日本、韩国环保产业发展经验对中国的借鉴

节能环保产业作为战略性新兴产业的七大重点领域之一,新形势下发展具备有利条件,特别是十二五以来我国环保产业得到了飞速发展,但是由于体制机制、技术、市场等多方面原因环保产业发展也面临诸多挑战和障碍。日本与韩国,环保产业已进入技术成熟期。逐渐成为本国国民经济的支柱产业和世界环保市场的主力,借鉴日韩环保产业的发展经验,提出中国推动环保产业发展的对策建议。     

澳大利亚新南威尔士州《污染土地管理法》及其实施效果

澳大利亚新南威尔士州1997年出台的《污染土地管理法》核心内容包括污染土地责任人的界定、初步调查令、重大污染土地的认定、治理令、自愿治理方案、继续治理令,以及污染土地治理费用的偿还,即环保署支付费用的偿还、公共权力机构执行命令时支付费用的偿还、当事人之间费用的偿还和统一基金拨款的偿还。《污染土地管理法》实施以来,效果较好。     

陇南长江流域经济发展和生态重建战略研究

陇南长江流域大多地处嘉陵江上游的源头地区,是一个资源较为富集但经济相对落后、生态环境脆弱且人口压力较大的丘陵山区。本文从可持续发展的角度出发,着眼世纪之交摆脱贫困与奔向小康转换时期经济发展和生态重建的协调演进,提出产业结构调整的基本思路是立足山区优势发展特色农业,市场配置资源、培植支柱工业,商贸、旅游并举、突出第三产业、强化基础设计、增强发展后劲;空间结构重组的战略构想是重点发展东部经８济重心区、     

Renewable energy in Australia: a wider policy discourse

ABSTRACT

This paper assesses the evolution of generation technology-mix in Australia, with specific emphasis on understanding how such evolution has been shaped by wider political and socio-economic influences. This assessment is predicated on the argument that the contemporary, quintessentially techno-economic, policy discourse on renewable energy is deficient, as it ignores climacteric political and socio-economic influences on generation technology-mix. The methodological framework employed in this paper is informed by the core tenets of technological change theory. The assessment suggests that generation technology-mix in Australia has historically been overwhelmingly influenced by the underlying technological paradigm of the electricity industry; and that this technological paradigm essentially draws its imprimatur from the wider political and socio-economic contexts. By implication, it suggests that a rapid uptake of renewables will have widespread ramifications, extending into political, socio-economic and cultural realms of a society. Clearly, existing policy discourse – that tends to focus on technical potentials, cost competitiveness, externalities and risks of various renewable technologies – is deficient. A much broader discourse is needed. This paper also made an attempt to develop a basis for such a discourse by reviewing broader aspects of the Australian society that would be affected by a rapid uptake of renewables.     

Containing spectacle in the transnational public sphere

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes the discursive struggle over the reach and containment of spectacle in environmental politics to provide (a) case study-based evidence of how, on one hand, transnationally shared environmental awareness and concern, emerging in part through spectacle, is translating into expectations of participation and demands for accountability, and (b) how this is already impacting the ways in which environmental politics is being understood and enacted locally, regionally and transnationally. Drawing on recent mediated debate over the Great Barrier Reef, it finds that while the transnational is clearly an ambition for environmental campaigners, and the perception that transnational publics are emerging is already impacting environmental politics, the potency of these publics and their capacity to meaningfully negotiate accountability is yet to be empirically confirmed. Nevertheless, measures to contain spectacle are providing a potency for a transnational public sphere, even if in reality it is still little more than a specter.     

The Relative Importance of Landscape Amenity and Health Impacts in the Wind Farm Debate in Australia

In recent years, Australia has experienced public debate around the growth in wind farms as part of government and community strategies to move from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Many of the arguments put forward by opponents and supporters are similar to those that have been evident in North America and Western Europe, including possible environmental impacts on wildlife, noise levels and, perhaps most prominently adverse changes in ‘landscape amenity’. A concern of increasing prominence is that of adverse human health impacts from proximity to operating turbines. Using analysis of submissions to public inquiries and a small number of detailed interviews, we consider the increased focus in Australia on the health impacts of wind farms. We note that health impacts, as elsewhere in the world, are often part of a suite of objections to wind farm developments but conclude that for some people near such developments, these are the main concern and not a cover or proxy for other concerns, such as changes in landscape amenity and aesthetics.     

Moving targets: Carbon pricing,energy markets,and social movements in Australia

Reporting on the origins and directions of social movement strategy on climate and energy issues in the last decade, the shifts in ‘climate movement’ practice are discussed using a neo-Polanyian account of the political economy of climate change combined with sociological analysis of the strategic decisions campaigners reported making. Since the mid-2000s, Australia’s climate movement has been engaged in three concurrent arenas of political contestation. The longest-standing arena of movement activity has been negotiations over climate policy. More recently, activists and communities are engaged in a struggle over the expansion of fossil fuels. A third contest has been waged over the present and future position of renewable energy technologies in Australia’s electricity market. In the wake of climate policy failure, energy campaigns have been deepened, and it seems that a broader energy justice agenda is being forged. New strategic dilemmas are visible in the field.     

Catchment-Wide Wetland Assessment and Prioritization Using the Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Method TOPSIS

It is widely accepted that wetland ecosystems are under threat worldwide. Many communities are now trying to establish wetland rehabilitation programs, but are confounded by a lack of objective information on wetland condition or significance. In this study, a multi-criteria decision-making method, TOPSIS (the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution), was adapted to assist in the role of assessing wetland condition and rehabilitation priority in the Clarence River Catchment (New South Wales, Australia). Using 13 GIS data layers that described wetland character, wetland protection, and wetland threats, the wetlands were ranked in terms of condition. Through manipulation of the original model, the wetlands were prioritized for rehabilitation. The method offered a screening tool for the managers in choosing potential candidate wetlands for rehabilitation in a region.     

中国南中国海海岸湿地退化现状和保护对策

南中国海湿地包括广东省、香港特别行政区、澳门特别行政区、广西壮族自治区和海南省等五个行政区,总面积为15 393.75 km2。由于受人口增加和经济发展的巨大压力,中国南中国海湿地破坏严重,退化趋势明显。本文在对中国南中国海地区海岸湿地的现状、类型及湿地退化的主要原因进行分析的基础上,提出中国南中国海地区海岸湿地资源保护与管理的建议,以便切实保护中国南中国海沿海多样化的湿地类型,持续发挥其生态服务功能。     

Evaluation of a population mobility,mortality, and birth surveillance system in South Kivu,Democratic Republic of the Congo

Prospective, community-based surveillance systems for measuring birth, death, and population movement rates may have advantages over the ‘gold-standard’ retrospective household survey in humanitarian contexts. A community-based, monthly surveillance system was established in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, in partnership with a local implementing partner and the national ministry of health. Data were collected on the occurrence of births, deaths, arrivals, and departures over the course of one year, and a retrospective survey was conducted at the end of the period to validate the information. Discrepancies between the two approaches were resolved by a third visit to the households with discordant records. The study found that the surveillance system was superior in terms of its specificity and sensitivity in measuring crude mortality and birth rates as compared to the survey, demonstrating the method's potential to measure accurately important population-level health metrics in an insecure setting in a timely, community-acceptable manner.