中国生态补偿政策评估与框架初探

按照法律法规、政府手段、市场机制的体系对中国现行的生态补偿机制与政策进行了系统的评估,总结了中国生态补偿机制和政策在法律法规体系、财政制度、重大生态建设工程、生态税费制度和市场交易模式等方面存在的问题和改进方向.在此基础上,基于不同尺度上的生态建设外部性问题,提出中国生态补偿机制和政策的初步框架,包括西部生态补偿、生态功能区补偿、流域生态补偿和生态要素补偿等.并针对当前生态补偿面临的紧迫问题和可能的应对措施,提出近阶段中国生态补偿应该重点突破的若干政策领域.      

城市居民垃圾分类行为影响路径研究——差异化意愿与行动

运用计划行为理论和A-B-C理论,结合强政策背景下上海垃圾分类的实际,完善居民生活垃圾分类行为测量量表,改进并区分居民垃圾分类目标意愿和执行意愿,构建城市居民垃圾分类行为影响路径理论模型.基于“2019年上海居民垃圾分类行为”调查数据,覆盖上海16个区县的2555有效样本,运用结构方程模型验证强政策背景下居民环境态度、主观规范和感知行为控制对垃圾分类行为影响路径.结果表明：环境态度、主观规范、感知行为控制分别对居民垃圾分类目标意愿和执行意愿有显著正向的影响.环境态度分别通过目标意愿和执行意愿对垃圾分类行为产生间接效应.主观规范和感知行为控制并没有通过两类意愿对垃圾分类行为产生间接效应.垃圾分类的政策效能感在目标意愿对垃圾分类行为效应中起到了调节作用.虽然环境态度、主观规范、感知行为控制可以促进公众垃圾分类行为目标意愿和执行意愿的形成,但仅有环境态度可以通过激发公众目标意愿和执行意愿进而形塑居民垃圾分类行为.     

中国排污许可证制度执行现状调查

本研究以广州、石家庄、兰州、哈尔滨和大同5个城市为调研对象,收集各城市20年来许可证相关的法规制度,并与各城市环境保护监管部门负责人及典型企业环保专职人员进行了访谈。研究表明,中国排污许可证制度在提高企业环保守法意识和推动总量减排上起到了明显作用,但也面临着法律体系不完善,行政资源不足、排放量核算方法不明确、处罚力度弱以及公众参与不充分等问题。在此基础上,本研究提出中国排污许可证制度的改进建议,为决策部门制定相应的政策提供科学和技术的支撑。     

Public policy as a part of transforming energy systems: framing bioenergy in Finnish energy policy

Government interventions have been identified as important for energy systems change, because they can either facilitate or hinder transitions toward more sustainable energy systems. This article analyses how bioenergy options have been framed in Finnish policy strategies and how the framing has changed over time. The empirical material includes the content of 15 government programmes and nine national energy/climate strategies. On the basis of this assessment, both the link between bioenergy framings in strategies and the actual transformation of Finnish bioenergy systems are explored.On the basis of bioenergy framings, the development of energy policy can be divided into three phases: support for domestic energy sources in 1979-1991, support for wood- and industry-based bioenergy in 1992-1998, and diversified bioenergy in the context of climate change in 1999-2010. For two decades, primarily wood-based bioenergy was supported despite alternative technological developments occurring elsewhere. After the turn of the millennium, the importance of climate policy increased and alternative bioenergy sources were raised on the government policy agenda, also resulting in some new policy instruments. Rather than adopting a visionary outlook to guide system transformation, climate and energy policy has strengthened those technological options that have been selected elsewhere. If public policies are to enhance the shift toward low-carbon, sustainable energy systems, they would need to be more comprehensive, be more consistent over time, and emphasise energy use more.     

The impact of the carbon tax policy on green building strategy

As Green Corporate Social Responsibility spreads across the globe, the construction industry is under pressure to reduce the carbon emissions across their building projects. Between maximum profit and environment management, mathematical programming can be used as a decision support tool concerning the optimal green building projects portfolio. This environment strategic decision problem is addressed in this study where an activity-based costing decision model incorporating carbon tax costs and construction resources constraints is developed from the perspectives of capacity expansion and green technology outsourcing. The results illustrate the positive contribution of the mathematical programming approach to achieve viable green building projects portfolio solutions. Sensitivity analyses are carried out to analyse the impact of carbon footprint emission variation on maximum profit, and the corresponding results are discussed.     

Climate justice and energy: applying international principles to UK residential energy policy

This paper draws on climate justice principles developed in the context of international negotiations between national governments to assess the distribution of carbon reduction roles between different actors involved in residential energy use within the UK. In so doing, it aims to provide a new understanding of equity aspects of current residential policy and to highlight opportunities for more effective and equitable policy. The paper uses three criteria: rights and corresponding duties; mitigation responsibilities and capabilities. It applies them systematically to assess the roles of five key actors involved in residential energy use in the UK. The assessment finds a suboptimal distribution of actors’ duties, responsibilities and capabilities and roles and discusses whether and how a more effective and fair allocation of outcomes, in terms of carbon reduction and fuel poverty, could be achieved. In particular, it raises questions about whether the right actors are being legally obliged or incentivised to deliver energy efficiency improvements, and suggests that particular actors – local authorities and community groups – are under-used and require greater government support with capability. The paper represents the first use of international climate justice frameworks to investigate residential energy policy within a country.     

Critical reflections on the theory and practice of social sustainability in the built environment – a meta-analysis

This article presents a critical reflection on the theory and practice of social sustainability in the built environment, identifies areas of agreement and disagreement, explores theoretical and conceptual gaps and challenges, and suggests practical implications for future research and urban policy. It argues that despite revisionist approaches which challenge the tripartite structure of sustainable development, social dimension of sustainability remains an essential valid pillar. Utilising a qualitative meta-analysis methodology for undertaking critical analysis of previous research and publications on the topic, key themes of theory and practice of social sustainability are identified and critically examined. Accordingly, 10 key formative characteristics of social sustainability and their research and policy implications are introduced. The article concludes with institutional observations for policy-makers to achieve greater success in addressing largely underestimated dimensions of social sustainability in urban settings.     

Science–policy interactions in Austrian,Dutch, and Swiss climate policy: a comparative account

Scientific expertise plays an important role in the complex field of climate policy. Consequently, science–policy interactions have been institutionalized in many countries. However, science–policy arenas vary considerably across countries. Scholars mainly attribute these differences to the influence of specific political cultures. The literature has primarily compared science–policy arenas of countries with diverging political cultures, whereas comparisons of countries with similar political cultures are rare. The latter is especially true for neo-corporatist cultures. Against this background, we compare the climate science–policy arenas of three neo-corporatist countries, Austria, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Conceptually, we draw on the literature regarding politico-cultural imprints in science–policy arenas. We operationalize national science–policy arenas along four dimensions: the knowledge actors, the organizational formats, the styles of science–policy interactions, and their transparency and visibility. Overall, the three arenas reveal many similarities and much fewer differences. Most similarities correspond to neo-corporatist patterns. However, some similarities consistently deviate from neo-corporatist patterns. Interestingly, almost all differences between the countries match national variations of neo-corporatism. In light of these observations and the specific problem structure of climate policy, we develop research questions to investigate potential explanations for correspondence to and deviation from neo-corporatist patterns.     

The use of indicators in environmental policy appraisal: lessons from the design and evolution of water security policy measures

Drawing up environmental policy options is a complex activity which involves defining and weighing the merits and risks of various alternative courses of action governments could pursue. In its modern version, this task typically involves formal policy analysis or ‘policy appraisal’, that is, policy work specifically undertaken to generate and evaluate policy options in order to address problems or issues on a policy agenda. Indicators play a powerful but under-investigated role in this process. To shed light on this issue, the paper conducts a case study of the design and evolution of policy indicators in water security policy formulation, examining both their utilization and impact. The paper documents the origins of water security policy indicators; assesses their relevance and influence in policy formulation and identifies the reasons for the emergence of certain preferred indices, despite their having several well-known limitations. In particular, the discussion flags the significance of the political advantages surrounding their ease of use and interpretation, rather than their technical merits, as a key factor affecting the continued utilization and influence of specific indicators in environmental policy and planning.     

Effects and success factors of sustainable consumption policy instruments: a comparative assessment across Europe

Important knowledge gaps exist regarding the effects of policy instruments for sustainable consumption (SC) and success factors of such instruments. This article compares and summarizes the results of six case studies on the effects and success factors of SC instruments in the need areas of housing and food. While analysing different instrument types from four different European countries, all case studies were guided by the same analytical framework and mixed-methods approach. This synthesis article particularly emphasizes factors fostering the generation of instrument effects (outcomes and impacts) or hampering the creation of such effects, respectively. These factors include instrument goals and design, the accommodation of consumer needs, and the simultaneous addressing of framework conditions, as well as market context, policy interaction, and stakeholder involvement. The findings and conclusions can contribute to a better understanding of the conditions under which policy instruments can steer consumer behaviour towards sustainability.