Options for baselines of the clean development mechanism

The Kyoto Protocol created the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to allow industrial countries to reach part of their greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction through projects in developing countries. To calculate the achieved emission reduction a reference scenario has to be developed – the baseline. Despite efforts to develop realistic baselines, a certain degree of uncertainty regarding actual reductions will be inevitable. It is therefore necessary to compare the costs (including transaction costs) of developing a baseline against the informational benefit it can be expected to produce. While project-related baselines are already being applied, the proponents of country-related baselines have still to show the applicability of their approach for the CDM. The possibility of quantifying indirect effects and considering market distortions and subsidies through aggregation in the country-related baselines is weighed up by the manipulability and uncertainty of the assumptions required in such a baseline. Thus project-specific baselines are recommended. In cases of severely distorted markets undergoing liberalization or subsidy phase-out, a country-related baseline can be helpful. Sectoral or programme baselines would be suited to large-scale energy and sequestration projects. Moreover it has to be considered whether emission reductions are generally achieved in the context of relocation or done in the context of global emitting capacity expansion.     

广州市水政水资源管理信息系统开发研究

广州市水政水资源管理信息系统是一个基于GIS技术的、客户／服务器结构下的环境信息系统，本文介绍了系统的总体设计与关键技术，该系统是为水资源主管部门进行水资源日常管理而设计的，目的是为了提高水资源管理的科学化，现代化水平，系统开发的关键技术要有服务器数据库建设、客户端与服务器的数据连接以及组件式GIS（MapObjects）的应用。     

土地荒漠化与我国生态移民政策研究

生态移民是把生态环境脆弱地区的人口有计划、有组织地异地搬迁安置,从而达到人口、资源、环境和经济社会的协调发展,是我国实施环境保护基本国策的重要措施之一.通过研究我国的生态移民政策及其实施现状,在分析目前存在的困难和问题的基础上,提出实施生态移民工程所要完善研究的内容和政策措施,以期能够保证我国生态移民工作的顺利推进.     

The importance of compatible beliefs for effective climate policy integration

ABSTRACT

European climate policy faced increasing constraints during the economic and Eurozone crises (2008–2014). The European Commission subsequently refocused policymaking toward integrating climate objectives into other policy areas such as energy and the 2014–2020 European Union (EU) budget. The conditions for successful climate policy integration (CPI) are analyzed, focusing on the compatibility of key actors’ beliefs. In renewable energy policy, CPI was successful as long as the co-benefits and related policy-core beliefs of energy security, rural economic development and climate action coexisted harmoniously. Once conflict among these policy-core beliefs emerged during the biofuels controversy, CPI was weakened as actors with competing economy-focused beliefs controlled the decision-making process. The case of EU budget climate mainstreaming illustrates how actors can add climate objectives into legislation despite meaningful discussion being ‘crowded out’ by other priorities. The findings highlight the importance of low conflict between departments, compatible beliefs and policy priorities for successful CPI.     

Environmental policy evaluation in the EU: between learning,accountability, and political opportunities?

ABSTRACT

Policy evaluation has grown significantly in the EU environmental sector since the 1990s. In identifying and exploring the putative drivers behind its rise – a desire to learn, a quest for greater accountability, and a wish to manipulate political opportunity structures – new ground is broken by examining how and why the existing literatures on these drivers have largely studied them in isolation. The complementarities and potential tensions between the three drivers are then addressed in order to advance existing research, drawing on emerging empirical examples in climate policy, a very dynamic area of evaluation activity in the EU. The conclusions suggest that future studies should explore the interactions between the three drivers to open up new and exciting research opportunities in order to comprehend contemporary environmental policy and politics in the EU.     

Climate laws in small European states: symbolic legislation and limits of diffusion in Ireland and Finland

ABSTRACT

The past decade has seen the introduction of framework climate change laws in several countries. The development of climate laws in two small European states, Ireland and Finland, both of which introduced national climate laws in 2015, are examined. Two questions are addressed. First, to what extent do later adopters of climate policy instruments draw on the examples of pioneering legislation? Second, how and why are pioneering climate policy instruments modified by later adopters? In both cases, the 2008 UK Climate Change Act was a source of inspiration in the early stages, particularly for civil society campaigns. Thereafter, domestic interests mobilised to remove from legislative proposals the most pioneering and ambitious parts of the UK model. The result, in both cases, was enactment of climate laws that resembled only very loosely the UK Climate Change Act.     

Patterns of Genetic Diversity and Its Loss in Mammalian Populations

Abstract:  Policy aimed at conserving biodiversity has focused on species diversity. Loss of genetic diversity, however, can affect population persistence, evolutionary potential, and individual fitness. Although mammals are a well-studied taxonomic group, a comprehensive assessment of mammalian genetic diversity based on modern molecular markers is lacking. We examined published microsatellite data from populations of 108 mammalian species to evaluate background patterns of genetic variability across taxa and body masses. We tested for loss of genetic diversity at the population level by asking whether populations that experienced demographic threats exhibited lower levels of genetic diversity. We also evaluated the effect of ascertainment bias (a reduction in variability when microsatellite primers are transferred across species) on our assessment of genetic diversity. Heterozygosity did not vary with body mass across species ranging in size from shrews to whales. Differences across taxonomic groupings were noted at the highest level, between populations of marsupial and placental mammals. We documented consistently lower heterozygosity, however, in populations that had experienced demographic threats across a wide range of mammalian species. We also documented a significant ( p = 0.01) reduction in heterozygosity as a result of ascertainment bias. Our results suggest that populations of both rare and common mammals are currently losing genetic diversity and that conservation efforts focused above the population level may fail to protect the breadth of persisting genetic diversity. Conservation policy makers may need to focus their efforts below the species level to stem further losses of genetic resources.     

Coastal zone management in wales: The information gaps

In 1994 the Countryside Council for Wales, the government nature conservation and countryside advisor in Wales, published a consultation document on marine and coastal policy, and also commissioned research into the status of coastal zone management (CZM) in the Principality. The research, undertaken by the University of Wales Cardiff, investigated CZM from an international, national (U.K.) and Welsh perspective, concentrating on detailed case studies of three areas (including both urban and rural coasts). Policy makers, managers, practitioners and users from all sectors were included in the study which established current activity, identified problems and reviewe future plans. Interviews and questionnaire returns highlighted vital information gaps at all levels. These ranged fom a lack of basic data (including scientific and technical), to a breakdown in communication both within and between organisations, as well as a policy vacuum in both regional and central government.     

试论我国工业污染防治的政策取向

为解决工业污染问题,我国早有“把污染消除在生产过程之中”的提法,在有关法规中也已有明文,但是防止污染的思想并没有成为有组织的社会行动,污染处理(控制)的管理思想仍然占据着环境管理的主导地位.由此而引发的把末端处理处置作为追求目标的控制污染的社会行为不能不引起忧虑.本文从对我国现行污染控制政策评述出发,剖析了环境管理实践中现行污染控制政策遇到的障碍,提出了我国工业污染防治政策的调整方向和行动计划的建议.     

促进我国电子废物循环利用的政策途径

我国电子废物再生利用过程中产生的环境污染问题已经引起全社会的关注。随着电子产品报废量的不断增加，如何推动电子废物的循环利用，加强再利用过程二次污染的控制是我国当前迫切需要解决的问题。在分析我国电子废物管理法律法规演进特点的基础上，结合发达国家的管理经验，提出了促进电子废物循环利用，控制再利用过程环境风险的政策建议。