Coalition of injustice? Bodies,business, and the biosphere in struggles against unwanted land uses

Scholars of environmental injustice have pushed to see beyond the spatial distribution of environmental harms in studies of unwanted land uses. Building upon this work, this article examines how the complex geographies of environmental injustice play out in a coalition to prevent the construction of a coal-fired power plant in Surry County, Virginia. While spatially dispersed coalitions of negatively affected actors can strengthen efforts to prevent the construction of an unwanted land use, they can also perpetuate the environmental injustices surrounding it. To make this argument, particular attention is paid to the diverse reasons and ways differentially situated actors oppose an unwanted land use. It is demonstrated how the disparate concerns and differential tactics deployed by actors in coalitions against unwanted land uses are often embedded in and potentially contribute to longer histories of social injustice.     

A radical public administration? Green radicalism and policy influence among local environmental officials in Sweden

Green radicalism among local environmental officials in Sweden is examined with the aims of theoretically elaborating on different dimensions of Green radicalism in the context of public administration, exploring the dimensionality of Green radicalism among officials, and examining the extent to which Green radicalism is associated with policy influence. Three types of Green radicalism are identified: Green ethics, Green institutional change, and Green activism. Survey data (N = 701) show that the three theoretical dimensions are present among officials, and that there is no negative association between radicalism and influence. It is primarily officials with Green activism beliefs who perceive themselves as able to influence policy. These findings suggest a need for more nuanced understanding of and further studies into the role of public administration in the quest for more radical Green reforms.     

Hannah Arendt’s turn to the self and environmental responses to climate change paralysis

Environmentalists have struggled with how to mobilize people to act in the face of widespread and now inevitable consequences of climate change. Significant responses to this challenge, such as incentivizing individual Green choices in the market and avoiding the rhetoric of catastrophe, continue the philosophical and political trends, identified by Hannah Arendt, that contribute to world alienation and the decline of politics. Environmental thinkers are invited to use Arendt’s theories of the turn to the self and political action to think critically about contemporary strategies to address climate change.     

Welfare states and environmental states: a comparative analysis

A framework is presented for thinking about state intervention in developed capitalist economies in two domains: social policy and environmental policy (and, within that, climate-change policy). Five drivers of welfare state development are identified, the ‘five Is’ of Industrialisation: Interests, Institutions, Ideas/Ideologies, and International Influences. Research applying this framework to the postwar development of welfare states in the OECD is summarised, distinguishing two periods: up to 1980, and from 1980 to 2008. How far this framework can contribute to understanding the rise and differential patterns of environmental governance and intervention across advanced capitalist states since 1970 is explored, before briefly comparing and contrasting the determinants of welfare states and environmental states, identifying common drivers in both domains and regime-specific drivers in each. The same framework is then applied to developments since 2008 and into the near future, sketching two potential configurations and speculating on the conditions for closer, more integrated ‘eco-welfare states’.     

Simulative governance: on the collaborative narrative of civil society participation in the CDM stakeholder framework

The Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is often cited as an exemplar of new, hybrid forms of global environmental governance operating at the public–private interface. Practically, enacting this arrangement involves a wide range of non-state actors. This broad involvement is here assumed to mark a shift towards more polycentric and networked modes of governance in which agents collaborate as ‘stakeholders’ in the process of consensual rule-setting and implementation. Using post-political critique, the depoliticising effects of the stakeholder framework on civil society actors are interrogated, using formal and informal participation opportunities to raise concerns regarding specific CDM projects. The analysis suggests that the CDM’s collaborative narrative of stakeholding structurally fails to stimulate public (re)engagement and is, instead, a prime example of simulative governance that struggles to achieve the simultaneity of two incompatibilities: the participatory revolution and the post-political turn.     

环境分权、市场分割与碳排放

中国有着庞大的环境管理队伍以及巨大的国内市场,科学的环境管理制度以及高度一体化的国内市场将深刻改变碳排放格局,然而,已有研究对于这些影响碳排放的体制性因素既缺乏足够的理论分析也缺乏实证检验。有鉴于此,本文首先分析了环境分权和市场分割影响碳排放的理论机理,并提出了三个理论假设,进一步地,本文以环境管理人员在不同层级政府的配置衡量环境分权度,以相对价格法衡量市场分割程度,基于1995-2012年的省际面板数据,从实证层面检验了环境分权和市场分割对碳排放的影响效应。结果显示:环境分权和市场分割都显著地加剧了碳排放,原因在于分权的环境管理体制安排扭曲了激励,无法对碳排放形成真实有效的约束,而市场分割则恶化了碳排放在区域间的配置效率。同时,环境分权与市场分割对碳排放的共同影响作用上存在互补效应,即环境分权程度越高,市场分割对碳排放的负面影响效应越大,反之,市场分割程度越高,环境分权对碳排放的负面影响效应也越大。这主要是由于环境分权与市场分割是地方政府一对互补的策略行为,在环境分权较高的地区,地方政府进行市场分割的能力越强,而在市场分割较高的地区,地方政府争取环境事务管理权的动力越强。因此,在既定的碳排放约束下,中央政府一方面需要适度集中环境事务管理权限,进一步优化环境事务管理机构设置以及人员队伍在不同层级政府间的配置,提高对碳排放的管控效率,另一方面需要打通省际壁垒,加快区域市场一体化建设,优化碳排放的区域配置,提高碳排放效率。     

双重外部性约束下中国资源型企业绩效研究

中国资源型产业的可持续发展受到代际外部性与环境外部性的双重制约,却长期存在过度进入导致的过度开采,加剧了资源型企业的产能过剩与配置扭曲,但与此相关的"结构-行为-绩效"关系研究尚未将外部性纳入考量。本文引入双重外部性,构建了"SCP-2E"模型,并基于80家资源开采上市公司2011-2014年的面板数据,首先运用使用者成本法和条件估值法分别估算了代际外部性和环境外部性,然后将它们作为企业行为的因变量和影响绩效的自变量分别纳入资源型企业的SCP-2E模型中,同时考虑双重外部性下市场结构、所有权性质等因素对绩效的影响。结果发现,中国资源型产业有着明显的周期性特征,而2011年以来资源型企业的兼并重组只是单纯扩大了企业规模,而没有切实提高企业效率;进一步结合企业规模和所有权性质的相关性来看,大型企业多以国有企业为主,由此说明企业规模扩大、绩效却显著降低的原因在很大程度是由于国有企业的低效率造成的;另外,目前企业绩效的提高,主要还是依赖于地区经济增长的拉动,但在用电量增速较快的地区,也伴随着较大的环境外部性损失,暂时没有受到资源枯竭的约束。基于以上结论,本文认为,监管部门应加强资源开采权的审查,提高资源型企业的进入门槛和技术标准,适当鼓励企业在不增加生产投资和规模的前提下,通过技术进步和劳动效率的提高提升绩效,而国有企业改革力度重点应放在解决大型国企的低效率问题上。政府应该权衡经济增长与代际和环境负外部性,在保证能源、资源安全的前提下,鼓励和扩大可耗竭资源的进口,逐步建立国家和企业的战略资源储备制度。     

中国环境质量拐点:基于EKC的实证判断

促进环境质量改善是"十三五"时期实现绿色发展和最终全面建成小康社会的重要目标和任务。随着经济进入新常态和环境治理政策的强势推进,中国环境质量是否已经跨越峰值和进入持续改善的通道?本文基于环境库兹涅茨曲线这一理论工具,依据环境统计数据和国际经验事实判断中国是否到达环境库兹涅茨曲线的拐点和具备促使环境质量持续改善的经济特征。首先,应用中国各省份1998—2013年的面板数据,对人均收入水平与主要大气污染物排放的关系进行回归拟合发现,人均烟粉尘排放自1998年以来持续下降,人均二氧化硫、氮氧化物排放均在"十二五"中前期到达峰值。大部分东部省份已经越过环境库兹涅茨曲线的拐点,但环境质量改善仍然缓慢。多数中部省份处于峰值阶段,而西部省份大都处于经济增长与环境质量恶化的矛盾阶段。其次,基于污染物排放的驱动因素框架,将中国当前的经济特征与美、日、韩三国跨越环境库兹涅茨曲线拐点的经验进行比较,结论表明中国目前已基本具备了跨越环境库兹涅茨曲线拐点的经济驱动条件,但是相对滞后的城镇化进程将会导致污染物排放峰值的扁平化和波动性。以主要污染物排放在2014年的基础上削减30%—40%作为环境质量全面改善的转折点判断,中国环境质量将在2025年左右趋于全面改善。最后,为了促进环境质量全面改善,认为应该根据各地区经济发展与环境污染形势的不同,实施差别化环境治理政策。同时积极防范新一轮城镇化过程中的环境风险,进一步强化区域环境污染的协同治理。     

The Many Modalities of Social Networking: The Role of Twitter in Greens Politics

The popular microblogging service, Twitter, contains a variety of potential orientations—interpersonal, broadcast, news, advertising, public service, political, and so on—in its operation and applications. As an evolving social media platform, specificity and context are essential in understanding its significance and use-value. This paper investigates the multiple modalities of Twitter in the context of formal politics and, in particular, the Greens party in Australia. Presenting original evidence drawn from the Greens Members of Parliament and their advisers, it is shown how Twitter is mobilized in response to particular news agendas and stories, unfolding political events and processes, and an ongoing need for the Greens to speak simultaneously to committed environmentalists and the broader electorate. These uses reveal that Twitter is an important addition to the “media ecology mix” in the conduct of environmental politics, playing a direct role in political communication, strategies, and actions.     

城市生活垃圾处理方式生命周期评价的比较研究

生命周期评价理论与方法作为一种量化环境影响的工具,在诸多领域中得到了广泛的应用。在垃圾处理领域,生命周期评价最早在20世纪90年代得到应用。生命周期评价与城市生活垃圾处理的有效结合,将促进城市生活垃圾的减量化、资源化、无害化目标的实现。总结了生命周期评价理论与方法在城市生活垃圾处理中的应用现状。对国内不同城市生活垃圾处理方式环境影响因子进行比较分析,诸如全球变暖潜力、酸化潜力和富营养化潜力等因子。针对其目标范围定义、数据收集、评价方法的选择、结果解释及工艺改进等方面指出了目前研究的局限性和不足。并对未来城市生活垃圾处理生命周期评价的发展方向进行展望。