EU sustainable development indicators: An overview

The European Union's commitment to sustainable development at the 1992 Earth Summit resulted in an EU‐wide sustainable development strategy, adopted in Gothenburg in 2001. This article presents an overview of the set of sustainable development indicators (SDIs) recently adopted by the European Commission to monitor, assess and revise the strategy. It provides a critical assessment of the current status of the indicator set, and reviews the main policy trends in the areas of the strategy through a brief analysis of headline indicators, placing energy and climate change issues in a broader perspective. Finally, the article compares the energy SDIs to the recent inter‐agency energy indicators for sustainable development (EISD), underlining their similarities as well as their different priorities and objectives. The article concludes that further research is needed to improve the SDI set and further explore the linkages between themes.     

试论加强城乡结合部的环境保护

随着我国城市化进程的不断加快，城乡结合部经济、社会飞速发展。在发展过程中，城乡结合部环境污染和资源破坏问题日益突出，为此，必须完善城乡结合部环境保护立法和执法，切实做好环境规划工作，实现环境保护与经济、社会的协调发展。     

Safety rules: procedural freedom or action constraint?

The paper presents a partial classification of safety rules as constraints imposed from outside on the freedom of choice of individuals or companies. The classification is linked to the Reason model of skill-, rule-, and knowledge-based behaviour. The imposition of constraints is related to a number of criteria concerning the context and use of the rules to arrive at proposals for when and where to apply what type of rule. To illustrate the principles discussed an example is given of the rule from the Dutch Working Environment legislation concerning the requirement to use “current state of the art in prevention” in companies. The paper proposes providing procedural rule support to companies on how to meet the rule, in the form of a data bank of practicable solutions to health and safety problems.     

欧盟的环境与资源保护——法律、政策和行动

欧盟是各个成员国之间为消除贸易的环境障碍,首先在环境保护的共同标准上进行协商和签订条约,所以乃是以环境为中心,覆盖资源保护问题。现在欧盟已成为超国家的地区主权的实体。欧盟的环境保护局已经成了一个大袋子,把环境保护、资源保护、自然保护甚至与工农业生产有关的问题都包括了进去。它的好处就是有利统一协调。欧盟的环境保护在４０多年中,走过了从各成员国自行负责到形成共同的法律和行动,从工业环境为主到全面生态环境保护,从治理污染到主动预防,从国家到区域到全球行动,在环境保护行动中欧盟将变得更为活跃和日益重要     

我国安全立法的现状与入世后的思考

近年来,我国安全立法工作按照"三级立法"原则,紧密结合生产和生活实际,取得了较大的成绩,推动了"以法管安全".但是与社会主义经济发展和安全形势尤其是加入WTO的需要相比,仍有不相适应地方.当前,为促进以"依法治理"和"经济制裁"为主要手段的职业安全管理工作,应加强安全法制的调整与建设,着重从完善立法体系,建立与入世后相关的法律规范等方面作出努力.     

欧共体的危险物质管制政策

危险物质管制是环境保护政策的重要组成部分，欧共体在该领域的法律与实践上积累了丰富的经验。从考察欧共体环境政策的法律框架出发，分别评析了其对有毒化学品，放射性物质和基因修饰生物体等三类主要危险物质的管制。     

我国电子商务立法的必要性及措施

电子商务的快速健康发展需要完善的法制体系作保障,积极探索和研究电子商务立法问 题,加快建立具有中国特色的电子商务法律体系。对推动我国电子商务发展具有重要意义。     

Better regulation by new governance hybrids? Governance models and the reform of European chemicals policy

The EU is presently in a transition phase from environmental policy-making by law towards other governance approaches based upon networking, voluntary commitments, benchmarking and other forms of “soft law”. Those new governance approaches often claim to lead to “better regulation”, while adopting a more consensus-oriented and participatory style, taking economic aspects more seriously into account, allowing for more flexibility and autonomy for the private sector and Member States alike, mobilising a broader knowledge base or adopting more integrated and holistic approaches than previous sectoralised and compartmentalised policies.While the limitations of traditional regulatory approaches are widely accepted and cited, it is far from evident, that “new modes of governance” have greater capacity to solve problems than the old ones. There is an argument, that “better regulation” might by synonymous to a withdrawal and weakening of the regulatory state and hence effectively of the aspirations and objectives of environmental policies.An interesting case for an approach, combining the strengths of the old and the new approaches is the ongoing reform of chemicals policies. While some observers claim, that the proposed directive, “REACH” might belong to the outdated category of overcomplex and bureaucratic regulation, a closer look shows that there are many new forms of governance in REACH. This mixture or old and new may open a more realistic and promising perspective on the reform of European policy-making.In our paper we assess the effects and the interplay of the combination of different modes of governance using the example of REACH. We are particularly concerned with the question in how far the representation of interests may change when new modes of governance are introduced.     

Miscanthus × Giganteus straw and pellets as sustainable fuels

In this paper we present, for the first time, data on the combustion of Miscanthus × Giganteus straw and pellets. We found that the heating value of Miscanthus is 17.744 MJ/kg. The gaseous emission indices of SO₂, NO _x and total organic carbon (TOC) in the exhaust are reported and compared with the European standards for biomass boilers. On the basis of our results, it is possible to evaluate a net energy yield between 152 and 326 MJ/hectare/year for the cultivation of Miscanthus with an energy balance estimated to be in the range of 7.7–15.4. According to the presented results, it seems reasonable to consider Miscanthus as a promising candidate as alternative fuel.     

欧盟优先水污染物与环境质量标准制定及其对我国的借鉴作用

综述了欧盟水框架指令和水政策环境质量标准指令框架下,水环境优先污染物和优先危害物质的确定方法、程序和清单,以及地表水质量标准与生物体质量标准的制定方法及监测要求。提出,我国可借鉴欧盟水框架指令和水政策环境质量标准指令,明确水环境管理和污染物控制目标,制定优先污染物筛选评估技术规范及质量标准,持续评估确定地表水优先污染物,同时,建立潜在高风险物质监测监控制度,进一步完善地表水环境质量标准的指标体系,使得水环境的保护更加科学合理。