Are Environmental Water Advisory Groups an effective form of localism?

A reduction in the legitimacy of top-down governance approaches has resulted in many government agencies using decentralised governance approaches, including localism. However, the effective implementation of localism is challenging. Localism aims to encourage innovative context-based solutions; however unanticipated implementation problems often constrain localism outcomes. There is a significant gap in our understanding of localism in practice, with a better understanding essential to improve localism design and implementation. This paper contributes to addressing this gap through an empirical examination of localism in action. Using the CLEAR framework, we evaluate the decentralised governance of environmental water in the Australian state of New South Wales, a contentious, uncertain and multi-level governance environment. Qualitative interviews with 58 Environmental Water Advisory Group members identified barriers to an effective localism approach, including issues of access and capacity development, transparency of decision-making outcomes and power inequities. This understanding enables the development of strategies for improved localism practice.     

A Systems Based Framework to Examine The Multi-contextural Application of the Sustainability Concept

A conceptual framework is generated through systems principles to explain sustainability’s wide diversity of interpretation and contextual application. Sustainability is reduced to a literal interpretation as the ability to sustain, and then expressed in simple systems as the ability of one system to sustain another system over time. This reinforces the importance of time in the sustainability debate, and suggests the concept can be legitimately applied to timeframes that have absolute limits. The framework is expanded to complex systems as the changing ability of one or many systems to sustain the changing requirements of one or many systems, over time. This accommodates multiple relations and system dynamics, and hints at the extraordinary complexity encompassed by the sustainability concept. Practical implications relate to the evolving meaning of sustainability, the need for continual change to remain sustainable, and that the sustainability concept can be validly applied to virtually any context or situation that exhibits a dimension of continuity. Derived criteria useful for clarifying contextual applications of sustainability include stating the how, what, why, who and for how long of sustainability, along with indicating the most appropriate hierarchical tier at which the concept is being applied.     

战略环评确定排污总量方法的探讨

针对战略环评中结构和布局具有不确定性的特点,允许排污总量量化的确定比较困难的现实,结合案例分析了允许排污总量与环境容量平衡的评价方法,充分考虑环境容纳能力,通过对容量进行调度,产生对产业结构和工业布局的影响,实现经济、社会和环境协调发展。     

碳中和目标下的国土空间格局优化：理论框架与实践策略

国土空间规划是在基础层面引导土地利用、生态保护、产业布局、城乡建设和区域开发的国家基础性、约束性规划。在当前“双碳”战略背景下,将碳中和目标纳入国土空间规划和治理体系,对于从基础层面推动经济社会系统全面低碳转型具有重要意义。本文构建了碳中和目标下国土空间格局优化的理论框架,分析了国土空间格局、人地关系与碳收支的内在关系。从“经济—社会—生态”复合系统的视角探讨了碳中和目标下国土空间格局优化和调控机理;从国土空间碳收支核算体系、面向碳平衡的“双评价”方法、国土空间碳风险监测与评价、碳排放空间约束下的三线划定、碳达峰与产业空间结构调控等方面提出了面向碳中和的国土空间格局优化路径;从差别化的生态碳汇提升方案、符合中国国情的国土空间碳收支核算体系、面向碳中和目标的国土空间规划管控方案、基于生命周期的建设用地碳排放评估、低碳高效的国土空间治理体系、多层次国土空间碳补偿体系构建等方面,提出了碳中和目标下国土空间格局优化的关键领域。     

How percentage-protected targets can support positive biodiversity outcomes

Global targets for the percentage area of land protected, such as 30% by 2030, have gained increasing prominence, but both their scientific basis and likely effectiveness have been questioned. As with emissions-reduction targets based on desired climate outcomes, percentage-protected targets combine values and science by estimating the area over which conservation actions are required to help achieve desired biodiversity outcomes. Protected areas are essential for achieving many biodiversity targets, in part because many species are highly sensitive to human-associated disturbance. However, because the contribution of protected areas to biodiversity outcomes is contingent on their location, management, governance, threats, and what occurs across the broader landscape matrix, global percentage-protected targets are unavoidably empirical generalizations of ecological patterns and processes across diverse geographies. Percentage-protected targets are insufficient in isolation but can complement other actions and contribute to biodiversity outcomes within a framework that balances accuracy and pragmatism in a global context characterized by imperfect biodiversity data. Ideally, percentage-protected targets serve as anchors that strengthen comprehensive national biodiversity strategies by communicating the level of ambition necessary to reverse current trends of biodiversity loss. If such targets are to fulfill this role within the complex societal process by which both values and science impel conservation actions, conservation scientists must clearly communicate the nature of the evidence base supporting percentage-protected targets and how protected areas can function within a broader landscape managed for sustainable coexistence between people and nature. A new paradigm for protected and conserved areas recognizes that national coordination, incentives, and monitoring should support rather than undermine diverse locally led conservation initiatives. However, the definition of a conserved area must retain a strong focus on biodiversity to remain consistent with the evidence base from which percentage-protected targets were originally derived.     

Sustainable development strategies for China's Du Jiang Yan Water Resources Project

China's Du Jiang Yan Irrigation Project, dating back to 256 BC, is one of the world's earliest water resources projects. Although it has been benefiting the Sichuan Basin area for over 2000 years, it is facing increasing problems due to ecological deterioration, over-exploitation from local industries and agriculture, suboptimal resource allocation arising from supply and demand mismatches, and an aging infrastructure. The traditional water resources development model is no longer appropriate for current and future needs of the area. Therefore, a sustainable development framework is envisioned in which population, economy and environment coexist in harmony. Within this framework, major strategies, such as construction and renovation of infrastructure, promotion of water conserving irrigation through non-engineering measures, pollution control and ecological improvements, restructuring of management entities and exploration of new funding sources, are proposed. An evaluation system is also introduced to assess the degree of sustainability and to monitor progress towards a high level of sustainable development.     

Relating characteristics of global biodiversity targets to reported progress

To inform governmental discussions on the nature of a revised Strategic Plan for Biodiversity of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), we reviewed the relevant literature and assessed the framing of the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets in the current strategic plan. We asked international experts from nongovernmental organizations, academia, government agencies, international organizations, research institutes, and the CBD to score the Aichi Targets and their constituent elements against a set of specific, measurable, ambitious, realistic, unambiguous, scalable, and comprehensive criteria (SMART based, excluding time bound because all targets are bound to 2015 or 2020). We then investigated the relationship between these expert scores and reported progress toward the target elements by using the findings from 2 global progress assessments (Global Biodiversity Outlook and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services). We analyzed the data with ordinal logistic regressions. We found significant positive relationships (p < 0.05) between progress and the extent to which the target elements were perceived to be measurable, realistic, unambiguous, and scalable. There was some evidence of a relationship between progress and specificity of the target elements, but no relationship between progress and ambition. We are the first to show associations between progress and the extent to which the Aichi Targets meet certain SMART criteria. As negotiations around the post-2020 biodiversity framework proceed, decision makers should strive to ensure that new or revised targets are effectively structured and clearly worded to allow the translation of targets into actionable policies that can be successfully implemented nationally, regionally, and globally.     

A Report on the International Conference on Climate Policy after Marrakech: Towards Global Participation

The East-West Center convened the international conference on climate policy in Honolulu, Hawaii, on September 4–6, 2003. Sponsored by the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, the Japanese Ministry of the Environment, Industrial Technology Research Institute (Taiwan), and Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (Japan), this major event covered almost every important issue and featured perspectives from the most important parties and stakeholders in formulating and implementing climate policies and taking international climate negotiations further. It brought together a remarkable cross-section of world opinion on climate policy after Kyoto. This report provides a summary of each presentation and highlights discussions organized under the following six session headings: Session 1: Climate Change in Focus – From Science to Policy; Session 2: U.S. Climate Policy and Perspectives; Session 3: European Union Climate Policy and Perspectives; Session 4: Challenges for other Major Industrialized Countries; Session 5: Issues Related to Developing Countries; and Session 6: Panel Discussions: Where Do We Go from Here?.     

环境容量与排污权的理论基础及制度框架分析

排污权制度是解决环境容量资源配置低效率的重要手段,可以实现环境容量资源的优化配置,已在一些国家运用,并取得一定成效,但在中国其仍处于试点的阶段,亟待理论研究的支撑。研究认为,物质平衡、外部性和产权构成了排污权制度的理论基础;排污权制度的构建和完善应着眼于制度构成的基本要素、制度特征和运行条件3个方面。