively purified silicon is used, shows progress in the effective use of pc- and sc-silicon. REI analysis indicates that the effective use of pc-silicon is reaching a maximum, while the effective use of sc-silicon is advancing, with a corresponding increase in price. To ensure a sustainable supply of silicon feedstock, this paper proposes four solutions: (1) production of solar-grade pc-silicon by a less costly and less energy-consuming method; (2) reduction in the amount of crystalline silicon per watt in solar cells; (3) acceleration of the development and deployment of other solar cell types; and (4) reuse and recycling of solar cells in the future.     

中日韩循环经济政策比较研究

在中国经济迅猛发展的同时，投资主导型的经济模式中环境保护要素的缺失导致我国工业化发展旱、中期的资源、能源约束、效率低下和浪费严重。在我国实施循环经济刻不容缓。循环经济政策是依据不同的社会、经济和环境条件而制定的。由于历史的原因，中日韩三国在地缘关系、政治传统、风俗习惯、文化教育等内在制度和外在制度彼此趋同，反映在循环经济政策的制定、执行上也有某些相似的地方。对三国循环经济的历史和现状进行比较研究，得出有益于我国的经验，无疑具有很重大的现实意义。采用制度变迁的基本理论作为指导，运用历史研究法、调查研究法等方法进行研究，对中日韩循环经济政策演变的历程进行系统梳理和比较，深入全面地考量其指导思想和举措的选择动机，系统广泛地从多方面研究中日韩循环经济政策。并将三者加以比较，以得出对我国循环经济的发展具有较强借鉴意义的经验，更好地推进循环经济在我国的发展。     

生态文明话语模式下的循环经济

发展循环经济,实现人与自然可持续协调发展,是构建和谐社会的必由之路。试从生态文明角度,探索发展循环经济的有效途径。     

从信息化赋能到综合赋能：智慧国土空间规划思路探索

党的十九大报告明确的“智慧社会”建设目标,对当前国土空间规划工作的开展提出了新的要求。如今,以互联网、大数据、云计算等为主的信息化技术赋能是当前国土空间规划智慧化的主要动力与发展重点,而如何理解并推进智慧社会发展则是智慧编制与实施国土空间规划的重要基础。人地关系和地域生命有机体理论是智慧社会下国土空间规划与治理的理论与方法基础,需要从信息化赋能向包含技术赋能与创新赋能的综合赋能理念转变,探讨智慧国土空间规划的总体思路,进而构建以生态文明为基础、以人为本为核心、技术集成应用和制度创新为支撑的智慧国土空间规划框架（EPTI）,并探讨规划编制的智慧化以及规划实施的智慧化。     

焦作市城市社会生态环境评价

在调查研究的基础上，针对焦作市2000年的城市生态环境现状，构建了城市社会生态环境质量评价体系，由3个层次24个指标组成。对焦作市城市社会生态环境进行单因素和综合质量评价。评价结果表明，该市的城市社会生态环境质量比较差，并存在一些主要社会生态环境问题。最后，针对性地提出了一些改善治理的对策。     

日本交通部门碳排放与低碳交通相关因素研究

本文就日本向低碳社会体系转型的过程中,交通部门碳排放现状、都市交通体系构成、实施对策等方面进行了分析,探讨其交通运输领域低碳交通的相关因素及发展模式,为中国低碳交通体系的构建提供参考。     

Civil society and the state: Turkey after the earthquake

On 17 August 1999 Turkey was hit by a massive earthquake. Over 17,000 lives were lost and there was extensive damage to Turkey's heartland. This paper examines how various public and private institutions, including state and civil society institutions such as NGOs and the media responded to the needs of earthquake survivors. It documents the extensive involvement of NGOs in the relief efforts immediately after the disaster and examines the impact of such participation on state-civil society relations in the country. The data show that state response to the disaster went through several phases from a period of ineptitude to effective management. The paper credits the media and the NGOs for acting as advocates for survivors and forcing changes at the state level. The paper argues that an ideal response system, which fully addresses the needs of victims, can only be based on state-civil society relations that are both collaborative and adversarial.     

Material flow indicators to measure progress toward a sound material-cycle society

This article reviews recent progress in material flow analysis and its use in providing resource productivity indicators and is based on developments in Japanese policy toward a sound material-cycle society and in international forums such as within the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation, covering both institutional and methodological issues. Indicators derived from economy-wide material flow accounts such as direct material inputs are useful to demonstrate the absolute size of a physical economy and to reinforce the need to both reduce consumption of natural resources and limit waste generation. Interpretation of material flows as resources and potential environmental impacts is discussed, and linkages between the size of material flows and specific environmental impacts and damage must be further elaborated for use in environmental policy. Lessons learned from the practical use of resource productivity indicators are also discussed. Additional indicators are needed that can be used to evaluate the performance of microeconomic contributors. The need for an integrated approach that links upstream resource issues and downstream waste issues through the 3Rs concept or the circular economy/society concept is attracting increasing attention. Consequently, the accumulation of reliable scientific knowledge and data in this field in a fully international context is essential.     

垃圾问题的思考

垃圾在告急：垃圾的恶性累积,已成为世界性的环境灾难。对垃圾问题的哲学思考：垃圾是与人类社会同时产生,同步发展的。根据事物发展否定之否定规律,垃圾危机的产生正是对已往社会发展的一种否定。解决垃圾问题,必需树立社会全面发展观和科技全面进步观,运用法律的、经济的、行政的和道德的手段,大力发展处理垃圾的科学技术,减少垃圾的产生,并将产生的垃圾“变废为宝”,才能使社会在否定之否定的过程中持续发展。     

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.