This article does not focus on adaptation or mitigation policy directly but on an allied opportunity that exists for the Pacific
Islands via the auspices of the Climate Convention, because the existing very costly energy systems used in the Pacific Island
region are fossil-fuel dependent. It is argued here that efforts can be made towards the development of energy systems that
are ecologically sustainable because Pacific Island nations are eligible to receive assistance to introduce renewable energy
technology and pursue energy conservation via implementation mechanisms of the Climate Convention and, in particular, through
transfer of technology and via joint implementation.
It is contended that assistance in the form of finance, technology, and human resource development from developed countries
and international organizations would provide sustainable benefits in improving the local Pacific Island environments. It
is also emphasized that mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions is not the responsibility of the Pacific Islands as they contribute
very little on a per capita global scale and a tiny proportion of total global greenhouse gas emissions. 相似文献
This paper presents the cost optimization of an urban drainage and wastewater treatment system. The mixed sewer urban drainage (including combined sewer overflows and retention basins), the activated sludge wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), and the permissible loading of the receiving water were optimized simultaneously by the nonlinear programming approach. For this purpose, the integrated optimization model OPTIMALWWT was developed. The economic objective function of the defined investment and operational costs is subjected to rigorous design and ecological constraints. A practical example of the cost optimization of an existing urban drainage and WWTP, located in Slovenia, is presented to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method. For each of the two different design approaches, three different optimization cases were carried out for three different technological alternatives. As a result, the optimal technological process was finally selected for the reconstruction of the system, as a result of its suitable costs and operational safety. 相似文献
The objective of this study was to impregnate the surface of palm coconut activated carbon with nanoparticles of iron compounds using Moringa oleifera leaf extracts and pomegranate leaf by a green synthesis method and to evaluate its adsorption capacity for sodium diclofenac. The adsorbent material was characterized by zeta potential, X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption/desorption (BET method), transmission electronic microscopy (TEM), and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) coupled to dispersive energy spectrometry X-ray (EDX) methods. To evaluate the adsorption capacity of sodium diclofenac, the influence of pH, kinetics, isotherms, and thermodynamic properties were analysed. The impregnated adsorbents showed efficiency in the adsorption of sodium diclofenac. The kinetic model that best fit the experimental data was the pseudo-second-order model, and the equilibrium model was the Langmuir model. As for the thermodynamic study, it was verified that the adsorption reaction for all adsorbents occurs in a spontaneous, favourable way, and it is endothermic by physisorption. Therefore, this process is promising because it is a clean and non-toxic method when compared with chemical methods for the synthesis of nanoparticles.
Biomarkers are internationally recognized as useful tools in marine coastal biomonitoring, in particular, as early-warning signals at the level of individual organisms to assess biological effects of pollutants and other stressors. In the present study, Mytilus galloprovincialis has been employed as a sentinel organism to assess biological pollution effects in the Mar Piccolo of Taranto (Southern Italy), a coastal lagoon divided into two small inlets, connected to the open sea through one natural and one artificial narrow openings. Mussels were collected in June 2013 at three sites located within each of the two inlets of the Mar Piccolo. Biological effects were investigated through a suite of biomarkers suitable to reflect effects and/or exposure to contaminants at biochemical and cellular levels. Biochemical biomarkers included glutathione-S-transferase (GST) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) enzyme activities; as histochemical biomarkers, lysosomal membrane stability, lipofuscin and neutral lipid accumulation, and lysosomal structural changes were considered. As a whole, results highlighted differences among the three study sites, particularly for GST, AChE, and lipofuscins, which are consistent with the variations of the chemical pollutants in sediments. The applied biomarkers showed that a stress syndrome likely to be ascribed to environmental pollutants is occurring in mussels living in the Mar Piccolo of Taranto, in particular, the ones inhabiting the first inlet. 相似文献
This paper focuses on comparative review and analysis of the systems of environmental protection, national environmental strategies
and fundamentals of environmental legislation in Australia and the Russian Federation. These countries have many socioeconomic
similarities, such as low population densities and richness in natural resources which are largely exported. The main disparity
between Australia and Russia is in the types of economy. This paper ‘continues’ the sequence of recent scholarly publications
on comparison of various features of environmental policies in the countries from all over the world. Comparative analysis
in this research has been based on examination of scholarly publications, legislation, government documents, mass media sources
and NGO responses. The analysis has revealed a number of differences including top-down implementation of policies in Russia
whereas in Australia, each State (Territory) implements policies with significant independence from the Commonwealth Government.
At the same time, similarities between the countries have been identified: for example, in deficits in the budget of local
environmental authorities and in the presence of contradictions in legislation at national and regional levels of government.
Suggestions resulting from this analysis include further integration of sustainable development strategies at all levels of
Australian government to encourage further protection of the environment and, for Russia, creating a separate Ministry of
Environmental Protection. These approaches should assist facilitation of sustainable development for both nations.
Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue. 相似文献
Sustainability assessment (SA) is a holistic and long-range strategic instrument capable of assisting policy-making in electing,
and deciding upon, future development priorities. The outcomes of an SA process become more relevant and strengthened when
conducted with multi-stakeholder engagement, which provides for multiple dialogues and perspectives. This was the object of
research of the SA team in the context of BioScene (Scenarios for Reconciling Biodiversity Conservation with Declining Agriculture Use in Mountain Areas in Europe), a three-year project (2002–2005) funded by the European Union 5th Framework Program, which aimed to investigate the implications
of agricultural restructuring and decline for biodiversity conservation in the mountain areas of Europe, using three distinct
methodological streams: the ecological, the socio-economic, and the SA approaches. The SA approach drew on the previous two
to assess the importance for biodiversity management of different scenarios of agri-environmental change and rural policy
in six countries (France, Greece, Norway, Slovakia, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom), develop causal chains, include stakeholder
views, and identify potential contributions for, or conflicts with, sustainability. This article tells how SA was used, what
sustainability meant in each study area through different objectives of sustainability considered, discusses the methods used
in SA, and the benefits arising. The SA was conducted by a team independent of any study area, who developed and oversaw the
application of the SA methodology, assisting national teams, and developing a cross-country understanding of the sustainability
of proposed scenarios in the different geographical and social contexts, and their implications for policy-making. Finally,
it reflects on the persistent challenges of interdisciplinary research, compounded by multi-cultural teams, and concludes
on the BioScene’s lessons for the further development and application of SA.
Incorporating climate change concerns into national development planning allows adaptation to happen in harmony with the sustainable development of a country. Cambodia has received international support to enable climate change-resilient development; “mainstreaming climate change” is one of the key recent strategies. This article aims to identify entry points for integrating climate change concerns into national development planning, especially for the water resources and agriculture sectors. The study uses institutional ethnography research methods with informants drawn from government organisations, local academic institutions, and development partners, together with content analysis of key policy documents. It was found that the Cambodian national planning process restricts the involvement of other actors such as researchers, civil society, and private sector; yet flexible, in that it provides opportunities for the inclusion of climate change and other related concerns. The study identified specific entry points in key policy documents, such as the National Strategic Development Plans, and ministries’ plans. Other entry points were identified in the development planning process, for example, in the process of development departments and ministries’ plans, and actors such as department planners, and departments of planning of line ministries. Climate-informed planning is now plausible; more significant integration of concerns with future climate change, however, will require more commitment and stronger connections among national planning stakeholders, adaptation actors, and research communities. 相似文献
Among the different organic pollutants, persistent organic pollutants and emerging organic contaminants (EOCs) are of particular concern due to their potentially dangerous effects on the ecosystems and on human health. In the framework of the analysis of some of these organic pollutants in water samples, sorptive extraction devices have proven to be adequate for their monitoring. The efficiency of four commercially available and low-cost polymeric materials [polypropylene, poly(ethylene terephthalate), Raffia, and polyethersulfone (PES)] for the simultaneous extraction of 16 organic compounds from five different families from environmental water samples was evaluated in this work. Firstly, the homogeneity of the sorbent materials was confirmed by means of Raman spectroscopy. After the optimization of the parameters affecting the extraction and the liquid desorption steps, it was found that PES showed the largest efficiencies for slightly polar analytes and, to a lesser extent, for nonpolar analytes. Additionally, Raffia rendered good extraction efficiencies for nonpolar compounds. Thus sorptive extraction methods followed by large volume injection-programmable temperature vaporizer-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry were validated using PES and Raffia as sorbent materials. The validation of the method provided good linearity (0.978?r2?0.999 for PES and 0.977?r2?0.999 for Raffia), adequate repeatability (below 19 % and 14 % for PES and Raffia, respectively), and low method detection limits (low ng?·?l-1 level). Finally, these materials were applied to the analysis of contaminants in environmental water samples. 相似文献
Renewable energy is considered an indispensable basis of sustainable energy systems as electricity generation from renewable
sources results in low emissions of greenhouse gases compared to fossil fuel based electricity and contributes to sustainable
development. However, effective strategies and conducive institutional settings are needed for advancement of such clean electricity
systems. Although Thailand, as a nation, has a huge potential for renewable energy utilization, its total amount of electricity
generation from renewables is relatively small and could be enlarged substantially. Lack of policy mechanisms, institutional
development and financing exist as major barriers for Thailand in this regard. Investigation of the nation’s current energy
strategy implementation shows that relevant energy and development policies are at different stages of implementation and
institutional settings are continuously evolving. This paper argues that further significant efforts could be made towards
advancement of renewable electricity and thus achievement of energy sustainability in Thailand. Resource planning, effective
policy and institutions, focussed planning for energy sustainability and implementation of the Clean Development Mechanism
(CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol could facilitate further advancement of renewables for the nation. 相似文献
This article reviews and analyses the advancement of renewable sources of energy in Bangladesh and Thailand in terms of policy intervention and institutional settings. Since renewable forms of energy emit far smaller amounts of greenhouse gas compared with fossil fuels, their use should mitigate climate change impacts while contributing to the provision of energy services. The article turns first to a review of energy–environment trends and the potential for renewables in these two nations. It then discusses strategies for the advancement of renewables. It is argued that further significant efforts can be made towards the advancement of renewables in Bangladesh and Thailand. These two nations could also learn from the experience in industrialized nations and other developing nations with regard to requisite policy instruments and processes. A number of barriers remain to the advancement of renewables, especially in terms of policy arrangements, institutional settings, financing mechanisms and technologies. Resources, cooperation and learning are required in order to overcome such barriers and to foster the development of necessary policy measures. Implementation of the clean development mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol, and replication and adaptation of effective strategies from other settings are possible avenues for this. 相似文献