Strategic climate policy with offsets and incomplete abatement: Carbon taxes versus cap-and-trade

This paper provides a first analysis of a “policy bloc” of fossil fuel importers which implements an optimal climate policy, faces a (non-policy) fringe of other fuel importers, and an exporter bloc, and purchases offset from the fringe. We compare a carbon tax and a cap-and-trade scheme for the policy bloc, in either case accompanied by an efficient offset mechanism for reducing emissions in the fringe. The policy bloc is shown to prefer a tax over a cap, since only a tax reduces the fuel export price and by more when the policy bloc is larger. Offsets are also more favorable to the policy bloc under a tax than under a cap. The optimal offset price under a carbon tax is below the tax rate, while under a cap and free quota trading the offset price must equal the quota price. The domestic carbon and offset prices are both higher under a tax than under a cap when the policy bloc is small. When the policy bloc is larger, the offset price can be higher under a cap. Fringe countries gain by mitigation in the policy bloc, more under a carbon tax since the fuel import price is lower.     

Contribution of Systematic Reviews to Management Decisions

Systematic reviews comprehensively summarize evidence about the effectiveness of conservation interventions. We investigated the contribution to management decisions made by this growing body of literature. We identified 43 systematic reviews of conservation evidence, 23 of which drew some concrete conclusions relevant to management. Most reviews addressed conservation interventions relevant to policy decisions; only 35% considered practical on‐the‐ground management interventions. The majority of reviews covered only a small fraction of the geographic and taxonomic breadth they aimed to address (median = 13% of relevant countries and 16% of relevant taxa). The likelihood that reviews contained at least some implications for management tended to increase as geographic coverage increased and to decline as taxonomic breadth increased. These results suggest the breadth of a systematic review requires careful consideration. Reviews identified a mean of 312 relevant primary studies but excluded 88% of these because of deficiencies in design or a failure to meet other inclusion criteria. Reviews summarized on average 284 data sets and 112 years of research activity, yet the likelihood that their results had at least some implications for management did not increase as the amount of primary research summarized increased. In some cases, conclusions were elusive despite the inclusion of hundreds of data sets and years of cumulative research activity. Systematic reviews are an important part of the conservation decision making tool kit, although we believe the benefits of systematic reviews could be significantly enhanced by increasing the number of reviews focused on questions of direct relevance to on‐the‐ground managers; defining a more focused geographic and taxonomic breadth that better reflects available data; including a broader range of evidence types; and appraising the cost‐effectiveness of interventions. Contribuciones de las Revisiones Sistemáticas a las Decisiones de Manejo     

Societal change and the control of deforestation in Thailand

Thailand underwent a major shift in forest policy in the second half of the 1980s to promote sustainable management and control of deforestation. This paper puts this in the context of earlier changes in forest policy and analyses the underlying causes of the shift by analysing changes in the relative strength of different interest groups within the framework of a policy pressures model. Internal pressures had a stronger impact on Thai forest policy than external pressures. Protectionist groups became more numerous and more powerful in Thailand in the 1980s in relation to exploitative groups, and their rise in influence was facilitated by continuing progress in democratization and pluralization, linked to the consequences of economic development. Such political change could help to explain the apparent link between better environmental management and economic development shown in the Environmental Kuznets Curve.     

Development of environmental policy,objectives, and targets

This paper describes a process to develop and establish an environmental policy and its associated environmental targets, objectives, and management programmes. The environmental policy is defined in a statement which addresses the company expectations for programmes that are important to assure adequate environmental protection and define its future commitment towards preventing pollution and continuously improving the effectiveness of its environmental protection programmes. A set of environmental objectives, derived from the policy, define the overall goals which will ensure that the company's environmental performance will remain consistent with the commitment identified in its policy when its environmental management system (EMS) is implemented, Environmental targets reflect the requirements and standards that the company must strive to achieve each objective and minimize any harmful environmental impacts from its production and manufacturing processes or other activities. In addition to defining specific targets, environmental management programmes are also used to guide EMS implementation. These programmes, however, must provide the company with the necessary flexibility to select the most appropriate technologies to enhance its own processes and prudently allocate its available financial resources in areas that return the greatest overall environmental benefit.Though they are expected to allow some discretion in the allocation of resources targeted towards environmental protection, EMS programmes must also provide assurance that the corporation environmental policy, objectives, targets, and management programmes do not result in a facility failure to adhere to all of its certification requirements. The principle and factors described in this article should be considered to the extent that they are necessary and practical.     

Optimal learning on climate change: Why climate skeptics should reduce emissions

Climate skeptics typically argue that the possibility that global warming is exogenous, implies that we should not take additional action towards reducing emissions until we know what drives warming. This paper however shows that even climate skeptics have an incentive to reduce emissions: such a directional change generates information on the causes of global warming. Since the optimal policy depends upon these causes, they are valuable to know. Although increasing emissions would also generate information, that option is inferior due its irreversibility. We show that optimality can even imply that climate skeptics should actually argue for lower emissions than believers.     

Plan integration for resilience scorecard: evaluating networks of plans in six US coastal cities

Planning for hazard mitigation is frequently detached from other planning activities that influence development patterns in hazardous areas. Consistent integration of mitigation reduces hazard vulnerability for people and the built environment. We apply a plan integration for resilience scorecard in six US coastal cities to evaluate the integration of local networks of plans and the degree to which they target areas most vulnerable to flooding hazards. We find that plan integration scores vary widely across the six cities, and that some plans actually increase vulnerability in hazard zones. Policies also frequently support mitigation in areas with low vulnerability, rather than in areas with high vulnerability. The plan integration for resilience scorecard can generate information to improve hazard planning by allowing planners to identify conflicts between plans, assess whether plans target areas that are most vulnerable, and better inform decision makers about opportunities to mainstream mitigation into multiple sectors of planning.     

Are Wastewater Systems Adapting to Climate Change?

Wastewater (WW) systems are vulnerable to extreme precipitation events; storm‐induced WW system failures pollute the environment and put public health at risk. Despite these vulnerabilities, we know very little about how WW managers are responding to current climate risks or to future climate change. This study aims to fill this critical gap in the literature. Data from surveys and interviews were used to understand what WW managers are doing to adapt to the current climate, what facilitates those adaptations, and if they are adapting to future climate change. Findings show most WW managers (78%) are making changes to build resiliency to storms they have experienced in the past (e.g., extra fuel on site, extra staff on call, more training, better communication, adding generators, elevating components, adding capacity); most are not adapting to future climate change. Our work suggests organizational leadership, concern about future climate‐related impacts, and experiencing storm impacts drive resiliency changes while regulatory requirements drive adaptation to future climate change. Beyond advancing science, our work offers practical suggestions for building WW system resilience and for increasing WW system's consideration of future climate impacts in their resiliency building efforts.     

Policy learning in collaborative environmental governance processes

ABSTRACT

Collaborative governance processes have become a popular mechanism for addressing complex environmental problems. Their success is premised, in part, on the assumption that they promote learning among diverse participants, who are then better equipped to develop creative, consensus-oriented environmental management actions. Significant gaps remain, however, in our understanding of how collaborative governance processes foster learning and what impact increased learning has on policymaking outputs. To investigate these relationships, this study provides one of the first empirical applications of Heikkila and Gerlak's collective learning framework. Key framework concepts are operationalized via interview data and existing literature and then measured via survey data collected from participants in a collaborative environmental governance process in Colorado, U.S. Findings indicate that both internal and exogenous contextual factors affect how much an individual learns within a collective context. Additionally, participants who report more learning also more strongly agree that the process produced favorable outputs and outcomes. These findings advance theories of learning in collaborative contexts and inform process design to maximize learning.     

我国水资源管理的经济政策耦合效果仿真研究

水资源管理的经济政策效果模拟是从政策理论到政策实践的关键步骤，让决策者感知政策效果的方向和影响程度，才能更好地促进政策实践转化。本研究引入系统动力学方法，构建水资源经济政策耦合机制下水资源系统动力学（SD）模型，将我国划分为三种类型区域（干旱地区、丰水地区和过渡地区），进行三类四种水资源管理经济政策（水资源有偿使用，水价政策和水权政策；水污染收费，排污收费政策；水生态保护，水生态保护补偿政策）的耦合仿真实证研究。以我国水资源管理政策设计为目标，进行不同水管理政策耦合的生态经济效果仿真和效果定量评价，结果发现：干旱地区有偿使用的经济政策是目前经济水平下效果最好的；过渡地区有偿使用结合污水排放收费政策效果是最好的；而丰水地区必须同时实施水资源有偿使用和水污染收费两类经济政策。