美国地表水水源的流域管理

对地表水水源有效的流域管理,是保持水源良好水质的关键最近美国自来水协会(AWWA)发表了地表水水源流域管理的研究报告,强调重视和统一规划,控制流域内土地及水源利用的重要性,并列举了流域管理中各种措施的实施及其效果.     

Risk discourses and governance of high-level radioactive waste storage in Taiwan

Policy scholars have indicated that the quality of the solution to a perceived social problem depends on the adequacy of its framing. This paper examines how policy stakeholders and local residents frame the issue of the radioactive waste storage facility in Taiwan, the limits of institutional mechanisms in decision-making processes, and the implications of the deliberative forums undertaken by the national Stop Nukes Now organisation. The controversy illustrates the problems of a knowledge gap and the top-down procedures as well as the challenges that Taiwan faces in becoming a nuclear-free country. This case demonstrates civic society organisations’ efforts to challenge the ‘social–technical divide’ and technical experts’ prior definition of the ‘problems’ and selection of a ‘solution’. Deliberative forums enable the participation of affected communities to shape public discourses, which helps to strengthen public communication, improves citizen consciousness of nuclear waste issues, and attempts to link wider communities and public interests.     

Climate adaptation management and institutional erosion: insights from a major Canadian port

This paper performs an institutional analysis of the adaptation to climate change by ports, through a case study of the port of Vancouver, Canada. While previous literature has demonstrated the value of informal institutions for filling gaps left by formal institutions, the role of failed informal institutions has received less attention. Our analysis reveals how, in the case of an unprecedented challenge like climate adaptation, relying on informal institutions with less agency can actually erode the strength of existing institutions in a form of negative institutional plasticity. In this case, emerging polycentric governance was unsuccessful, unable to construct clearly demarcated responsibilities due to impedance by the path dependence of the current federalist system. The latter works well for traditional infrastructure investments with a closed pool of stakeholders, but not for ports where multiple scales of embeddedness, both horizontally and vertically, produce a collective action problem with no mechanism for resolution.     

Special section: advancing the role of cities in climate governance – promise,limits, politics

This special issue contributes to scholarly debates about the role of cities in global climate governance, reflecting on the promise, limits, and politics of cities as agents of change. It takes an empirically-informed approach drawing on multiple diverse geographical and political contexts. Overall, the special issue aims to stimulate reflection and debate about where understanding and practice needs improvement to advance the role of cities in global climate governance. Key questions that are addressed in the special issue include: To what extent do real world experiences confirm or disconfirm the high expectations of cities as agents and sites of change in addressing global climate change as expressed in urban climate governance literature? In what ways do internal political dynamics of cities enable or constrain urban climate governance? How is climate governance in cities enabled and constrained by interactions with broader governance levels? In what ways can climate governance in cities be advanced through critical attention to the previous issues?     

Environmental practices of governance of companies in emerging markets: An analysis of structural relationships

The aim of this study is to analyze the structural relationships between strategy, environmental performance, and disclosure in view of the lack of research on these endogenous activities. To analyze these relationships, an environmental governance proxy consisting of five dimensions was developed for Brazilian companies. Hence, from an economic perspective, a trend is expected of companies disclosing more information and maintaining an environmental governance structure to avoid or reduce potential political costs. Using the structural equation technique, 573 Brazilian companies were analyzed. According to the results, the Brazilian companies’ mean compliance level with environmental governance practices is 49.2%. There is evidence of a positive association between the governance structure and the environmental management system (GSEM) as well as environmental performance (EP) and environmental disclosure levels (DISC). In addition, the level of environmental conflicts of interest a sector faces increased the need for environmental disclosure. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that the latent variables, GSEM and EP, exert direct and indirect positive effects on DISC. In other words, companies with more structured environmental management systems have obtained better performance indicators, and consequently, are more likely to feel encouraged to disseminate environmental information and to reduce political costs than is the case with other companies.     

甘肃白龙江流域水源涵养服务时空格局及其影响因素

白龙江流域是长江上游的主要生态屏障和水源涵养区,对维系流域生态和可持续发展至关重要。以甘肃白龙江流域为例,基于参数本地化的InVEST模型对1990—2016年水源涵养时空变化及其影响因素进行分析。结果表明:流域多年平均水源涵养深度为47.50 mm,呈现先减少后回升的趋势。空间上,其高值区主要集中于迭部、文县和舟曲的中高山阴陡坡林区（平均涵养深度在该三县2500~3500 m海拔段、阴坡和半阴坡、25°以上坡段和林地高于流域的平均涵养深度）;低值区主要位于宕昌和武都的中低山阳缓坡农牧区（平均涵养深度在该两县 2500 m以下海拔段、阳坡和半阳坡、25°以下坡段和耕、草地低于流域的平均涵养深度）。气候背景下,人类活动驱动的土地利用/覆被格局空间差异是影响水源涵养时空变化的重要因素,退耕还林对减缓气候变暖背景下水源涵养深度的下降具有重要意义。     

国际水法对长江流域立法的启示和意义

随着长江经济带建设的推进,长江流域治理亟待法治化。由于调整对象、事项和目标方面的相似性,国际水法的理论、原则、规则和实践对于长江流域立法具有重要且有益的参考价值。长江流域立法面临着利益主体多元、生态环境和资源保护任务艰巨以及治理体制机制很不合理三个方面的巨大挑战。国际水法关于生态整体性路径、公平合理利用原则以及流域治理体制机制三个基本方面的理论、法律和指南以及实践,对于长江流域立法有效应对这些挑战具有重要启示。其意义体现在：直接促进长江流域治理的法治化,间接推进中国流域立法与国际水法之间的兼容性;直接示范国内其他流域,间接助推实现我国成为全球生态文明建设重要参与者、贡献者和引领者的战略。     

加强环境部门治理的责任研究

伴随经济的发展,中国环境问题日益严重,环境部门的环境治理力度有待加强.长期以来,环境部门应改变传统的重微观层面环境治理职责的实施,改变轻宏观层面环境治理结构架构的做法,调整环境治理方式,充分发挥环境保护多元主体的积极性,突出环境部门在环境治理中的主导作用,明确环境责任.环境责任的关键在于转变环境治理结构中的角色定位,变管理为治理,充分调动多方面力量参与到环境治理,尤其应当重视企业和公众的力量,充分参与治理,实现环境善治.     

The gap report of global climate change mitigation,finance, and governance after the United States declared its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement

On 1 June 2017, the US President Donald Trump officially announced the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, thus the study on the reasons of withdrawal, the potential impacts, and coping strategies has become a focus among policy circles and of the international community. Based on the self-developed US Policy Assessment Model, this paper systematically evaluates the three potential “major deficits” in terms of mitigation, climate finance, and global climate governance, as a result of the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and puts forward policy suggestions for coping with such transformations accordingly. The study shows that the United States ’withdrawal from the Paris Agreement will affect the existence and implementation of successive climate policies and result in an additional 8.8–13.4% increase in the global emissions reduction deficit. The United States’ withdrawal will also deteriorate the existing climate finance mechanism. The Green Climate Fund (GCF)’s funding gap will increase by US$2 billion, while the gap of long-term climate finance will increase by about US$5 billion a year. Either the China–EU or the “BASIC plus” mechanism could fill the governance deficit caused by the United States and the lack of political momentum may continue for a while in the future.     

The territorialization of transnational sustainability governance: production,power and globalization in Iceland’s fisheries

To contribute to the literature on transnational sustainability governance hybrids, a new fisheries certification program in Iceland that was originally developed as an alternative to the non-governmental Marine Stewardship Council is examined. While this new program appears on the surface to constitute a purely nationalistic reaction against external non-state authority, the new governance institution is also non-governmental and incorporates international norms and institutions. To explain this new governance hybrid, Robert Cox’s International Political Economy approach to production and power is engaged. This approach theorizes the co-constitution of the social forces of production, state–society complexes and global governance. It is argued that the Icelandic case is not entirely localized or unique; it is part of a broader movement in which social forces of production respond to new market-oriented transnational sustainability governance institutions by developing territorially embedded but transnationally legitimate alternatives.