Research on the transmission mechanism of low-carbon policies: an empirical study of agricultural companies

Companies bear primary responsibility for low-carbon economy, thus relevant low-carbon policies should be set properly to guide them and to ensure their low-carbon production effectively. To solve the problems generated during low-carbon development, this article verifies the existence of the transmission path and strength. This verification includes mediating variables of companies’ willingness and capacity to conduct low-carbon production, a transmission mechanism through incentive path and resources protection, and questionnaire data of agricultural companies. Conclusions show that the low-carbon policies have obvious positive effects on willingness of corporation; the basic service-oriented policy has a significantly promoting effect on low-carbon production capacity; and low-carbon production performance is positively influenced by willingness as well as capability. Aiming at a better transmission path, some corresponding recommendations have been put forward in the end.     

辽宁省休闲农业旅游经济发展探析

介绍了休闲农业旅游经济的发展历史及概念、内涵,结合辽宁省的现状及优势,提出了在发展休闲乡村旅游产业时应因地制宜、突出特色、打造精品、加强管理、提高质量,走政府主导、民众参与、依靠核心竞争优势的可持续发展之路.     

对外开放背景下中国粮食安全形势研判与战略选择

中美地缘政治竞争加剧,新冠肺炎疫情、极端天气气候等不确定性事件频发,依托两种资源两个市场的国家粮食安全策略面临新的挑战。结合统计数据与文献观点,分析了新时期中国粮食安全面临的主要问题,研究了农业开放保障粮食安全的主要效用,探索了扩大对外开放背景下我国粮食安全的保障思路。结果表明：（1）中国粮食安全取得了显著成就,但也存在粮食供应的经济与资源环境代价巨大、粮食稳定供应与获取的风险加大等问题,需要在开放条件下创新粮食安全实现路径。（2）农业对外开放可影响粮食供应、获取、利用与稳定性,当前对外开放促进了国家粮食供应,但尚未实现稳定的食物安全、有竞争力的食物安全。农业对外开放仍有广泛的互惠共赢基础,同时也面临更大的不确定性,考验我国粮食领域应对全球化“危”“机”的治理能力。（3）国家粮食安全治理对于保障粮食安全至关重要,建议采取凸显产能的粮食自给战略、全产业链的食物安全战略与高水平的农业对外开放战略,确保粮食安全落实落地。     

基于数智化生产线的木质建材生产碳排放评估

为研究数智化生产线的木质建材碳排放特征,为减碳策略提供底层数据支撑,对某数智化工厂生产的地板、木门和门套进行了基于生命周期评价的碳排放核算,其单位质量碳足迹分别为1.21,1.26和0.47kgCO₂e/kg,地板和木门的碳排放强度均高于同类产品.材料和制造过程是木质建材产品的主要碳排放来源,分别占产品总碳排的54.74%~77.47%和18.57%~38.94%;运输阶段和废气处理阶段碳排放之和均低于碳排放总量的9%.基于蒙特卡洛模拟的不确定性分析表明本研究结果具有较高精准度.数智化工厂未来可考虑从甄选低碳原材料、优化产品设计、提升设备能源效率、扩大清洁能源比例等方面进一步提升.     

关于农业生态补偿的政策思考

为推动农业生态补偿在我国的实施,从政策的角度分析了实施农业生态补偿的政策背景、农业生态补偿的政策取向,提出应当从解决我国农业和农村突出问题以及我国农业支持政策的转型2个层面来深刻理解实施农业生态补偿的政策价值,农业生态补偿应定位于对农业的生态补偿,以激励农业生产方式的转变为目标,并对具体实施生态补偿中需要重点关注的几个方面提出建议。     

Measurement of agricultural total factor productivity growth incorporating environmental factors: A nutrients balance approach

This article proposes to use nutrient-orientated environmental efficiency (EE) measures to construct a nutrient total factor productivity index (NTFP). Since nutrient-orientated EE measures are consistent with the materials balance principle, NTFP index is superior to other existing TFP indexes. An empirical study on the environmental performance of an agricultural sector in 30 OECD countries from 1990 to 2003 yielded several important findings. First, these countries should be able to produce current outputs with at least 50% less aggregate eutrophying power, implying that they should have been able to substantially reduce the potential for eutrophication. Second, traditional TFP has grown by 1.6% per annum due to technical progress; however, there are lags in the responses of several countries to this technical progress. Third, environmental TFP has grown at a slower rate than traditional TFP growth due to reductions in nutrient-orientated allocative efficiency. Finally, changes in input combinations could have significantly improved environmental efficiency and productivity. These findings favor policy interventions and faster technological transfer to improve environmental performance.     

低碳供应链发展及运营新问题

资源短缺、环境恶化、全球气候变暖带来了低碳经济的快速发展,在该背景下,迫切需要将环境问题融合到供应链的研究和实践当中。首先对比传统的供应链内涵,提出低碳供应链的概念,然后简述低碳供应链发展的理论和实践基础,根据运营管理的研究目标构建了低碳供应链管理的整体研究框架,拟在政府规制和消费者对低碳产品需求的外部力量作用下,寻求企业及供应链运行的机理和规律,指出未来值得关注的研究方向,为供应链低碳化发展奠定理论基础。     

Local Sustainability Indicators

Local Environment has established a bit of a niche in local sustainability indicator studies. In 1997 it published the important debate between Jeb Brugman and Graham Pinfield, which highlighted that sustainability indicators and their role are contested issues (Vol. 2, Nos 1-3). In 1999 it produce a first special issue on the topic (Vol. 4, No. 2). As the editors identified, this special issue probed ‘deeper into aspects of indicator selection, methodology, theory and practice’. The papers presented there began to discuss a theme that is developed further in this special issue, that of the relationship between the objective and the subjective in indicator development and use. Our special issue brings together three full papers and a commentary presenting research and information from the USA, Sweden, France and Austria. In this editorial we are going to review the growth of interest in sustainability indicators and the changing way in which they are viewed and briefly comment on some recent indicator projects that we have been involved in.     

Confusing messages of sustainability indicators

This study examines sustainability indicators using the sustainability report of the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry as the case study. The report is a compilation of indicators designed to assess the sustainability of natural resource management. The interviews with the users revealed, however, that the indicators have not been particularly effective in informing the actors or in affecting their behaviour. Clearly, the informative value of the indicators has been overrated and the complexity of the information transfer has been underestimated. At least partly, the difficulties were due to the obscurity of the indicator-concept itself and consequently to their improper use. First, the statistics with the objective state-of-affairs information should be distinguished from the indicators that are always related to policy discussion. In addition, the technical and communicative use of the indicators should be distinguished from each other as they have different relationship between the information, policy values and the associated activities.     

Fuel poverty and vulnerability in the EU low-carbon transition: the case of renewable electricity

The European Union (EU) and member states alike are following a tradition of addressing fuel poverty and vulnerability at the point of purchase by final consumers by seeking to influence the impact of income, energy price and the built environment on the ability of household consumers to access the energy that they need. By focusing on the conditions of energy transmission in the most rapidly growing renewable electricity sector in the UK – offshore wind – this paper aims to question whether the regulatory socio-technological framing of renewable electricity transmission is reproducing conditions for fuel poverty and vulnerability in the UK. By drawing a comparison with renewable electricity transmission in Bulgaria, this paper argues that the problem might be symptomatic of the EU as a whole. While not arguing against the proliferation of renewable electricity and its importance in meeting the 2020 targets, this paper calls for expanding the scope of fuel poverty alleviation policy throughout the whole renewable electricity supply chain, building on Helm's argument that energy companies at the middle of the supply chain are better suited to deliver fuel policy.