Environmental policy in the European Union

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barnes, Pamela M.; Barnes, Ian G.

2000-09-01

The development of environmental policy, including the policy making process, is analysed from an historical perspective. The authors then examine implementation and enforcement and present a critical appraisal of the impact of environment policy throughout Europe. Key issues discussed include: trade and the environment, environmental protection and the maintenance of industrial competitiveness, agriculture and the environment, energy and environmental policy, transport and the environment, tourism and the environment. (Author)

Environmental economics and policy making in developing countries. Current issues

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Motta, R.S. da

2001-01-01

In developing countries, where growth expectations are high, least-cost environmental policies are crucial since they can reduce the conflict between economic growth and the environment. In view of this, policymakers in these economies must be very aware of the relationship between economic and environmental issues to offer policy initiatives which can increase efficiency and improve equity. The authors provide a comprehensive analysis of topics varying from the general problems of growth and conservation to specific applications such as; pollution costs, environmental taxation, deforestation and climate change. This volume also offers policymakers a comprehensive view of the challenges they face, and the legacies they leave, in order to convert environmental policy making into an actual programme of welfare improvement. (author)

Policy trends of strategic environmental assessment in Asia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Victor, Dennis; Agamuthu, P.

2014-01-01

Highlights: • SEA policy trends in Asia indicate a proliferation of SEA legislation. • Primary SEA problem is its limited integration in strategic decision making. • Notable SEA progress is the emerging awareness on the need for SEA. • Main SEA prospects is in international regional cooperation on SEA. • SEA paradigm shift requires linkages of structural and non-structural policy instruments. - Abstract: This paper provides an overview on the policy trends of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) in Asia. SEA is promoted as a system of incorporating environmental considerations into policies, plans and programmes (PPP). SEA has evolved from an alternative of environmental impact assessments (EIA) to a potential environmental policy integration (EPI) tool in national policy planning. Nevertheless, SEA trends in Asia require a re-examination on its role and effectiveness to avoid SEA implementation in Asia mimicking SEA developments in Europe without customizing its application to local conditions in Asia. Policy trends of SEA in Asia indicate that it is currently an important environmental policy consideration for countries in the region with the formulation of SEA legislations in Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam and Indonesia. Nevertheless, SEA implementation also has been impeded by challenges in realizing practical SEA public participation especially in countries with traditionally high cultural power distance dynamics such as China, Indonesia and Vietnam. Meanwhile, countries such as Japan and Pakistan have voluntarily implemented SEA elements such as public participation without legislative provisions while countries such as Thailand, Philippines, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are resisting the adoption of SEA. The primary problem of SEA implementation in Asia has been its limited integration in strategic decision making due to the highly political nature of policy planning framed within the cultural context of Asian countries. Notable

Mining environmental policy: comparing Indonesia and the USA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Michael S. Hamilton [University of Southern Maine in Portland, MA (United States)

2005-12-15

Illustrated by a detailed comparative examination of mining regulations and environmental impact assessment (EIA) in the USA (the second largest producer of coal in the world) and Indonesia (the eighth largest and most rapidly growing), this book argues that the degree of policy integration often determines the success or failure in controlling environmental effects of mining operations. Comparison of surface mining regulation in the two countries provides some stark contrasts, some surprising results concerning the diffusion of policy innovations from one country to another, and instances of both policy success and failure. The book provides significant new insights into international relations and comparative environmental policy, particularly as they affect rainforests and biodiversity. It also suggests that if mining environmental policy were to be effectively implemented, the environmental degradation caused need not be permanent. Contents: Introduction: mining environmental policy implementation in two countries; Mining regulatory policy in Indonesia; Mining regulatory policy in the United States; Environmental assessment policy in two countries; Lost profits, royalties, and environmental quality; Developing mining environmental policy in Indonesia; Improving Indonesian regulatory program; Development of institutional capacity; Motivations for assistance; Conclusions.

The innovation of EU environmental policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

actors involved. The seven case-study chapters, written from a variety of perspectives, focus on such topics as the impact of formal and informal institutional factors on policy innovation, the potential influence of new members on EU environmental policy-making, the role of cross-national networks...... and alliances, the shifting balance between leader and laggard members, and the ongoing problem integrating the environment into other policy fields. The book also draws on theoretical approaches ranging from institutional to policy network analyses and examines such pertinent contemporary issues as packaging......Inspired by the recent accession of three environmentally progressive member states to the European Union (EU), this book explores the process of environmental policy innovation in the EU, the forces behind the introduction of new issues and policy approaches, and the roles played by the major...

Energy policy and the environmental challenges and options at the turn of the century

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Holdgate, M. [Energy Advisory Panel (United Kingdom)

1994-12-31

In 1998, all domestic energy franchises, together with the coal contract and the Fossil-fuel Levy expire in the UK. Over the next 20 years, environmental factors will be an important part of the context within which energy policy and industrial investment involve. These factors and some of the likely developments are discussed. 8 refs.

Challenges : adopting GIS for diplomacy and foreign policy

Science.gov (United States)

Christian, Carol

Foreign policy and diplomacy are, by definition, location specific. GIS-related tools can be useful to decision makers and problem solvers to merge diverse data that impinges on policy issues. While to a degree, such technologies have been adopted for natural disaster response, security, and environmental studies, widespread adoption of GIS into policy tasks has been slow. Decision makers and nonexperts are reluctant to assimilate new tools into old cultures because of a number of hurdles. Yet clearly, information sharing would be advantageous and allow visualization of information and situations in a more productive environment. This presentation will touch upon some of the challenges and stimulate discussion.

National Environmental Policy Act

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was the first major environmental law in the United States and established national environmental policies for the...

The increasing environmental challenge for the Canadian petroleum industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McFarland, J.

1992-01-01

The environmental challenge facing the Canadian petroleum industry involves the increasing public call for a clean environment and a more intense pressure on the technological and economic means to achieve such an environment. It is estimated that the potential economic impact on the petroleum industry of national environmental response strategies under Canada's Green Plan could amount to ca $17 billion over the next 15-20 years. Leading environmental issues of relevance to the petroleum industry are toxic contamination of groundwater and surface land, particulates in the air, ground-level emissions such as ozone and nitrogen oxides, acid rain, oil spill prevention, waste reduction, and greenhouse gas emissions. Increased environmental costs pose a problem for the petroleum industry since profitability is suffering, due to oversupply and low prices. It is suggested that more attention is needed in three areas of environmental policy development in Canada: determination of environmental priorities, reflecting response strategies that achieve the greatest reduction in risk at an affordable cost; increased understanding of the links between trade and the environment; and harnessing of market forces to achieve environmental goals

Integrating Mercury Science and Policy in the Marine Context: Challenges and Opportunities

Science.gov (United States)

Lambert, Kathleen F.; Evers, David C.; Warner, Kimberly A.; King, Susannah L.; Selin, Noelle E.

2014-01-01

Mercury is a global pollutant and presents policy challenges at local, regional, and global scales. Mercury poses risks to the health of people, fish, and wildlife exposed to elevated levels of mercury, most commonly from the consumption of methylmercury in marine and estuarine fish. The patchwork of current mercury abatement efforts limits the effectiveness of national and multi-national policies. This paper provides an overview of the major policy challenges and opportunities related to mercury in coastal and marine environments, and highlights science and policy linkages of the past several decades. The U.S. policy examples explored here point to the need for a full life cycle approach to mercury policy with a focus on source reduction and increased attention to: (1) the transboundary movement of mercury in air, water, and biota; (2) the coordination of policy efforts across multiple environmental media; (3) the cross-cutting issues related to pollutant interactions, mitigation of legacy sources, and adaptation to elevated mercury via improved communication efforts; and (4) the integration of recent research on human and ecological health effects into benefits analyses for regulatory purposes. Stronger science and policy integration will benefit national and international efforts to prevent, control, and minimize exposure to methylmercury. PMID:22901766

Environmental policy analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1978-01-01

The Environmental Policy Analysis Program was established to improve the formation of energy development and environmental policies with due mutual regard for national environmental and energy development needs. As a separate office under the Assistant Secretary for Environment, the program is implemented by the Director and by Offices of Environmental Policy Analysis in the eight DOE multiprogram laboratories. The program provides the Assistant Secretary with information on alternatives for decision making and early warning of environmental problems and considerations that may affect energy policy decisions. The program is intended to be a continuing activity, with its scope determined progressively as issues are defined. During FY-1977 the program focused on information compilation on levels of Pu and other transuranic elements in soils that would render the area unsafe for unlimited use; the impact of water pollution control laws on energy technologies; an analysis of the comparative health risks associated with various energy technologies; and the cost and related impacts on the nuclear industry arising from changes in radiation standards during the past 15 years

Hydro-Quebec's environmental policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1996-10-01

Hydro-Quebec established a new environmental policy on August 1, 1996. A summary of the policy was presented. According to this policy statement the utility undertakes to recognize the environmental implications of its activities and assumes responsibilities for these implications by integrating them into its corporate decision-making processes. The following general principles and means of implementation have been highlighted: (1) sustainable development, (2) strict, responsible environmental management, (3) environmental research, (4) enhancement of activities and facilities, (5) information, consultation and dialogue, and (6) environmental responsibility of Hydro-Quebec personnel, subsidiaries and business partners

Evaluating efficacy of an environmental policy to prevent biological invasions.

Science.gov (United States)

Bailey, Sarah A; Deneau, Matthew G; Jean, Laurent; Wiley, Chris J; Leung, Brian; MacIsaac, Hugh J

2011-04-01

Enactment of any environmental policy should be followed by an evaluation of its efficacy to ensure optimal utilization of limited resources, yet measuring the success of these policies can be a challenging task owing to a dearth of data and confounding factors. We examine the efficacy of ballast water policies enacted to prevent biological invasions in the Laurentian Great Lakes. We utilize four criteria to assess the efficacy of this environmental regulation: (1) Is the prescribed management action demonstrably effective? (2) Is the management action effective under operational conditions? (3) Can compliance be achieved on a broad scale? (4) Are desired changes observed in the environment? The four lines of evidence resulting from this analysis indicate that the Great Lakes ballast water management program provides robust, but not complete, protection against ship-mediated biological invasions. Our analysis also indicates that corresponding inspection and enforcement efforts should be undertaken to ensure that environmental policies translate into increased environmental protection. Similar programs could be implemented immediately around the world to protect the biodiversity of the many freshwater ecosystems which receive ballast water discharges by international vessels. This general framework can be extended to evaluate efficacy of other environmental policies.

New prospects in EU environmental policies. The Integrated Product Policy (IPP)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carnimeo, G.; Iraldo, F.

2000-01-01

The Integrated Product Policy - IPP - is becoming one of the top priorities for the European Commission within the framework of the product-oriented environmental policies. Rather than a new policy, this is an innovative approach aimed at co-originated existing and forthcoming environmental policies, in order to manage in an integrated way and minimise the impacts connected with the whole product life-cycle. The underlying life-cycle guideline requires the management of each phase by considering what happens in all the other phases. What clearly emerges from a research carried out by Iefe Bocconi is, on the one hand, the effectiveness of co-operation and networking between all the actors involved in the product environmental management within the different phases of its life cycle (policy makers, producers, retailers, consumers, NGOs, etc.) and, on the other, the opportunity of developing an integrated management of both environmental policy instruments and corporate management tools [it

Policy in Conflict: The Struggle Between Environmental Policy and Homeland Security Goals

Science.gov (United States)

2013-09-01

environmental and energy 34 policy (Murkowski, 2010). However, a good set of literature on the broader, macro level question central to this investigation...terms of increasing efficiency of the automotive fleet (demand side), certain environmental policies have the unintended consequence of restricting the...Middle East  Broader aspects of the struggle between environmental policy and energy policy  A broad analysis of ways to diminish animus toward the

Policy challenges of increasing automation in driving

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ata M. Khan

2012-03-01

Full Text Available The convergence of information and communication technologies (ICT with automotive technologies has already resulted in automation features in road vehicles and this trend is expected to continue in the future owing to consumer demand, dropping costs of components, and improved reliability. While the automation features that have taken place so far are mainly in the form of information and driver warning technologies (classified as level I pre-2010, future developments in the medium term (level II 2010–2025 are expected to exhibit connected cognitive vehicle features and encompass increasing degree of automation in the form of advanced driver assistance systems. Although autonomous vehicles have been developed for research purposes and are being tested in controlled driving missions, the autonomous driving case is only a long term (level III 2025+ scenario. This paper contributes knowledge on technological forecasts regarding automation, policy challenges for each level of technology development and application context, and the essential instrument of cost-effectiveness for policy analysis which enables policy decisions on the automation systems to be assessed in a consistent and balanced manner. The cost of a system per vehicle is viewed against its effectiveness in meeting policy objectives of improving safety, efficiency, mobility, convenience and reducing environmental effects. Example applications are provided that illustrate the contribution of the methodology in providing information for supporting policy decisions. Given the uncertainties in system costs as well as effectiveness, the tool for assessing policies for future generation features probabilistic and utility-theoretic analysis capability. The policy issues defined and the assessment framework enable the resolution of policy challenges while allowing worthy innovative automation in driving to enhance future road transportation.

Equity Impacts of Environmental Policy

OpenAIRE

Antonio M. Bento

2013-01-01

This article surveys recent literature on the equity impacts of environmental policy. We focus on studies that look at the distribution of costs and benefits of alternative environmental policies. We also examine potentially important trade-offs between efficiency and equity that arise in the context of environmental policy, as well as transition effects. In many of the applications surveyed here, environmental policies can be regressive. Strategies are discussed to reduce this regressivity t...

The politics of federal environmental education policy

Science.gov (United States)

Crouch, Richard Craig

Both environmental governance1 and education governance 2 occupy contested territory in contemporary US political discourse. Environmental education (EE) policy has emerged at this intersection and taken on aspects of both controversies. Central to debates surrounding environmental education are still unresolved issues concerning the role of the federal government in education, the role of education in citizen-making, and the role of the public in environmental governance. As a case study of the politics of environmental education policy, I explore these issues as they relate to the National Environmental Education Act of 1990,3 attempts at its reauthorization, its continued appropriations, and its current state of policy stasis. The political controversy over the federal role in environmental education is an appropriate case study of environmental education politics insofar as it reflects the different positions held by actor groups with regard to the definition, efficacy, and legitimacy of environmental education. At the core of these debates, as we will see, is a definitional crisis---that is, there is no common understanding across the relevant actor groups as to what environmental education is, or should be. I suggest here that this definitional issue can be best understood as having technical, ideological, and structural components4---all of which are mutually reinforcing and thus perpetuate the stasis in federal environmental education policy. 1I rely on Durant, Fiorino and O'leary's definition of environmental governance in Environmental Governance Reconsidered ; "In the term environmental governance, we refer to the increasingly collaborative nature of [environmental and natural resource] policy formulation and implementation. In this vein, a wide array of third parties (for example, actors in the profit sector, the nonprofit sector, and civic society), in addition to government agencies, comprise non hierarchical networks of actors wielding a variety of

Past experience with the EU Common Agricultural Policy and future challenges for landscape development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vesterager, Jens Peter; Jepsen, Martin Rudbeck; Busck, Anne Gravsholt

and land use through the Common Agricultural Policies (CAP) and several other policies, however it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between effects of EU policies and the general trends on the European continent. In a Danish perspective, the formal effects of EU membership have been effectuated since...... the accession to the EU by 1973, however the trend towards intensification and industrialisation have emerged since the 2nd world war. Since 1973, landscape challenge have changed from intensification to debates on marginalisation in the early 1980s, introduction of the environmental policies in the mid 1980s...

Pragmatics of policy: the compliance of dutch environmental policy instruments to European union standards.

Science.gov (United States)

Kruitwagen, Sonja; Reudink, Melchert; Faber, Albert

2009-04-01

Despite a general decrease in Dutch environmental emission trends, it remains difficult to comply with European Union (EU) environmental policy targets. Furthermore, environmental issues have become increasingly complex and entangled with society. Therefore, Dutch environmental policy follows a pragmatic line by adopting a flexible approach for compliance, rather than aiming at further reduction at the source of emission. This may be politically useful in order to adequately reach EU targets, but restoration of environmental conditions may be delayed. However, due to the complexity of today's environmental issues, the restoration of environmental conditions might not be the only standard for a proper policy approach. Consequently this raises the question how the Dutch pragmatic approach to compliance qualifies in a broader policy assessment. In order to answer this question, we adapt a policy assessment framework, developed by Hemerijck and Hazeu (Bestuurskunde 13(2), 2004), based on the dimensions of legitimacy and policy logic. We apply this framework for three environmental policy assessments: flexible instruments in climate policy, fine-tuning of national and local measures to meet air quality standards, and derogation for the Nitrate Directive. We conclude with general assessment notes on the appliance of flexible instruments in environmental policy, showing that a broad and comprehensive perspective can help to understand the arguments to put such policy instruments into place and to identify trade-offs between assessment criteria.

Major Environmental Policy in 2000

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Choi, Hong Jin [Ministry Of Environment, Kwachon (Korea)

2000-04-01

As a new millennium has started, there are active movements developing a basic paradigm of vision and policy over a nation-wide to prepare changes actively. For the environmental sector, it is possible to live in a pleasant environment if everyone prepare and work together like dealing with Y2K problem. With a goal of being an environmentally advanced country in the early new millennium, it is planned to improve a basic life environment such as water and air and to promote an advanced environmental management policy for showing results of its reform in 2000. Therefore, it examines environmental management circumstances and a direction of environmental policy first and it discusses more about major environmental policy related to petroleum industry. 7 tabs.

Environmental policy performance revisited

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Daugbjerg, Carsten; Sønderskov, Kim Mannemar

2012-01-01

. On the basis of the typology, a hypothesis on their ability to expand green markets is generated and tested in a comparative analysis of the performance of organic food policies in Denmark, Sweden, the UK and the US, focusing on their impact on organic consumption. Our analysis demonstrates that cross......Studies of environmental policy performance tend to concentrate on the impact of particular policy institutions or of single policy instruments. However, environmental policies most often consist of a package of policy instruments. Further, these studies pay no or very little attention to policy...... instruments directed at the demand side of the market. Therefore this article develops a policy typology for government intervention aimed at creating green markets. The typology distinguishes between four types of policy based on the balance between the supply-side and demand-side policy instruments...

Unconventional politics of unconventional gas: Environmental reframing and policy change

Science.gov (United States)

Kear, Andrew Robert

The present Rocky Mountain West natural gas boom, enabled by historic pro-resource-development political, institutional, economic, and cultural structures, is a politically contested battle over values. Volatile political action, unconventional coalitions, and unconventional politics engulf this unconventional gas boom -- especially at the state level. In this comparative case study of natural gas policy in Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, I measure and compare these values, expressed as frames, through textual analysis of interest group public documents and state legislative bills and statutes from 1999-2008. By developing a new measure of state legislative framing, I test the relationship between interest group and institutional framing and also provide a viable measure of policy change useful to Narrative Policy Analysis theory. Results show that competing interest group and state legislative framing efforts are dynamic, measurably different, and periodically correlative. Competing interest groups rarely engage each other, except as the conflict matures when status-quo-supporters break their silence and engage the challengers' frames that have gained legislative traction. Environmental and land-use counter-framing ensues, but status-quo-supporters remain vigilant in their economic framing. Economic frames retain their institutional privilege within Wyoming and New Mexico, but natural gas policy undergoes a complete environmental reframe in the Colorado state legislature. Although the historically dominant economy frame based on "Old West" values remains largely intact, the respective state legislatures partially reframe policy (within 4 years) using environment, alternative land-uses, and democracy frames based on "New West" and long-extant but previously marginalized status-quo-challenger definitions. This reframing is not a strictly partisan issue, but rather it is influenced by political context, policy diffusion, and long-term interest group advocacy and

Environmental policy (Republic of Macedonia)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1997-01-01

With a defined set of policy goals, policy makers face an important decision on how and at what cost to the economy environmental compliance can be achieved. The costs of environmental compliance for Macedonia are still to be determined. However, environmental cost estimates, even those done with the highest degree of precision will not provide the actual burden that the society will face. The level of actual costs and their distribution in the economy will depend on the type of instruments that will be used by policy makers. In general, there are two policy options to be considered, namely command and control which relies on administrative instruments and market based which uses economic instrument. The command and control based environmental policy requires that ambient standards, emission standards and new source performance standards are in place, together with a permitting system and compliance monitoring to ensure enforcement. A market based environmental policy aims at achieving higher levels of environmental quality by correcting the imperfections of the market. This is done by what is called internalizing negative environmental externalities. In simple words, polluters are forced to pay a pollution charge or a tax and include the costs of pollution in the costs of production and finally in the prices of goods. (author)

Environmetal report 2016. Impulses for an integrative environmental policy; Umweltgutachten 2016. Impulse fuer eine integrative Umweltpolitik

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2016-08-01

The ecological challenges in the EU and Germany are so large that they can no longer simply be addressed using the remedial and even the technically-oriented, preventive environmental protection measures of the past. In relation to climate protection and many other fields, impacts on natural ecosystems must be substantially reduced in order to ensure that key ecosystem services remain functional. Yet, environmental policies continue to encounter stiff opposition, which is targeted at supposedly unnecessary regulatory burdens and restrictions. Opponents of environmental protection claim that environmental policies jeopardize the competitiveness of the German industrial and agricultural sectors by imposing unduly high costs. Or they bring up social issues, such as the current housing crisis or energy poverty, as arguments against an effective environmental policy. Such arguments call for nuanced assessments - and in some cases should be clearly rejected. Defusing such conflicts calls for approaches that promote compromise and that appeal to the general public. In the Environmental Report 2016, the German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU) sets itself the task of addressing this challenge, by focusing on six key topics. What these topics all have in common is that they exhibit tensions between environmental and economic or social policy goals. The Environmental Report aims to stimulate ideas about environmental oriented reforms and approaches to managing these issues which cut across policy fields.

THE ROMANIAN ASPECT OF THE E.U. GOVERNANCE CASE STUDIES: EDUCATUION POLICY AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

OANA-ANDREEA ION

2011-04-01

Full Text Available This paper belongs to the domestic studies which try to connect the Romanian research to the current debates within the EU studies. The authors' aim is to analyze the aspects and the implications of the EU governance at the Member States' domestic policies level, as most of these policies are currently facing the challenges brought by the Europeanization process. Therefore, the theoretical framework selected is the theory of governance, focusing on the explanatory and analytical opportunities of two components – multi-level governance and governance networks; in this way, it is underlined the separation from the classic model of relation between the (multiplied levels of political authority (supranational, national, subnational and the exponential increase in the number and types of actors participating at the decisional process and implementation of European public policy. Within the selected case studies (environmental policy and education policy, the authors advance a research structure with the aims (a to identify the relevant actors involved in the policy-making process of these policies, at all stages of its cycle; (b to offer an explanation of the types of interactions between these actors, and (c to identify the influence these interactions exert on the communitarization pronounced tendency of some EU policy sectors. The analysis is performed in terms of the Treaty of Lisbon (the selected policies being part of distinct categories of the Union competences and it is oriented towards the national level of the making process of these policies.

Emerging environmental technologies and environmental technology policy

Science.gov (United States)

Clarke, Leon Edward

This dissertation explores the role and design of environmental technology policy when environmental innovation is embodied in emerging environmental technologies such as photovoltaic cells or fuel cells. The dissertation consists of three individual studies, all of which use a simplified, general model industry between an emerging environmental technology and an entrenched, more-polluting technology. It clarifies the situations in which environmental technology policy can achieve high welfare and those in which it cannot; and it separates the possible situations an emerging environmental technology might face into four scenarios, each with its own technology policy recommendations. The second study attempts to clarify which of two factors is having a larger limiting effect on private investment in photovoltaics: the failure to internalize the environmental costs of fossil fuel electricity generation or a broad set of innovation market failures that apply to innovation irrespective of environmental concerns. The study indicates that innovation market failures are probably having a significantly larger impact than incomplete internalization. The third study explores the effectiveness of adoption subsidies at encouraging private-sector innovation. The conclusion is that adoption subsidies probably have only a limited effect on long-term, private-sector research. Two important general conclusions of the dissertation are (1) that optimal technology policy should begin with technology-push measures and end with demand-pull measures; and (2) that the technological response to internalization instruments, such as emissions taxes, may be highly nonlinear.

Coping with global environmental change, disasters and security: threats, challenges, vulnerabilities and risks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brauch, H.G.; Oswald Spring, Ú.; Mesjasz, C.; Grin, J.; Kameri-Mbote, P.; Chourou, B.; Dunay, P.; Birkmann, J.

2011-01-01

This policy-focused Global Environmental and Human Security Handbook for the Anthropo-cene (GEHSHA) addresses new security threats, challenges, vulnerabilities and risks posed by global environmental change and disasters. In 6 forewords, 5 preface essays 95 peer reviewed chapcountries analyse in 10

Environmental potentials of policy instruments to mitigate nutrient emissions in Chinese livestock production

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zheng, C.; Liu, Y.; Bluemling, B.; Mol, A.P.J.; Chen, J.

2015-01-01

To minimize negative environmental impact of livestock production, policy-makers face a challenge to design and implement more effective policy instruments for livestock farmers at different scales. This research builds an assessment framework on the basis of an agent-based model, named ANEM, to

Environmental policy instruments and technological change in the energy sector: findings from comparative empirical research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Skjaerseth, J.B.; Christiansen, A.C.

2006-01-01

This article explores the extent to which and in what ways environmental policy instruments may affect patterns of environmental friendly technological change in the energy sector. Our argument is based on the assumption, however, that technological change is also affected by the political context in which the instruments are applied and by the nature of the problem itself. Comparative empirical research involving different European countries, sectors and policy fields were examined, including climate change, air pollution and wind power. The relationship between environmental policy instruments and technological change is extremely complex, not least due to the impact of other factors that may be more decisive than environmental ones. Against this backdrop, it was concluded that: 1) a portfolio of policy instruments works to the extent that different types of policy instruments affect the different drivers and stages behind technological change needed to solve specific problems. The need for a portfolio of policy instruments depends on the technological challenge being faced; 2) voluntary approaches facilitated constructive corporate strategies, but mandatory approaches tended to be more effective in stimulating short term major technological change; 3) voluntary approaches work well in the short term when the problem to be solved is characterized by lack of information and coordination. (author)

The environmental policy of the EC. An analysis exemplified by air pollution abatement policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Caspari, S.

1995-01-01

Since the early seventies the European Community has reacted to increasing ecological damage with complex and comprehensive common environmental policies. In this study, the author analyzes and evaluates the theoretical conception and the instrumental application of the EC Environmental Policy using four criteria: (1) Ecological effectiveness, (2) economic efficiency, (3) conformity with a market order - viewpoint of 'Ordnungspolitik', (4) 'sustainability'. The study shows that there is a large discrepancy between the demands and the reality of the EC Environmental Policy. In addition to grave ecological deficiencies it reveals an increse in rent-seeking activities and an interventionist trend which have resulted in the erosion of the competitive incentive system of the market order in the Community. In view of various deficits the author perceives a basic 'regulation paradox' and a 'policy failure'. Based on a diagnosis of the causes of these deficiencies, he outlines some proposals for a reform of the EC Environmental Policy, indicating that a central prerequisite for a more effective and efficient environmental protection is a reorientation in the system ('Ordnungspolitik') which determines the common Environmental Policy. In addition, he maintains that in view of the clear asymmetry in the representation of interests in favour of particularist interests it is necessary to strengthen public interest in order to enable a more effective protection of the options future generations will have regarding their lives and their behaviour. (orig.) [de

Towards a systematic framework for the analysis of environmental policy Integration

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Runhaar, Hens; Driessen, Peter; Uittenbroek, Caroline

Environmental policy integration (EPI) refers to the incorporation of environmental concerns in non-environmental policy sectors. EPI aims to avoid conflicts between environmental and other policy objectives and to enhance environmental policy by directly targeting the driving forces of

Ghana's biofuels policy: challenges and the way forward

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Antwi, Edward [Kumasi Polytechnic, Mechanical Engineering Department, Box 854, Kumasi (Ghana); Bensah, Edem Cudjoe; Ahiekpor, Julius [Kumasi Polytechnic, Chemical Engineering Department, Box 854, Kumasi (Ghana); Quansah, David Ato [The Energy Centre, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi (Ghana); Arthur, Richard [Koforidua Polytechnic, PMB, Koforidua (Ghana)

2010-07-01

Liquid biofuels have come up strongly as possible substitute to conventional fossils fuels and woodfuels apparently because of its perceived environmental benefit, sustainability and recent hikes in petroleum fuel prices. These have led most countries to include biofuels in their energy mix to mitigate climate change effect caused by petroleum fuels and also to ensure energy security. Ghana as a developing country has also identified the potential of biofuels in her energy mix by setting some targets in its Strategic National Energy Policy (SNEP). This paper analyses the implications of the policy as presented in SNEP. It also looks at programmes put in place to achieve the set objectives and the possible challenges that are likely to be faced in their implementation. The paper concludes by calling for strong governmental involvement in achieving the set objectives.

Environmental potentials of policy instruments to mitigate nutrient emissions in Chinese livestock production.

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Chaohui; Liu, Yi; Bluemling, Bettina; Mol, Arthur P J; Chen, Jining

2015-01-01

To minimize negative environmental impact of livestock production, policy-makers face a challenge to design and implement more effective policy instruments for livestock farmers at different scales. This research builds an assessment framework on the basis of an agent-based model, named ANEM, to explore nutrient mitigation potentials of five policy instruments, using pig production in Zhongjiang county, southwest China, as the empirical filling. The effects of different policy scenarios are simulated and compared using four indicators and differentiating between small, medium and large scale pig farms. Technology standards, biogas subsidies and information provisioning prove to be the most effective policies, while pollution fees and manure markets fail to environmentally improve manure management in pig livestock farming. Medium-scale farms are the more relevant scale category for a more environmentally sound development of Chinese livestock production. A number of policy recommendations are formulated as conclusion, as well as some limitations and prospects of the simulations are discussed. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

24 CFR 50.3 - Environmental policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 24 Housing and Urban Development 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Environmental policy. 50.3 Section... Development PROTECTION AND ENHANCEMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY General: Federal Laws and Authorities § 50.3 Environmental policy. (a) It is the policy of the Department to reject proposals which have significant adverse...

Environmental policy: Meeting the challenge of global warming

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gotzaman, P.

1990-01-01

The Canadian government's overall approach to resolving the environmental problems due to global warming is discussed, with reference to how this approach is related to actions taken by other countries. Canada's environmental strategy is based the need to correct the failure to take into account the environmental consequences of daily actions. One element seen necessary for such correction, better environmental decisionmaking, is underlain by such key factors as the need to provide a strong scientific base on which to make decisions, resolving uncertainties regarding the greenhouse effect, and an environmentally educated population. Direct governmental measures can be taken to factor environmental considerations into decisions, such as regulatory instruments regarding the environment and economic incentives to encourage taking the environment into account. With respect to global warming, Canada has signed the Hague Declaration on international cooperation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. About half the annual world emissions of greenhouse gases come from fossil fuel combustion. Canada is the fourth largest producer per capita of the single most important greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. The transport and industrial sectors each account for ca 25% of Canada's CO 2 emissions, and energy conservation is seen as a first step in reducing these emissions. The greatest scope for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector appears to lie in the development of convenient and economic alternate fuels

Environmental management: The bank's policy approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1992-01-01

In order to play a leadership role in the environmental recovery of central and eastern Europe, the Bank will pursue the following policy priorities: assistance to the countries of operations in environmental policy formulation, including the development of effective legal and regulatory instruments, the adoption of appropriate emissions and effluents standards and the creation of the institutional and human resources capacity to monitor and enforce them; promoting the use of a variety of economic instruments to address the underlying cause of environmental degradation and the adoption of market-based techniques in environmental management programmes; encouraging the development of an environmental goods and services industry in the countries of operations, of commercially viable investments in environmental technologies and pollution prevention and control, and by funding environmental infrastructure projects; initiation of, or support for, special studies and programmes to address regional and national environmental problems and to promote environmental education within the population and institutions of the countries of operations; adoption of adequate environmental assessment, management planning, audit and monitoring procedures throughout its activities; and promoting the adoption and implementation of procedures for provision of information to, and consultation with, all levels of government and the general public - especially potentially affected parties - concerning environmental matters

Implications of the Netherlands' environmental policy for offshore mining

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meijer, K.; Krijt, K.

1991-01-01

The environmental policy in the Netherlands, as outlined in the National Environmental Policy Plan, aims for a sustainable development. In principle a two track approach is adhered to: source oriented as well as effects oriented. Effects oriented policy includes the setting of environmental quality objectives and is used to establish the final goals for the source-oriented measures. The policy aims at integrated life-cycle management; in the final target situation all waste is used again as raw material and remaining emissions to the environment should comply with the environmental objectives. In this paper the implications of this policy for the offshore mining industry are elaborated, both for drilling operations and for the production of oil, gas and condensate. The results of the recently concluded Environmental Impact Assessment for the offshore mining industry as a whole are also elaborated

Environmental policies and risk finance in the green sector: Cross-country evidence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Criscuolo, Chiara; Menon, Carlo

2015-01-01

This paper provides a detailed description of venture capital investment in the green sector across 29 countries over the period 2005–2010, and identifies the role that policies might play in explaining observed cross-country differences. The analysis is based on a deal-level database of businesses seeking financing, combined with indicators of renewable policies and government R&D expenditures. The econometric analysis relates the number of deals and their volumes in a country to deployment and supply policies using count data and limited dependent variable (Tobit) models. The results suggest that both supply side policies and environmental deployment policies, designed with a long-term perspective of creating a market for environmental technologies, are associated with higher levels of venture capital relative to more short-term fiscal policies. When focusing on policies related to renewable energy generation, the results confirm the positive association of generous feed-in tariffs (FITs) with venture capital investment. However, in the solar sector excessively generous FITs tend to discourage investment, perhaps reflecting a lack of credibility over the longer term. Thus, both sets of results point to long-term policy stability, sustainability and credibility as important policy features to ensure Venture capital backing of innovative and risky ventures in a country's green sector. -- Highlights: •Risk-finance in the green sector is likely to face more challenges than in other hi-tech sectors. •Supply and deployment policies are associated with more investments relative to fiscal policies. •FITs have a positive effect, but in the solar sector very generous FITs discourage investments

Enhancing the role of geodiversity and geoheritage in environmental management and policy in a changing world: challenges for geoscience research

Science.gov (United States)

Gordon, John

2013-04-01

Geodiversity delivers or underpins many key ecosystem processes and services that deliver valuable benefits for society. With a growing recognition of the wider economic, social and environmental relevance of geodiversity, it is timely to consider the research requirements and priorities that are necessary to underpin a broader interdisciplinary approach to geodiversity that incorporates the links between natural and human systems in a changing world. A key challenge is to develop the scientific framework of geodiversity and at the same time to enhance the protection of geoheritage. Research that helps to support environmental policy and meet the wider needs of society for sustainable development and improved human wellbeing is fundamental both to improve the recognition of geodiversity and to demonstrate the wider relevance and value of geoheritage and geoconservation. Within this wider context, priorities for research include: 1) assessment of geoheritage and best-practice management of geosites for multiple uses including science, education and tourism; 2) evaluation of geodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides, both in economic and non-economic terms, to help build policy support and public awareness; 3) understanding the functional links between geodiversity and biodiversity across a range of spatial and temporal scales to help assess ecosystem sensitivity and inform management adaptations to climate change, particularly in dynamic environments such as the coast, river catchments and mountain areas; 4) providing a longer time perspective on ecosystem trends and services from palaeoenvironmental records; 5) applications of geodiversity in terrestrial and marine spatial planning.

The orientation, principles, priorities and aims of the state environmental policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1998-01-01

This chapter contains: (A) The orientation and priorities of state environmental policy of the government of the Slovak Republic which were approved 18 November 1993 by the resolution No 339. On the basis of the Strategy, principles and priorities of state environmental policy 70 short-terminable aims up to 1996, next 59 middle-terminable of aims up to years 2000 - 2010 and 33 general and partial long-terminable aims up to 2030 and longer were formulated. The Strategy is determined by next 5 branches oriented priorities: (1) air protection before pollutants and the global environmental safety; (2) organization of sufficiency of drinking water and decreasing of pollution of other waters under permissible limits; (3) soil protection before degeneration and organization of non-defected food-stuffs and other wares; (4) minimization of formation, use and good waste liquidate; (5) preservation of bio-diversity, preservation and rational use of natural reserves and optimization of place structure and use of the country. (B) The principles and priorities of state environmental policy determinate implementation and observance of then principles of the state environmental policy. (C) Total 162 aims of the Strategy of the state environmental policy and next followed programs, projects and measures of the environmental policy of the Slovak Republic can be grouped into 4 blocks: (1) the environmental policy in the protection of air, water and before of risk factors, in the nuclear safety and waste economy (environmental safety; (2) the environmental policy in protection of the nature and the country, protection and use of mineral surroundings, soils and forest;; (3) the environmental policy in the economy; (4) the environmental policy in the guidance, education, public information, organization, control and coordination of the ministration on the environment. These aims are grouped into 10 sectors. (D) The government of the Slovak republic has first National environmental

Future directions for environmental policy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

O' Riordan, T

1984-01-01

Environmentalism is an elusive concept with many meanings. Its changing character is examined together with an analysis of how it is likely to influence public policy across a broad front. The paper also reviews the major environmental issues which QECD countries are likely to face nationally, regionally and globally over the next twenty years and discusses the type of politics that may emerge within the new environmentalism. The overriding global issue will be the tragic interconnection between poverty and environmental damage in the underdeveloped countries. In the developed but de-industrialising economies of the 'north' greatest attention will be placed on devising means for creating jobs and providing satisfying occupations for people forced out of a job or never in employment. Environmental rehabilitation can create jobs, but it will involve the denial of resources otherwise available to create jobs elsewhere. It will therefore be necessary to consider the 'next job effectiveness' of environmental policies. Another policy area that requires new thinking is the management of environmental hazards, notably how to dispose of toxic wastes in a manner acceptable to a majority of people. Finally serious efforts will have to be made, not only to infuse environmental principles within all policy arenas, but also to ensure that departmental responsibilities and budgets are properly linked. The principle that those who exploit environmental resources should subsidise those who use environmental resources frugally and benignly by means of transfer taxes and payments should also become established. (orig.).

Strategic Delegation of Environmental Policy Making

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Roelfsema, H. [Utrecht University, Utrecht School of Economics, Vredenburg 138, 3511 BG Utrecht (Netherlands)

2004-04-15

A common claim is that nations should cooperate in environmental policy making. However, there is little empirical support that noncooperative decision making results in too low environmental standards and taxes. We develop a theoretical model and show that if the median voter cares sufficiently for the environment, she has an incentive to delegate policy making to a politician that cares more for the environment than she does herself. By doing so, she mitigates the 'race to the bottom' in environmental taxes. In contrast, if environmental policies are determined cooperatively with other countries, the median voter has an incentive to delegate policy making to a politician that cares less for the environment than she does herself, so as to free ride on international environmental agreements.

Environmental risks and future generations: Criteria for public policy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Howarth, R.B.

1992-10-01

This paper examines alternative normative approaches to the policy challenges posed by long-term environmental problems such as toxic and radioactive waste disposal, stratospheric ozone depletion, and climate change. The paper argues that cost-benefit analysis is limited in its ability to handle the issues of intergenerational equity and uncertainty that are intrinsic to such problems. Also considered is the precautionary principle, which holds that policies should seek to reduce threats to the welfare of future generations if the costs of doing so would not significantly reduce the subjective well-being of existing persons. Although the precautionary principle depends on an explicit value judgement, it yields a policy criterion that is operationally decisive under a wide array of circumstances.

Coordination of environmental policy for transboundary environmental problems?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hoel, M.

1996-01-01

In order to reach a Pareto optimal outcome with transboundary environmental problems, there must be some kind of international agreement. One possibility would be an international agreement focusing directly on emissions in each country. Given such an agreement, an important issue is whether one should supplement the agreement with some kind of policy coordination, or if the choice of environmental policies should be left for each country to decide for itself. The present paper shows that under ``ideal`` conditions, policies need not be coordinated across countries. Such ideal conditions include, among other things, that all markets, including the labour market, are competitive. However, if one has imperfect competition in goods markets, or unemployment, it may be desirable to let an international environmental agreement not only specify emission levels, but also the policy mix between emission taxes and direct regulation. 16 refs.

EU environmental policy and competitiveness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stojanović Boban

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Protection of the environment was not a specific importance to the Community although the Treaty of Rome expressly specified that "health, safety environmental protection" shall be based on "a high level of protection". In deciding upon a framework for a European environmental policy, the Community was also responding to increased public awareness of the problem and concerns about the state of the natural and man-made environment. During the past years, competitiveness concerns have dominated the EU policy debate, in the course of which a growing consensus is being developed on the importance of eco-innovations and resource efficiency for EU competitiveness and on the market opportunities they offer. There is an increasing evidence that environmental policy and eco-innovations can promote economic growth, as well as maintain and create jobs, contributing both to competitiveness and employment. Environmental constraints to rapid economic growth are increasingly recognized by countries, leading to a rising awareness of the need for sustainable development. Implementation of an environmental policy however, generates significant implications for competition among countries.

Environmental Policy and Technological Change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jaffe, Adam B.; Newell, Richard G.; Stavins, Robert N.

2002-01-01

The relationship between technological change and environmental policy has received increasing attention from scholars and policy makers alike over the past ten years. This is partly because the environmental impacts of social activity are significantly affected by technological change, and partly because environmental policy interventions themselves create new constraints and incentives that affect the process of technological developments. Our central purpose in this article is to provide environmental economists with a useful guide to research on technological change and the analytical tools that can be used to explore further the interaction between technology and the environment. In Part 1 of the article, we provide an overview of analytical frameworks for investigating the economics of technological change, highlighting key issues for the researcher. In Part 2, we turn our attention to theoretical analysis of the effects of environmental policy on technological change, and in Part 3, we focus on issues related to the empirical analysis of technology innovation and diffusion. Finally, we conclude in Part 4 with some additional suggestions for research

Economic Effects of Reservoir Re-operation Policy in the Rio Grande/Bravo for Sustainable Human and Environmental Water Management

Science.gov (United States)

Ortiz Partida, J. P.; Sandoval Solis, S.; Lane, B.

2015-12-01

A central challenge of integrated water management is the design and implementation of policies to allocate water to both humans and the environment in a sustainable manner. This study uses the results from a reach-scale water-planning model to quantify and compare the economic benefits of two water management policies: (1) a business as usual (Baseline) policy and (2) a proposed reservoir re-operation policy to provide environmental flows (EFs). Results show that the EF policy would increase water supply profit, slightly decrease recreational activities profit, and reduce costs from flood damage and environmental restoration compared to the Baseline policy. In addition to supporting ecological objectives, the proposed EF policy would increase the economic benefits of water management objectives.

Environmental Education Policy Development in Zimbabwe: An ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

National environmental education policy is essential for guiding and coordinating environmental education activities within a country. The Zimbabwean Environmental Education Policy development process took place between 2000 and 2001.This paper looks at stages in the policy development process, the factors that ...

Environmental challenges for Asian-Pacific energy systems in the 1991s

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Markham, Adam; Ramani, K.V.

1991-01-01

This paper provides an overview of the main issues addressed and conclusions arrived at by the Regional Conference on Environmental Challenges for Asian and Pacific Energy Systems in the 1990s', jointly organized by the Asian and Pacific Development Centre and the World Wide Fund for Nature during 14-18 January 1991 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The first part of the paper focuses on the regional and global context of the conference. This is followed by a review of the key issues that are considered relevant to the shaping of a new energy policy for the region to ensure environmental sustainability. The concluding part provides some cautionary notes and suggestions for the immediate future. (author)

Promoting Science-Policy Education on Global Environmental Issues: The Mercury Game

Science.gov (United States)

Selin, N. E.; Stokes, L. C.; Susskind, L. E.

2011-12-01

We present initial results from a project focusing on teaching science and engineering students about global environmental policy, funded by a NSF CAREER grant. Despite decades of growing global concern about issues such as ozone depletion, climate change, and toxic chemicals, linking science to policy is a continuing challenge, and few science students receive formal training for effective participation in global negotiations. The focus of the educational activity presented here is the development of a freely-available, interactive teaching tool in the form of a role-play simulation, called "The Mercury Game" (http://mit.edu/mercurygame). The simulation requires players to consider scientific information on an emerging global issue, mercury pollution, and collectively decide whether global policy action is appropriate and what the scope of such action might entail. Playing the game helps participants to explore the consequences of representing scientific uncertainty in various ways in a policy context. The game focuses on the credibility of various sources of technical information, strategies for representing risk and uncertainty, and the balance between scientific and political considerations. It also requires the players to grapple with political considerations, particularly the dynamic between the global "North" (the developed world) and the global "South" (the developing world) at the heart of most political conflicts. Simulation outcomes from running the simulation at two scientific conferences and as part of a graduate-level course on global environmental science and policy will be presented.

Sectoral Costs of Environmental Policy. Final Report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vercaemst, P.; Vanassche, S.; Campling, P.; Vranken, L.; Agnolucci, P.; Salmons, R.; Shaw, B.; Jantzen, J.; Van der Woerd, H.; Gruenig, M.; Best, A.

2007-12-01

The Directorate General for Environment of the European Commission has launched a study on the 'Sectoral costs of environmental policy'. The overall aim of the study is to obtain a clearer picture of the impact of environmental policy in some of the industrial sectors most affected by environmental policy, taking into account the differences between sectors and Member States. Previous studies mainly focussed on the individual impact of one Directive, but in this study we will assess the cumulative costs attributable to the environmental policy in its entirety and attempt to identify synergies between individual policies. The project has the following main objectives: paint a clearer picture of the environmental costs for the selected industries; indicate the differences in costs between individual companies; indicate the differences in costs between Member States; demonstrate the drivers for environmental expenditures of the companies and differences between sectors and Member States; describe different types of environmental regulation (policy instruments) and their impact on environmental expenditures; evaluate the environmental performance of the industries and differences between companies/Member States; collect evidence for the impacts of environmental regulation (and associated costs) on the competitiveness of companies; and carry out an international comparison. The sectors selected are:oil supply chain; electricity production; steel industry; and textile and leather industry

The application of system dynamics modelling to environmental health decision-making and policy - a scoping review.

Science.gov (United States)

Currie, Danielle J; Smith, Carl; Jagals, Paul

2018-03-27

Policy and decision-making processes are routinely challenged by the complex and dynamic nature of environmental health problems. System dynamics modelling has demonstrated considerable value across a number of different fields to help decision-makers understand and predict the dynamic behaviour of complex systems in support the development of effective policy actions. In this scoping review we investigate if, and in what contexts, system dynamics modelling is being used to inform policy or decision-making processes related to environmental health. Four electronic databases and the grey literature were systematically searched to identify studies that intersect the areas environmental health, system dynamics modelling, and decision-making. Studies identified in the initial screening were further screened for their contextual, methodological and application-related relevancy. Studies deemed 'relevant' or 'highly relevant' according to all three criteria were included in this review. Key themes related to the rationale, impact and limitation of using system dynamics in the context of environmental health decision-making and policy were analysed. We identified a limited number of relevant studies (n = 15), two-thirds of which were conducted between 2011 and 2016. The majority of applications occurred in non-health related sectors (n = 9) including transportation, public utilities, water, housing, food, agriculture, and urban and regional planning. Applications were primarily targeted at micro-level (local, community or grassroots) decision-making processes (n = 9), with macro-level (national or international) decision-making to a lesser degree. There was significant heterogeneity in the stated rationales for using system dynamics and the intended impact of the system dynamics model on decision-making processes. A series of user-related, technical and application-related limitations and challenges were identified. None of the reported limitations or challenges

Emission taxes versus other environmental policies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hoel, Michael

1997-06-01

In most countries, various forms of quotas and direct regulation play a more important role in environmental policy than environmental taxes. This report discusses four arguments often given against emission taxes. Three of the arguments, which are related to information asymmetries and non-convexities, are valid arguments in the sense that they point at complications which make the use of environmental taxes less straightforward than what elementary textbooks would suggest. The fourth argument is related to the employment effects of different types of environmental policies in economies with unemployment. This is perhaps the argument most often used by politicians against environmental taxes. The analysis did not justify this type of argument. On the contrary: In the model used, employment is higher with environmental taxes than with non revenue-raising environmental policies. 18 refs., 6 figs.

Environmental Pricing: Studies in Policy Choices and Interactions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

areas of current practice that must be addressed. Empirical studies of policy strategies are discussed to illustrate the extent to which current climate change policy is integrated against the proposed successful policy combinations that are presented in this insightful book. Environmental pricing......Environmental taxes can be efficient tools for successful environmental policy. Their use, however, has been limited in many countries. This thoughtful book explores the scope of environmental pricing and examines a variety of national experiences in environmental policy integration, to identify...

Post-material values and environmental policy change

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Watts, N. (International Inst. for Environmental and Society, Berlin, Germany); Wandesforde-Smith, G.

Environmental policy may be particularly suited as a vehicle to articulate post-material values in advanced industrial societies, and recognition of this is likely to prove enormously helpful in future comparative and cross-national research into the origins of environmentalism and the causes of environmental policy change. The paper notes the salient characteristics of post-materialism and the overlap of these with the leading indicators of environmentalism. Possible structural causes for this overlap are noted and opposed to the prevailing socialization explanation for the adoption of post-material and environmental values. To help understand the impact of environmentalism on policy, an idealized development of the movement is sketched. This leads to the description of a set of general factors likely to be related to the way environmentalism finds political expressions in various countries. In the final section, the focus is on what we might want to know about the policy process in order to be able to gauge environmentalist influence on policy outputs. 20 references.

Environmental Concerns, Environmental Policy and Green Investment.

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Xuexian; Zheng, Haidong

2017-12-13

Environmental regulators often use environmental policy to induce green investment by firms. However, if an environmental policy fails to exert a long-run effect on regulating the economic agents' behavior, it may be more reasonable to think of the firm as the leader in the game, since the investment in green technology is usually a strategic decision. In this paper, we consider a three-stage Stackelberg game to address the interaction between a profit-maximizing firm (Stackelberg leader) facing emission-dependent demand, and the environmental regulator (Stackelberg follower). The firm decides on the green technology level in the first stage of the game based on its understanding of the regulator's profits function, especially an environmental concern that is introduced as an exogenous variable. In the current research, we show that high levels of the regulator's environmental concerns do not necessarily lead to the choice of green technology by the firm, and green investment level depends on the combined effects of the market and operational factors for a given level of the regulator's environmental concerns. The result also shows that increasing environmental awareness amongst the consumers is an effective way to drive the firm's green investment.

Challenges and policies in Indonesia's energy sector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dutu, Richard

2016-01-01

Fossil fuels are central to Indonesia's energy policy, and its main source of export revenues. However, insufficient investment, the lack of transport infrastructure and an unwieldy regulatory environment are inhibiting the sector from reaching its full potential. Looking ahead, growing environmental concerns combined with sharp falls in coal prices and the on-going shale gas revolution call into question the sustainability of an energy strategy based almost exclusively on fossil fuels. This viewpoint challenges Indonesia's current energy policy and proposes ways to increase its energy efficiency and use of renewables. In particular, its gas sector should be further developed to plug the gap until sufficient renewable energy, especially geothermal, comes on line. Government control over the oil industry via state-owned Pertamina should be gradually reduced. Clarifying, streamlining and publicising simple regulations in energy, especially regarding land rights and on-shore processing, and removing foreign-ownership restrictions will help bring much needed investment. The pressure on the environment of natural resource exploitation should also be addressed by properly defining property rights and regulations regarding forest land, and implementing a positive implicit carbon price. - Highlights: • Indonesia's energy sector faces many regulatory, environmental and infrastructure hurdles. • Indonesia's energy policy can be improved through greater use of renewables, especially geothermal. • The gas sector should be further developed until more renewable energy come on line. • Government control over the oil industry should be reduced to boost investment. • Clarifying and simplifying regulations is key to attracting foreign companies and protecting the environment.

The use of fiscal instruments in European environmental policy: review essay

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Deketelaere, K. [University of Leuven, Leuven (Belgium). Inst. for Environmental and Energy Law

1999-08-01

Once a government has defined its environmental goals, it can execute them by means of different policy instruments. The following environmental policy instruments can be distinguished: (1) instruments of social regulation, such as transfer of information (environmental education, environmental labels, environmental impact reports, etc.), self-regulation (environmental policy agreements, self-control), and environmental care systems; (2) instruments of financial aid, such as subsidies, soft loans, and fiscal incentives (investment deduction, tax reduction and tax exemption); (3) instruments of planning such as macro-planning and micro-planning, binding planning and non-binding planning, sectoral planning and non-sectoral planning; (4) instruments of direct regulation, such as permits, prohibitions and restrictions, and different sorts of requirements (quality-demands, product-demands, emission-demands, design demands, construction demands and production demands); (5) instruments of market regulation, such as liability rules, marketable emission rights, deposit and refund system, enforcement incentives and environmental levies. In this contribution, each of these environmental policy instruments is analyzed in general. After that, the instruments which have already been used in European environmental policy are examined. Finally, attention paid to the use of fiscal instruments in European environmental policy. 80 refs.

Integrated environmental policy: A review of economic analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Wiesmeth, Hans; Häckl, Dennis

2017-04-01

Holistic environmental policies, which emerged from a mere combination of technical activities in waste management some 40 years ago, constitute the most advanced level of environmental policies. These approaches to environmental policy, among them the policies in integrated waste management, attempt to guide economic agents to an environment-friendly behaviour. Nevertheless, current holistic policies in waste management, including policies on one-way drinks containers and waste electrical and electronic equipment, and implementations of extended producer responsibility with further applications to waste electrical and electronic equipment, reveal more or less severe deficiencies - despite some positive examples. This article relates these policy failures, which are not necessarily the result of an insufficient compliance with the regulations, to missing constitutive elements of what is going to be called an 'integrated environmental policy'. This article therefore investigates - mostly from a practical point of view - constitutive elements, which are necessary for a holistic policy to serve as a well-functioning allocation mechanism. As these constitutive elements result from a careful 'integration' of the environmental commodities into the economic allocation problems, we refer to these policies as 'integrated environmental policies'. The article also discusses and illustrates the main steps of designing such a policy - for waste electrical and electronic equipment and a (possible) ban of Glyphosat in agriculture. As these policies are dependent on economic and political stability with environmental awareness sufficiently developed, the article addresses mostly waste management policies in highly industrialised countries.

World environmental policy. Conceptual approaches of German political science in response to the challenges of Global Change; Weltumweltpolitik - Global Change als Herausforderung fuer die deutsche Politikwissenschaft

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Biermann, F. [Potsdam-Institut fuer Klimafolgenforschung (PIK), Potsdam (Germany); Dingwerth, K. [Freie Univ. Berlin (Germany). Fachbereich Politik- und Sozialwissenschaften

2001-12-01

This paper describes, first, the international community of social scientists working on global change, and elaborates on possible contributions to this community by German political scientists. Second, the paper examines three new conceptual approaches to analysing global change, namely the Syndromes of Global Change approach, Earth System Analysis, and Sustainability Science. The paper then elaborates on a number of ways in which German political science could respond to the academic and political challenges posed by global change. It concludes by emphasizing the need for a new approach, focusing on 'world environmental policy analysis' that would bridge traditional (environmental) policy analysis, international relations research, and comparative politics. (orig.) [German] Der Aufsatz beschreibt die Wissenschaftslandschaft der internationalen sozialwissenschaftlichen Global-Change-Forschung mit besonderem Augenmerk auf moegliche Beitraege der deutschen Politologie. Mit den 'Syndromen des Globalen Wandels', der 'Erdsystemanalyse' und der 'Nachhaltigkeitswissenschaft' werden drei neuere konzeptionelle Innovationen vorgestellt, mit denen der Herausforderung des Globalen Wandels begegnet werden soll. Anschliessend werden Wege skizziert, wie die Politikwissenschaft auf die neuen gesellschaftlichen und wissenschaftlichen Probleme des Globalen Wandels reagieren koennte. Eine Schlussfolgerung ist ein Plaedoyer fuer die Entwicklung einer eigenstaendigen Weltumweltpolitik-Analyse an der Schnittstelle von traditioneller Policy-Analyse, Internationalen Beziehungen/Aussenpolitik sowie Komparatistik. (orig./CB)

Environmental law, policy, and economics: reclaiming the environmental agenda

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Caldart, Charles C; Ashford, Nicholas Askounes

2008-01-01

... of Information Regarding Chemical Risks 771 11 Enforcement: Encouraging Compliance with Environmental Statutes 807 12 Alternative Forms of Government Intervention to Promote Pollution Reduction 879 13 Polici...

Environmental policy in the Federal Republic of Germany

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Simonis, U.E.

1991-12-31

After a short description of the basic aims of environmental policy the general development of environmental policy in the FRG is gone into. Here above all the sectors air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution and waste materials are dealt with. Finally the most important elements of the decision-making processes are explained and a short history of environmental policy in the FRG is given. (UA). [Deutsch] Nach einer kurzen Erlaeuterung der Grundziele der Umweltpolitik wird in kurzer Form auf die allgemeine Entwicklung der Umweltpolitik in der BRD eingegangen. Dabei werden insbesondere die Bereiche Luftverschmutzung, Wasserverschmutzung, Laermbelaestigung und Abfallmaterialien behandelt. Abschliessend werden die wichtigsten Grundzuege des Entscheidungs-Findungs-Prozesses erlaeutert, und es wird die historische Entwicklung der Umweltpolitik in der BRD skizziert. (UA).

Environmental Concerns, Environmental Policy and Green Investment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xuexian Gao

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Environmental regulators often use environmental policy to induce green investment by firms. However, if an environmental policy fails to exert a long-run effect on regulating the economic agents’ behavior, it may be more reasonable to think of the firm as the leader in the game, since the investment in green technology is usually a strategic decision. In this paper, we consider a three-stage Stackelberg game to address the interaction between a profit-maximizing firm (Stackelberg leader facing emission-dependent demand, and the environmental regulator (Stackelberg follower. The firm decides on the green technology level in the first stage of the game based on its understanding of the regulator’s profits function, especially an environmental concern that is introduced as an exogenous variable. In the current research, we show that high levels of the regulator’s environmental concerns do not necessarily lead to the choice of green technology by the firm, and green investment level depends on the combined effects of the market and operational factors for a given level of the regulator’s environmental concerns. The result also shows that increasing environmental awareness amongst the consumers is an effective way to drive the firm’s green investment.

75 FR 26270 - Environmental Planning and Historic Preservation Compliance Costs Policy; Environmental Planning...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-05-11

...] Environmental Planning and Historic Preservation Compliance Costs Policy; Environmental Planning and Historic... draft Environmental Planning and Historic Preservation Compliance Costs policy and a draft Environmental Planning and Historic Preservation Mitigation policy. DATES: Comments must be received by June 10, 2010...

Environmental aspects of the energy policy in the GDR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gruhn, W.

1982-01-01

This study pursues two aims: description and analysis of the environmental policy of the GDR, its ideologic foundations and economic constraints, its legal and administrative measures for the safeguarding of environmental protection, but also of the reasons for neglecting this task. Framework conditions are outlined and used in or for analysing the environmental problems caused mainly by the GDR's environmental policy, and the approaches and efforts made to find solutions. Both parts are based on statements and comments of politicians and theoreticians, on the actual policy of the GDR and on descriptions of the situation and contributions of scientists and technicians. The discussion of nuclear energy, risk evaluation and acceptance of this kind of energy supply in the GDR are a further major feature of the book. Analysis showed that environmental protection is viewed merely as a marginal problem by political and economical forces of the GDR, even though environmental protection is considered an important task on a global level and the GDR-leadership verbally agrees with this view. Discrepancies between verbal acknowledgement and striving for solution becomes outstandingly clear in this analysis. (orig./HSCH) [de

Environmental policies in competitive electricity markets

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Langestraat, R.

2013-01-01

In this thesis we model and analyze several environmental policies in an existing mathematical representation of a perfectly competitive electricity market. We contribute to the literature by theoretically and numerically establishing a number of effects of environmental policies on investment

Environmental Education Policy Processes in the Southern African ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

implementation of environmental education policy. Further questions .... for Environmental Management (in Ketlhoilwe, 2003) calls for an informed and environmentally ..... As priority issues such as HIV/AIDS, poverty, water resources and solid.

The National Environmental Policy Act and DOE's programmatic environmental impact statement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wisenbaker, W.E.

1991-01-01

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 requires that all agencies of the federal government prepare a detailed statement on any action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. Such a statement must include the environmental impact of the proposed action, any adverse environmental effects that cannot be avoided should the proposed action be implemented, and alternatives to the proposed action. In requiring environmental statements, NEPA encourages viewing related actions collectively and looking at cumulative impacts. A programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) is a broad environmental analysis of a program or policy prepared when actions are connected and may have cumulative environmental impacts. The PEIS benefits include providing input into an agency's planning and decision making, assessing potential environmental consequences of a wide range of alternatives before options have been foreclosed, and allowing consideration of systemwide impacts of various alternatives early in the decision-making process. The US Department of Energy (DOE) will prepare its PEIS on Environmental Restoration and Waste Management program. The PEIS will consider programmatic issues and integrated approaches to the program; address national, program-wide alternatives rather than site-specific actions; and provide for subsequent NEPA documents of narrower scope to be prepared to address site-specific or project-specific actions

A comparison of the technological, economic, public policy, and environmental factors of HVDC and HVAC interregional transmission

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Armando L. Figueroa-Acevedo

2015-02-01

Full Text Available The design of an interregional high-voltage transmission system in the US is a revolutionary technological concept that will likely play a significant role in the planning and operation of future electric power systems. Historically, the primary justification for building interregional high-voltage transmission lines in the US and around the world has been based on economic and reliability criteria. Today, the implementation renewable portfolio standards, carbon emission regulations, the improvements in the performance of power electronic systems, and unused benefits associated with capacity exchange during times of non-coincident peak demand, are driving the idea of designing an interregional high-voltage transmission system in the US. However, there exist challenges related to technical, economic, public policy, and environmental factors that hinder the implementation of such a complex infrastructure. The natural skepticism from many sectors of the society, in regards to how will the system be operated, how much will it cost, and the environmental impact that it could potentially create are among the most significant challenges to its rapid implementation. This publication aims at illustrating the technological, environmental, economic, and policy challenges that interregional HV transmission systems face today in the US, looking specifically at the Clean Line Rock Island project in Iowa.

Environmental research organizations and climate change policy analytical capacity : an assessment of the Canadian case

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Howlett, M.; Oliphant, S.

2010-01-01

Climate change is a topic of increasing interest to contemporary decision makers. In order for governments to make informed decisions in climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, environmental policy makers require strong research and analytical capabilities to design and implement effective policies to deal with wide-ranging and complex policy issues. This articles presented a 7-criteria model of policy analytical capacity (PAC) and applied it to 3 prominent Canadian environmental policy research organizations. The 2 governmental organizations examined in this study were Environment Canada and the British Columbia Ministry of the Environment, while the non-government organization was the David Suzuki Foundation. Following the 7 principles that determine the PAC of an organization, each case study examined the education/training of the organization's employees; the types and mix of policy analysis techniques used by the organization; the culture and structure of decision making in the organization; the nature and source of demand for the organization's research; and the organization's access to necessary data and information to conduct work at a high level of competence. Interview data provided information on the status of each organizations' current research capacity and the effect this has on overall government policy-making capability in the face of climate change challenges. 75 refs.

The roots and routes of environmental and sustainability education policy research – an introduction to a virtual special issue

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lysgaard, Jonas Andreasen; Van Poeck, Katrien; Reid, Alan

2016-01-01

This article introduces the themes of a virtual special issue (VSI) of Environmental Education Research (http://explore.tandfonline.com/content/ed/ceer-vsi) focused on policy research in environmental and sustainability education (ESE). The broad purpose behind preparing the VSI was to consider...... the challenges involved in linking particular concepts of environment and sustainability with key themes in educational policy, and how this remains a heavily contested practice. Examples drawn from two decades of studies published in the journal show how these might be illustrated, addressed, problematized...

Environmental policy and environment-saving technologies. Economic aspects of policy making under uncertainty

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ossokina, I.

2003-07-01

It is generally known that natural environment is profoundly influenced by technological change. The direction and the size of this influence are, however, surrounded by uncertainties, which substantially complicate environmental policy making. This dissertation uses game-theoretical models to study policy making under uncertainty about (a) the costs of technological advances in pollution control, (b) the preferences of the policy maker and the voters, and (c) the consequences of policy measures. From a positive point of view the analysis provides explanations for environmental policies in modern democracies. From a normative point of view it gives a number of recommendations to improve environmental policies.

Is Europe to turn ecological? Driving factors and impediments to a European environmental policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hillenbrand, O.

1994-01-01

What are the strong and week points of community environmental policy? Does the European Union command suitable tools for meeting the environment-political challenges of this decade? Will Europeans succeed in phasing in an ecologically oriented industrial society? ''Is Europe to turn ecological?'' puts the European environmental policy on the test stand. It explains under what political, economic, and institutional conditions the Union's environmental policy was built from the Single European Act to the completion of the internal market, what basic tasks it faces and what political resources are at the disposal of the European Union since the Maastricht Treaty came into force. The book addresses readers who want to close knowledge gaps and have their say in the debate on the ecological reconstruction of Europe. It was sponsored by the Federal German Environment Foundation. (orig.) [de

Multinationals and international environmental policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dam, L.; Scholtens, B.

2009-01-01

Multinationals with relatively poor environmental policy establish themselves in countries with weak environmental regulation. These activities are not undertaken in the poorest or most corrupt countries though. The question arises if multinationals with relatively developed environmental behavior settle less or more often in countries with environmental legislation. [mk] [nl

Greening the Screen: An Environmental Challenge

OpenAIRE

Ekin Gündüz Özdemirci

2016-01-01

Environmental themes and representations on screen are examined as a part of environmental social studies and can be considered a way of creating awareness of environmental issues. However, how often do we consider the environmental impact of a film or television shoot as an industrial process? In this article, I examine the sustainability practices in the motion picture industry and challenges to that by focusing on the British film and television industry as a case study. Using the intervie...

Rethinking Environmental Protection: Meeting the Challenges ...

Science.gov (United States)

Background: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has made great progress in addressing some major environmental problems. These successes were framed within EPA’s statutory mandates which are largely media-specific and receptor-focused and follow a segmented risk-based construct. Today’s environmental problems are increasingly complex, and new approaches are needed to achieve sustainable solutions that protect the environment and public health. Objectives: We provide an overview of environmental protection at EPA and highlight today’s environmental challenges. We provide case examples of systems approaches that consider the links between environment and human health. We offer a strategic framework for tackling challenges so EPA can continue to protect the environment and public health.Discussion: Expanded approaches will be transdisciplinary, informed by vast new sources of data, and build upon new stakeholder partnerships. A systems approach to environmental protection looks at problems holistically, includes the drivers and stressors that impact the issue and the dimensions that frame it, and integrates various types of data from health, ecological, and social sciences, with the goal of formulating sustainable solutions to environmental issues. Conclusions: The natural environment and human health are inextricably linked, and human health, well-being, and economic prosperity depend on healthy ecosystems. EPA research is leading an evolution in

Valuing the benefits of environmental policy: the Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Howarth A; Pearce DW; Ozdemiroglu E; Seccombe-Hett T; Wieringa K; Streefkerk CM; Hollander AEM de; EFTEC; MNV

2001-01-01

This study seeks to set priorities for environmental policy in the Netherlands. We focused on seven environmental issues including: climate change, acidification, low level ozone, particulate matter, noise, eutrophication and land contamination. These issues are prioritised using three different

Socio-environmental policy of Brazilian electric sector. Effects of environmental legislation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Amaral, A.C.; Menezes, C.F.S.

1993-01-01

The great socio-environmental policies of Brazilian electric sector are presented, including the aspects of environmental legislation that affects the electric sector and the difficulties faced in order to adapting to this situation. The main problems that the electric sector has found to establishing its socio-environmental policies are also described. (C.M.)

How much do we value the environment? The acceptation of environmental policy and environmental measures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mulder, S.; Verhue, D.; Adriaansen, M.

2005-01-01

Several surveys were conducted to investigate the public opinion in the Netherlands on the environment. The subjects investigated were: climatic change, air pollution, biodiversity, noise and soil pollution, and nature in the Netherlands. Special attention was paid to the willingness of the Dutch to accept specific environmental measures and a marketing strategy for new environmental policy. The purpose of the surveys is to broaden the support of the Dutch people for the environmental policy [nl

The big challenges in modeling human and environmental well-being.

Science.gov (United States)

Tuljapurkar, Shripad

2016-01-01

This article is a selective review of quantitative research, historical and prospective, that is needed to inform sustainable development policy. I start with a simple framework to highlight how demography and productivity shape human well-being. I use that to discuss three sets of issues and corresponding challenges to modeling: first, population prehistory and early human development and their implications for the future; second, the multiple distinct dimensions of human and environmental well-being and the meaning of sustainability; and, third, inequality as a phenomenon triggered by development and models to examine changing inequality and its consequences. I conclude with a few words about other important factors: political, institutional, and cultural.

Regulative environmental policy. Regulative Umweltpolitik

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Goerlitz, A; Voigt, R [Universitaet der Bundeswehr Muenchen, Neubiberg (Germany, F.R.). Fakultaet fuer Sozialwissenschaften; eds.

1991-01-01

Regulative policy means those governmental attempts to steer the course of things which can fall back on a certain repertoire of instruments for actions in order to warrant the causal and temporal connection between the making available and the employment of means. The fact that environmental protection needs regulative policy is substantiated by the thesis that the market has failed; consequently only government can manage the public goods 'environment' in a suitable way, and it is a matter of fact that environmental protection at present is operated preferably via regulative policy. The problems of regulative enviromental policy are manifold. Its implementation often miscarries because of limited administrative resources on the one hand - making sufficient control impossible for instance -, and because of poor quality regulative instruments on the other hand. One way out would be to increase the efficiency of regulative policy by sophisticating judicial techniques. Other ways out point to the executing level and aim at improving implementation strategies or are concerned with post-regulative law. The latter refers to a new legal quality which demonstrates itself already in corporatistical crisis regulation or in induction programs such as pollution limits. A final way out favours deregulation strategies which includes the introduction of environmental levies or the allocation of environmental licences. An interdisciplinary discourse is to find out what would happen if these ways were taken. Pointers to solutions from varying scientific disciplines resulting from this discourse are to be found in this volume. (orig./HSCH).

Coping with global environmental change, disasters and security. Threats, challenges, vulnerabilities and risks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brauch, Hans Guenter [Freie Univ. Berlin (Germany). Dept. of Political and Social Sciences; UNU-EHS, Bonn (DE). College of Associated Scientists and Advisors (CASA); Oswald Spring, Ursula [National Univ. of Mexico, Cuernavaca (MX). Regional Multidisciplinary Research Centre (CRIM); Mesjasz, Czeslaw [Cracow Univ. of Exonomics (Poland). Faculty of Management; Grin, John [Amsterdam Univ. (Netherlands). Dept. of Political Science; Dutch Knowledge network for Systems Innovations and Transitions (KSI), Amsterdam (Netherlands); Kameri-Mbote, Patricia [Strathmore Univ., Nairobi (Kenya). Dept. of Law; International Environmental Law Research Centre, Nairobi (Kenya); Chourou, Bechir [Univ. of Tunis-Carthage, Hammam-Chatt (Tunisia); Dunay, Pal [Geneva Centre for Security Policy (Switzerland). International Training Course in Security Policy; Birkmann, Joern (eds.) [United Nations Univ. (UNU), Bonn (DE). Inst. for Environment and Human Security (EHS)

2011-07-01

This policy-focused Global Environmental and Human Security Handbook for the Anthropo-cene (GEHSHA) addresses new security threats, challenges, vulnerabilities and risks posed by global environmental change and disasters. In 6 forewords, 5 preface essays 95 peer reviewed chapcountries analyse in 10 parts concepts of military and political hard security and economic, social, environmental soft security with a regional focus on the Near East, North and Sub-Sahara Africa and Asia and on hazards in urban centres. The major focus is on coping with global environmental change: climate change, desertification, water, food and health and with hazards and strategies on social vulnerability and resilience building and scientific, international, regional and national political strategies, policies and measures including early warning of conflicts and hazards. The book proposes a political geo-ecology and discusses a 'Fourth Green Revolution' for the Anthropocene era of earth history. (orig.)

Development research: The environmental challenge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Winpenny, J.T.

1991-01-01

This book represents papers from a 1990 conference 'The environment, Development and Economic Research'. The focus of the book is the environmental and natural resource use problems, though economic development is a strong co-theme. Chapters cover the following topic areas: international issues; macroeconomic policies; natural resource degradation; urban problems; social dimensions; bio-diversity; energy; economic valuation

Policy processes and decision making of environmental policy in Great Britain and France. Vol. 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schreiber, H.

1991-01-01

Research of central aspects of British environmental policy. This report concentrates on the role of the constitutional system of environmental policy, on the evaluation of a growing of 'Green Policy' in Great Britain, on the central problems of environmental policy and finally on the role of international environmental policy for Great Britain and Great Britain's role in international environmental activities. Beyond that this report contains a presentation of the state of the British environment (Pollution: Air, Water, Waste, Soil; Radioactivity and Noise). (orig.) With 205 refs., 18 tabs., 14 figs [de

41 CFR 101-25.111 - Environmental impact policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 41 Public Contracts and Property Management 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Environmental impact...-General Policies § 101-25.111 Environmental impact policy. (a) From time to time, Congress enacts... Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321). The objective of such legislation is, among other things, the...

New directions in Mexican environmental policy

Science.gov (United States)

Mumme, Stephen P.; Sanchez, Roberto A.

1992-07-01

Since taking office 1 December 1988, Mexico's incumbent president, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, has introduced important innovations in environmental policy that distinguish his administration from those of his predecessors. Greater administrative continuity, improved regulatory capacity achieved through statutory change, focused priorities centering on pollution abatement in Mexico City, and an aggressive search for external financing for pollution control are hallmarks of Salinas' approach. The success of these environmental reforms depends heavily on economic recovery, however, and environmental policy still suffers from underfunding, bureaucratic fragmentation, and heavy reliance on voluntarist enforcement mechanisms. Recently, U.S. congressional debate on a proposed free trade agreement with Mexico has been a factor in spurring the Salinas government to take new antipollution and conservation measures. Mexico's growing environmental movement is also an important force behind the government's new responsiveness in environmental matters. The Salinas administration recognizes the issue's political salience and has sought to defuse environmental criticism using a large arsenal of resources at its disposal. Salinas' environmental policy strategy may thus be characterized as both proactive and reactive in nature. While the reforms are evidence that Mexico is beginning to take environmental matters more seriously, economic recovery and sustained environmental activism remain vital to further progress.

Environmental justice and environmental inequalities: A European perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laurent, Eloi

2010-03-01

In this paper, I highlight a pressing issue facing current and future social policies in the EU: the articulation between social justice and environmental concerns. European social policies have only recently acknowledged the need to integrate the notions of environmental justice and environmental inequalities, which have been part of the US policy arsenal for almost two decades. Indeed, challenges to equality and fairness in the environmental domain are many and growing in Europe. After having defined environmental justice and environmental inequalities in the light of historical developments and recent literature, I address two dimensions of those challenges for the EU: vulnerability and exposure to environmental risk; social fairness in environmental taxation. I finally offer some thoughts on the importance of the justice approach to environmental issues in order to conceive legitimate 'socio-ecological policies' able to change in the long run not only behaviours but attitudes of citizens towards the environment. (author)

Challenges for decommissioning policies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Riotte, H.

2007-01-01

In the coming years, OECD member countries will be increasingly faced with the need to make appropriate provisions, in terms of policy, finance and management, for all aspects of decommissioning. Decommissioning requires regulatory approval and oversight, the directions of which are guided by national policy. In several instances, governments have only recently begun to address their approaches to decommissioning policy and regulation in national legislation, and international overviews of such approaches, which may eventually lead to international harmonization, are only now beginning to emerge. In parallel, policy and regulation have been evolving and a broadened competence has developed in relevant regulatory authorities. The challenge lying ahead is to establish a framework that will allow for the growth of nuclear industrial activities in competitive, globalized markets, while maintaining and assuring the safety of decommissioning for the public and for workers. Within this context, institutional arrangements, stakeholder issues, costs and funding, waste management and policies for release from regulatory control, as well as the availability of technologies and skills, need to be reviewed. (author)

The challenge of multilingualism: in response to the language policy ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This article investigates the requirements of the newly released Language Policy for Higher Education and provides guidelines for an educational approach that would support multilingual, higher education. In a nutshell, this policy challenges higher education institutions to provide in the linguistic needs of the new, more ...

Environmental Regulation in Uganda: Successes and Challenges - Comment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christine Echookit Akellol

2007-06-01

Full Text Available The development of environmental regulatory framework in Uganda was initiated by the national environment action planning process in 1990, as a realization that environment needed special focus. As a result of the said process environmental policy and law were developed. The 1995 constitutional of the Republic of Uganda was among the first ever such constitution in the East African region to deliberately enshrine the right to a decent environment and to provide for sustainable development, in addition to the principle that natural resources are held in trust for the people and should be responsibly managed for their benefit. Following the constitution, a number of environment legislations were enacted and others were revised to take into account environmental cardinal principles and considerations, including embedding in them environmental regulatory provisions. Hence, in addition to the framework of National Environment Act, a number of environment sect oral legislation exists and environmental management is spread throughout the respective institutions responsible for aspects of the environment. It is therefore safe to say that Uganda has developed a lot of legislation on the environment but the challenge remains that of developing more regulations under the relevant parent Acts, effective monitoring and enforcement.

Environmental policy. 2000 environmental expert opinion of the Council of Experimental Experts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2000-05-01

The reorientation of energy policy is a key issue. The Council of Environmental Experts considers the further use of atomic energy to be irresponsible and recommends a new orientation. Recommendations are made on ecology-centered taxation. Critical comments are made in the context of conservation of nature, where many species of plants and animals still continue to be endangered. The conservation programme of the Federal government, which also comprises a system of large, interconnected biotopes on 10% of Germany's total surface, is approved, and the potential contribution of sustainable agricultural and forestry policy is discussed in a separate chapter. Further subjects discussed are recycling and waste management, protection of water and soil, air pollution abatement, health protection and genetic engineering. The environmental aspects of Eastern European states becoming EC members are gone into in particular. The network of Europen Environmental Councils, for which the German Council of Environmental Experts currently acts as a coordinator, makes intensive efforts to improve environmental counselling in these states [de

Remotely Sensed Data for High Resolution Agro-Environmental Policy Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Welle, Paul

Policy analyses of agricultural and environmental systems are often limited due to data constraints. Measurement campaigns can be costly, especially when the area of interest includes oceans, forests, agricultural regions or other dispersed spatial domains. Satellite based remote sensing offers a way to increase the spatial and temporal resolution of policy analysis concerning these systems. However, there are key limitations to the implementation of satellite data. Uncertainty in data derived from remote-sensing can be significant, and traditional methods of policy analysis for managing uncertainty on large datasets can be computationally expensive. Moreover, while satellite data can increasingly offer estimates of some parameters such as weather or crop use, other information regarding demographic or economic data is unlikely to be estimated using these techniques. Managing these challenges in practical policy analysis remains a challenge. In this dissertation, I conduct five case studies which rely heavily on data sourced from orbital sensors. First, I assess the magnitude of climate and anthropogenic stress on coral reef ecosystems. Second, I conduct an impact assessment of soil salinity on California agriculture. Third, I measure the propensity of growers to adapt their cropping practices to soil salinization in agriculture. Fourth, I analyze whether small-scale desalination units could be applied on farms in California in order mitigate the effects of drought and salinization as well as prevent agricultural drainage from entering vulnerable ecosystems. And fifth, I assess the feasibility of satellite-based remote sensing for salinity measurement at global scale. Through these case studies, I confront both the challenges and benefits associated with implementing satellite based-remote sensing for improved policy analysis.

Focal points of environmental policy at the beginning of the Eighties

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1981-01-01

This speech was held by the Federal Home Secretary Baum in front of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft fuer Umweltfragen (AGU) on 3rd February 1981. He said that environmental policy must be determined even more by the principle of providence in this decade; the main issue is the orientation towards the future in German economic, social, and welfare policy. Vehicles and environment, vehicle noise, advantageous conditions in competition for environmentally-minded and energy conserving vehicles, nuclear energy etc., and international pollution protection are considered focal points of future environmental policy. According to his opinion, the consumption situation and compatibility tests as to environmental conditions are necessary. Increasing pollution protection ought to be promoted by special financing programmes and model projects of the Federal Government. (HSCH) [de

Evaluating environmental policy instruments mixes; a methodology illustrated by noise policy in the Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Weber, Miriam; Driessen, Peter P J; Runhaar, Hens A C

2014-01-01

Environmental policy is characterised by complexity, in causes and effects, resulting in various combinations of policy instruments. However, evaluating these policy instrument mixes and assessing their effectiveness is difficult because of a lack of methodological approaches. This paper therefore

Integrating Environmental and Human Health Databases in the Great Lakes Basin: Themes, Challenges and Future Directions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kate L. Bassil

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Many government, academic and research institutions collect environmental data that are relevant to understanding the relationship between environmental exposures and human health. Integrating these data with health outcome data presents new challenges that are important to consider to improve our effective use of environmental health information. Our objective was to identify the common themes related to the integration of environmental and health data, and suggest ways to address the challenges and make progress toward more effective use of data already collected, to further our understanding of environmental health associations in the Great Lakes region. Environmental and human health databases were identified and reviewed using literature searches and a series of one-on-one and group expert consultations. Databases identified were predominantly environmental stressors databases, with fewer found for health outcomes and human exposure. Nine themes or factors that impact integration were identified: data availability, accessibility, harmonization, stakeholder collaboration, policy and strategic alignment, resource adequacy, environmental health indicators, and data exchange networks. The use and cost effectiveness of data currently collected could be improved by strategic changes to data collection and access systems to provide better opportunities to identify and study environmental exposures that may impact human health.

The mining sector of Liberia: current practices and environmental challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Samuel T K; Wang, Hongtao; Kabenge, Martin; Qi, Xuejiao

2017-08-01

Liberia is endowed with an impressive stock of mineral reserves and has traditionally relied on mining, namely iron ore, gold, and diamonds, as a major source of income. The recent growth in the mining sector has the potential to contribute significantly to employment, income generation, and infrastructure development. However, the development of these mineral resources has significant environmental impacts that often go unnoticed. This paper presents an overview of the Liberian mining sector from historical, current development, and economic perspectives. The efforts made by government to address issues of environmental management and sustainable development expressed in national and international frameworks, as well as some of the environmental challenges in the mining sector are analyzed. A case study was conducted on one of the iron ore mines (China Union Bong Mines Investment) to analyze the effects of the water quality on the local water environment. The results show that the analyzed water sample concentrations were all above the WHO and Liberia water standard Class I guidelines for drinking water. Finally the paper examines the application of water footprint from a life cycle perspective in the Liberian mining sector and suggests some policy options for water resources management.

Institutionalizing environmental valuation into policy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Phelps, Jacob; Dermawan, Ahmad; Garmendia, Eneko

2017-01-01

Monetary valuation of the environment is increasingly embedded in policy. Despite broad claims that valuation is policy-relevant, there is widespread frustration that it has not widely improved environmental outcomes, that it obscures many other types of values, and presents unintended consequences.

Goals and Principles of Environmental Policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zylicz, T.

2010-01-01

This paper looks at how contemporary environmental (including climate) policy problems are phrased in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and equity. The latter three concepts have served as foci of theoretical discussions among economists who analyse these issues and identify criteria that determine relevant regulations and programmes adopted by governments. The paper starts with a discussion of Pigouvian taxation as model instrument used in order to solve policy problems. It analyses to what extent and under what circumstances alternative instruments - such as marketable pollution permits - can achieve environmental and climate goals while serving other purposes too. Coase theorem is used as a reference for discussing what government interventions are indeed indispensable to achieve both explicit and tacit policy goals. Popular principles and practically applied 'rules of thumb' - such as the Polluter Pays Principle - are then reviewed. The next part is devoted to examining market structures as they influence environmental outcomes of economic activities. This is followed by a discussion of Environmental Tax Reforms which seems to inspire much of the economic thinking about contemporary policies. An outlook for the 21st century concludes the paper.

Uncertainty-accounting environmental policy and management of water systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Baresel, Christian; Destouni, Georgia

2007-05-15

Environmental policies for water quality and ecosystem management do not commonly require explicit stochastic accounts of uncertainty and risk associated with the quantification and prediction of waterborne pollutant loads and abatement effects. In this study, we formulate and investigate a possible environmental policy that does require an explicit stochastic uncertainty account. We compare both the environmental and economic resource allocation performance of such an uncertainty-accounting environmental policy with that of deterministic, risk-prone and risk-averse environmental policies under a range of different hypothetical, yet still possible, scenarios. The comparison indicates that a stochastic uncertainty-accounting policy may perform better than deterministic policies over a range of different scenarios. Even in the absence of reliable site-specific data, reported literature values appear to be useful for such a stochastic account of uncertainty.

Modeling the impacts of environmental policies on agricultural imports

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Larson, B.A.; Scatasta, S.

2005-01-01

For current policy debates in agricultural and food industries, policy analysts need to evaluate the impacts of how proposed changes in domestic environmental regulations may alter agricultural trade in the future. Given the industry-specific nature of many policies issues, analysts need sector and

Economic, welfare and environmental impact of feed-in tariff policy: A case study in Iran

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tabatabaei, Sharareh Majdzadeh; Hadian, Ebrahim; Marzban, Hossein; Zibaei, Mansour

2017-01-01

Following a particular attention given to environmental issues over the last few decades, establishing proper developmental policies to increase electricity production from renewable energy (RE) has not only been an important issue but also a challenge for many countries. Feed-in Tariff (FIT) Policy is one of the tools that is being used to facilitate the development of RE. This research evaluated the economic, welfare and environmental impact of this policy on Iran's economy. Therefore, after developing an Economic-Energy-Environmental (E3) type of Hybrid General Equilibrium model, the effect of FIT policy was examined under different scenarios in order to find an optimal condition in which 10% of electrical energy could be produced from renewable resources. The comparison between the results showed that the application of subsidies to RE and the way the government finances these subsidies can affect the results of FIT policy. Meanwhile, regardless of the role considered for the impact of environmental factors, our policies under the scenario of technology neutral is the most efficient, as it has less impact on the decline of GDP of different sectors and also has less financial cost for government. - Highlights: • E3 type of Hybrid CGE model is used under two different financing policies. • Technology neutral and technology specific scenarios are applied to these policies. • Results show the effect of our policies and scenarios on the efficiency of FIT policy. • This efficiency comes from the impact on GDP balance and government's financial cost. • The results show that, the scenario of technology neutral is the most efficient.

Next Generation Innovation Policy and Grand Challenges

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kuhlmann, Stefan; Rip, Arie

2018-01-01

The paper explores transformative ways to address Grand Challenges, while locating them in a broader diagnosis of ongoing changes. Coping with Grand Challenges is a challenge in its own right, for policy as well as for science, technology, and innovation actors. The paper presents building blocks

Policy instruments for energy conservation and environmental policy in the Netherlands

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bovenberg, A.L. [Tinbergen Inst., Rotterdam (Netherlands)

1992-03-01

In this paper it is assumed that the policy objective is not so much to economize on energy as to reduce pollution. In particular, to curb the emissions of carbon dioxide. A number of environmental policy instruments pertaining to fossil fuels are analyzed, mainly in the context of the Dutch economy: regulation, subsidies, voluntary agreements with industry, and taxation. At the moment, most industrial countries, including the Netherlands, rely almost entirely on the first three instruments. More recently, however, there has been a growing interest in environmental taxation. The theory that taxation is always and everywhere the best instrument assumes, however, perfect markets and a closed economy. Most economies, including the Dutch one, are riddled with market imperfections. Hence, policy makers confront a second best case. This implies that in selecting policy instruments, they have to resort to a more pragmatic `case-by-case` approach. A diversified diet is advocated. Taxation is part of that diet. Section 2 explores a number of important advantages of the tax instrument. Section 3 discusses a number of problems if a small open economy like the Netherlands would unilaterally adopt such a tax, especially if that tax would include energy-intensive firms that are subject to international competition. In this connection, some alternative policy instruments are analyzed in Section 4. Section 5 proceeds by investigating the case of international coordination and explores the conditions under which coordinated taxes could be successful. Section 6 analyzes policies targeted at households and at firms that are not subject to international competition. 13 refs.

Endogenous growth and environmental policy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Withagen, C.A.A.M.; Vellinga, N.

2001-01-01

This paper examines the relationship between environmental policy and growth, from the perspective of endogenous growth theory. In particular three standard endogenous growth models are supplemented with environmental issues, such as pollution and exhaustibility of natural resources. It is found

The French electricity policy facing European integration and environmental law

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Begue, M.C.

2004-02-01

The french electricity policy is traditionally defined by public authorities. The preference for nuclear power implies great risk and severe damage to the environment. These features of french electricity policy are however questioned by the increasing influence of european law and the (relatively) recent recognition of the environmental issues of such policy. This thesis intends to study the consequences of two 'new' tendencies that seem to be inevitable in the field of electricity policy: the decreasing role of national public authorities and the diffusion of the concept of sustainable development. The theoretical model which underlies the organization of commercial exchanges is replacing the traditional intervention of the State. regarding of this basic good. The adoption of legal rules to organize the electricity market has involved the development of many economic instruments. Those instruments aim at modifying the electricity policy in accordance with the principle of integration of environmental dimension in sectoral policies. The main object of our work is to analyse the consequences of these changes in the concept of public utility as well as in the importance given to environmental protection in the new forms of electricity policies. (author)

Challenges of the Unemployment Protection System and Active Policies in Spain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Del Pino, Eloísa

2015-02-01

Full Text Available The NorSpaR project aims to analyse the main public policy initiatives by which Norway and Spain cope with the new social and economic challenges derived from the so-called New Social Risks (NSR. Although both countries present significant differences in their institutional settings (such as Spanish EU membership, or its belonging to diverse welfare regimes types (Norway is generally included in the Nordic regime, while Spain is part of the Mediterranean one, both countries share a common interest in addressing the aforementioned challenges while maintaining social cohesion. In the last decade, governments in both countries have tried to respond to those challenges by reforming their labour markets, adapting their unemployment schemes, as well as their gender, family and long-term care policies. The analysis covered in this project includes three areas of public policy addressing NSR. First, dependency is one of the most daunting challenges for post-industrial societies experiencing population ageing and with an increasing number of frail people in need of care. This situation is forcing governments to rethink their long-term care policies. Second, family and gender public programs need to respond to the growing difficulties of families in reconciling professional and family life. Third, in the transition to a post-industrial order, and in a context of mass unemployment, social protection systems have a renewed prominence. Along with the so-called passive policies offering financial support to the unemployed, active labour market policies are geared to put people back into work. In our analysis we try to find answers to the following questions: What are the challenges that each of these policies have been trying to address in recent years? How have these policies evolved? What kinds of reforms have been implemented, and which ones have been neglected? Have the policy goals and targets of welfare programs been modified in any significant way

Environmental innovation through transport policy. The implementation of the free fare policy on public transport in Tallinn, Estonia

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gabaldon-Estevan, D.

2016-07-01

Urban areas are of increasing relevance when it comes to sustainability: First, about half of the world’s population now lives in cities (increasing to 60% by 2030). Second, cities are nowadays responsible for levels of resource consumption and waste generation that are higher beyond their share on world population. Third, cities are more vulnerable to disruptive events that can lead to restrictions on the provision of resources and to changes on the environment caused by climate change. And fourth, because they concentrate key resources (political, social, cultural…), cities are seen as strategic scenarios where to experiment and develop solutions to cope with the prevailing sustainability challenges driven by the major social and environmental transformations. Urban agglomerations can be seen as complex innovation systems where human activities are shaped in order to transform societies towards sustainable development. For this paper, we focus on the case of an environmental innovation regarding transport policy, the implementation of the fare-free policy on public transport for all inhabitants of Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn, with 414,000 inhabitants in 2015, is the capital of Estonia and the largest city in the country. Over the last two decades the share of public transport trips decreased dramatically. After a public opinion poll in 2012, in which over 75% of the participants voted for a fare-free public transportation system (FFPTS) in Tallinn, the new policy was implemented on 1st January 2013. From that date on inhabitants of Tallinn could use all public transport services (busses, trams, trolly-busses) operated by city-run operators for free. Later the fare-free system was implemented also on trains within Tallinn. In this paper we analyze the context, in which this policy was implemented, the main characteristics of its implementation and its actual situation. (Author)

Environmental macroeconomics : Environmental policy, business cycles, and directed technical change

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fischer, Carolyn; Heutel, Garth

Environmental economics has traditionally fallen in the domain of microeconomics, but approaches from macroeconomics have recently been applied to studying environmental policy. We focus on two macroeconomic tools and their application to environmental economics. First, real-business-cycle models

European Agri-Environmental Policy Facing the 21st Century

OpenAIRE

Latacz-Lohmann, Uwe

2000-01-01

This paper: reviews the development to date of agri-environmental policy in Europe; provides a critical assessment of its achievements and shortcomings; explores its likely future trajectory in the context of continuing CAP reform; highlights potential conflicts that may result; and draws comparisons with policy approaches in Australia and the US. The paper argues that the first generation of agri-environmental measures, implemented by northern European states in the early 1980s, focused on p...

Greening the Screen: An Environmental Challenge

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ekin Gündüz Özdemirci

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Environmental themes and representations on screen are examined as a part of environmental social studies and can be considered a way of creating awareness of environmental issues. However, how often do we consider the environmental impact of a film or television shoot as an industrial process? In this article, I examine the sustainability practices in the motion picture industry and challenges to that by focusing on the British film and television industry as a case study. Using the interviews with industry representatives and some case studies, I discuss the possibilities of creating a change in behavior in the film industry, not only in terms of embedding green measures but also reconstituting industrial mechanisms on behalf of environmental sustainability.

The Moral Challenge of Dangerous Climate Change: Values, Poverty, and Policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Crabtree, Andrew

2016-01-01

Book review of: The Moral Challenge of Dangerous Climate Change: Values, Poverty, and Policy by Darrel Moellendorf. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014, pp. 263 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-107-67850-7......Book review of: The Moral Challenge of Dangerous Climate Change: Values, Poverty, and Policy by Darrel Moellendorf. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014, pp. 263 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-107-67850-7...

The function of remote sensing in support of environmental policy

OpenAIRE

de Leeuw, Jan; Georgiadou, P.Y.; Georgiadou, Yola; Kerle, Norman; de Gier, Alfred; Inoue, Yoshio; Ferwerda, Jelle; Smies, Maarten; Narantuya, Davaa

2010-01-01

Limited awareness of environmental remote sensing’s potential ability to support environmental policy development constrains the technology’s utilization. This paper reviews the potential of earth observation from the perspective of environmental policy. A literature review of “remote sensing and policy” revealed that while the number of publications in this field increased almost twice as rapidly as that of remote sensing literature as a whole (15.3 versus 8.8% yr−1), there is apparently lit...

Public opinion and environmental policy output: a cross-national analysis of energy policies in Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Brilé; Böhmelt, Tobias; Ward, Hugh

2017-11-01

This article studies how public opinion is associated with the introduction of renewable energy policies in Europe. While research increasingly seeks to model the link between public opinion and environmental policies, the empirical evidence is largely based on a single case: the US. This limits the generalizability of findings and we argue accordingly for a systematic, quantitative study of how public opinion drives environmental policies in another context. Theoretically, we combine arguments behind the political survival of democratic leaders with electoral success and environmental politics. Ultimately, we suggest that office-seeking leaders introduce policies that seem favorable to the domestic audience; if the public prefers environmental protection, the government introduces such policies in turn. The main contribution of this research is the cross-country empirical analysis, where we combine data on the public’s environmental attitudes and renewable energy policy outputs in a European context between 1974 and 2015. We show that as public opinion shifts towards prioritizing the environment, there is a significant and positive effect on the rate of renewable energy policy outputs by governments in Europe. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic, quantitative study of public opinion and environmental policies across a large set of countries, and we demonstrate that the mechanisms behind the introduction of renewable energy policies follow major trends across European states.

Nurses' perceptions of the challenges related to the Omanization policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Riyami, M; Fischer, I; Lopez, V

2015-12-01

Human resource development has become a major concern in Oman since the inception of the 'Omanization' policy in 1988. The main goal of this policy was to replace the expatriate nursing workforce with similarly qualified local nurses to develop a sustainable workforce and achieve self-reliance. The aim of this study is to explore the nurses' perceptions of Omanization policy. A qualitative research design was used and 16 Omani registered nurses and 26 student nurses were interviewed in depth. Transcribed data were analysed using content analysis. Two main themes emerged from the data: 'Challenges of sustaining the local nursing workforce' and 'Challenges of educational preparation for local nurses'. The participants agreed that Omanization benefited national development, social stability and ensuring local workforce. The challenges faced were cultural and work life balance, preparation of nurses and pace of replacement. The participants were concerned that the pace of replacement could leave behind a marked experience gap. A slow-phased approach to Omanization of the nursing workforce was recommended by the participants. Results obtained from this study reflect the perceptions and voices of student nurses and registered nurses only from the Institute of Nursing and Oman Ministry of Health. A policy of this magnitude requires gradual establishment. The upgrading of the nursing education to degree level, continuous professional development, mentoring and role modeling of expert nurses should be established to prepare local nurses for the localization of the nursing workforce. © 2015 International Council of Nurses.

The evolution of the ecological policy and the environmental law of the European community

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dietinger, A.

1998-08-01

This thesis is structured chronologically starting with the origins of a European environment policy. These origins can be found in the foundation treaty of the European Community but are not explicitly codified. The thesis shows that the emphasis on economics in the European Community turned from acceptance of an environment policy as a marginal phenomenon to valuation of environmental policies as a principle of its own. The focus is on the contents of the EC Trial. The normative structure on which the environmental policy is built on aims of making clear that not only political declarations without any codification are made, but that the environment is a field of community activity to be taken seriously. Special attention is given the aim of economic growth and its incompatibles environmental policies. Convergence can only be reached if EC Member States use their potential of cooperation and are ready to make their contribution. A special chapter deals with the competence of member states concerning environmental policies. As contracting partners to GATT, member states of the European Union represent a very large portion of world trade, we have to make sure environmental policy is given the right place it deserves in free world trade. A summary and final reflections are included in the last part of the thesis. (author)

Political Measures for Strategic Environmental Policy with External Effects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ohyama, A. [Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University, Kyoto (Japan); Tsujimura, M. [Faculty of Economics, Ryukoku University, Otsu (Japan)

2006-10-15

This paper investigates an environmental policy designed to reduce the emission of pollutants under uncertainty, with the agent problem as an optimal stopping problem. We first analyze the two cases in which there are one agent and two competing agents by following Ohyama and Tsujimura (2005). When we consider a model of strategic agents, we need to analyze the external economic effect that is peculiar to an agent's environmental policy implementation. Then, to improve and resolve these external effects, we examine three alternative political measures, comprising an environmental subsidy, an environmental tax and an emission trading system. The results of the analysis indicate that the environmental subsidy and environmental tax promote environmental policy. However, they do not create an incentive to be the leader. On the other hand, an emissions trading system not only promotes environmental policy but also creates an incentive for leadership.

Political Measures for Strategic Environmental Policy with External Effects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohyama, A.; Tsujimura, M.

2006-01-01

This paper investigates an environmental policy designed to reduce the emission of pollutants under uncertainty, with the agent problem as an optimal stopping problem. We first analyze the two cases in which there are one agent and two competing agents by following Ohyama and Tsujimura (2005). When we consider a model of strategic agents, we need to analyze the external economic effect that is peculiar to an agent's environmental policy implementation. Then, to improve and resolve these external effects, we examine three alternative political measures, comprising an environmental subsidy, an environmental tax and an emission trading system. The results of the analysis indicate that the environmental subsidy and environmental tax promote environmental policy. However, they do not create an incentive to be the leader. On the other hand, an emissions trading system not only promotes environmental policy but also creates an incentive for leadership

Tackling U.S. energy challenges and opportunities: preliminary policy recommendations for enhancing energy innovation in the United States

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Anadon, Laura Diaz; Gallagher, Kelly Sims; Bunn, Matthew; Jones, Charles

2009-02-18

The report offers preliminary recommendations for near-term actions to strengthen the U.S. effort to develop and deploy advanced energy technologies. The report comes as the Obama Administration and the 111th U.S. Congress face enormous challenges and opportunities in tackling the pressing security, economic, and environmental problems posed by the energy sector. Improving the technologies of energy supply and end-use is a prerequisite for surmounting these challenges in a timely and cost-effective way, and this report elaborates on how policy can support develop of these important energy technologies.

Environmental policies and prospects for the 1980s

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1979-10-01

Following the economic events of 1974-1975 and the subsequent economic stagnation, economic growth has come into focus again. The discussions have raised the question of reconciliation between economic-growth objectives and other social, industrial and environmental aims. While the need for the continuation and even strengthening of environmental measures has been clearly recognized measures have been taken in some OECD (Organization Economic Cooperation and Development) countries to ensure that the implementation of environmental policies is adjusted to harmonized more closely, than in the past, with economic policy objectives. In other cases environmental goals proposed for the early 1980s are now being re-examined in the light of the changed economic climate. In view of these changing circumstances this article examines if and to what extent economic and environmental goals conflict during the period up to 1985. Various scenarios are offered to attempt to clarify the issues and provide a baseline against which the need for more stringent controls can be evaluated. Some of the wideranging environmental impacts and effects discussed are: agriculture expansion, transport increases (principally automotive), urban decline in older industrial regions and urban growth in attractive areas, energy pollution (in production, transport and consumption), and environmental consequences of tourism.

Agro-environmental policies in Germany

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Frohberg, K.; Weingarten

1997-01-01

Agricultural activities always have impacts on the environment. Whereas soil erosion is a minor problem in Germany water pollution due to modern and intensive agriculture is of major concern. At first the paper discusses to what extent agriculture contributes to environmental pollution in Germany, in particular to the pollution of surface waters (as well as hydroelectric power constructions on the Danube) and groundwater by nutrients and pesticides. Agro-environmental policy in Germany is dominated by command-and-control-measures. Hence, in the second section, recent developments of the most important legal and institutional settings concerning water conservation policies are surveyed with special emphasis on the Federal Water Act and the Implementation of the Nitrate Directive into German legislation by the Fertilizer Ordinance. Thirdly, impacts of alternative water conservation policies are investigated using a regionalized agricultural sector model. Information obtained by this model analysis cover the development of N-balances, potential nitrate concentrations in the recharged groundwater, costs potentially effected by this and resulting agricultural incomes on the country level of the former Federal Republic Germany. The last section focuses on programs promoting environmentally sound farming practices, which gained increasing importance in the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union in the last years. It is argued that this development will also continue in the future. (author)

Challenges in Creating Evidence in Environmental Health Risk Assessments: The Example of Second-Hand Smoke

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Florian Fischer

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Public health interventions are directed to influence the (state of a risk factor, either by behavioral or environmental changes. Therefore, environmental health risk assessments are highly relevant for public health decision making and policy development. The credibility of an environmental health risk assessment depends, to a large extent, on the strength of the scientific evidence on which it is based. In this article, the main challenges for assessing the impact of a potential adverse health effect from an environmental pollutant are described. Second-hand smoke (SHS was chosen to illustrate the current state of evidence. The assessment of the impact of potential adverse health effects from environmental risk factors is dependent on several issues, such as the hypothesized health outcome, the nature of the exposure, the dose-response-relationship and the variability and susceptibility of the exposed population. The example of SHS exposure highlights the need for evidence-based public health. Several challenges in terms of study design, assessment methods, as well as data analysis and synthesis with respect to the stratification of results, and consideration of bias and confounding exist. Future research needs to take into account which methods and techniques will be used to generate evidence for population-level decisions.

Environmental and sustainability education policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

The volume draws on a wide range of policy studies and syntheses to provide readers with insights into the international genealogy and priorities of ESE policy. Editors and contributors call for renewed attention to the possibilities for future directions in light of previously published work and......, ideological orthodoxy and critique, curriculum making and educational theory, globalisation and neoliberalism, climate change and environmental worldviews, and much more....... and innovations in scholarship. They also offer critical commentary on the evolution of research trends, approaches and findings. Including a wide range of examples of ESE policy and policy research, the book draws on studies of educational initiatives and legislation, policy making processes and rhetoric...

Optimal environmental policy and the dynamic property in LDCs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Masahiro Yabuta

2002-01-01

Full Text Available This paper has provided a model framework of foreign assistance policy in the context of dynamic optimal control and investigated the environmental policies in LDCs that received some financial support from abroad. The model framework features a specific behavior of the social planner who determines the level of voluntary expenditure for preservation of natural environment. Because more financial needs for natural environmental protection means less allowance of growth-oriented investment, the social planner confronts a trade-off problem between economic growth and environmental preservation. To tackle with this clearly, we have built a dynamic model with two control variables: per-capita consumption and voluntary expenditure for natural environment.

Environmental policy - a diaspora for market economists

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Endres, A.

1987-03-01

The environmental policy of the Federal Republic of Germany still leaves more than enough room for the implementation of marketing elements. With the help of evaluation processes borrowed from the market mechanism all those in search of appropriate environmental policies are able to better analyse the very priorities they have made their aim. Democratic decision making should make it a point to see to the integration of information gained on the preferences of the citizen. Market-analogous evaluation processes currently seem about to be given a better chance. The vehicles of environmental policy are obviously suffering even more from a suppressed demand for market impulses. In the Federal Republic of Germany environmental vehicles generally tend to be lead and determined by regulations. For the benefit of economy and the environment data and certificates (or compensatory regulations) could be combined much more than before with the traditional regulation-oriented policy. For the time being chances seem to be poor for completions to come in from the market. The revised Clean Air Technical Guide (TA Luft) has wasted a promising chance. (orig./HSCH).

Radiation indicator options for environmental policy

CERN Document Server

Pruppers, M J M

2002-01-01

It has proven impossible to create an indicator capable of showing the state of the art in a single figure so as to determine the progress made in the 'radiation component' of environmental policy from the trends indicated. This is the conclusion following an investigation requested by the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment in the framework of the environmental theme 'dispersion of radioactive substances and ionising radiation' to develop a radiation indicator comparable to the indicators for proprietary substances and pesticides. The most important reasons for failing to develop this indicator lie in the absence of both suitable policy targets and data for the calculations necessary for the indicator. Substituting policy targets with reference emissions, reference concentrations and reference doses would make it possible to define indicators for radiation protection. Here, environmental pressure indicators are proposed for nuclear installations and the process industry. The environment...

Reducing Environmental Allergic Triggers: Policy Issues.

Science.gov (United States)

Abramson, Stuart L

The implementation of policies to reduce environmental allergic triggers can be an important adjunct to optimal patient care for allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma. Policies at the local level in schools and other public as well as private buildings can make an impact on disease morbidity. Occupational exposures for allergens have not yet been met with the same rigorous policy standards applied for exposures to toxicants by Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Further benefit may be obtained through policies by local, county, state, and national governments, and possibly through international cooperative agreements. The reduction of allergenic exposures can and should be affected by policies with strong scientific, evidence-based derivation. However, a judicious application of the precautionary principle may be needed in circumstances where the health effect of inaction could lead to more serious threats to vulnerable populations with allergic disease. This commentary covers the scientific basis, current implementation, knowledge gaps, and pro/con views on policy issues in reducing environmental allergic triggers. Copyright © 2017 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The road to Environmental Policy Integration is paved with obstacles

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dyrhauge, Helene

2014-01-01

Transport is one of the most polluting sectors and needs to adopt environmental protection, yet the constant struggle between the environment and the economy is often won by economic priorities. This struggle makes environmental policy integration difficult, especially in the legislative process....... The article analyses the co-decision process which led to the adoption of the 2011 Eurovignette Directive, and examines how intra-organizational conflicts in the European Parliament and the Council shaped inter-organizational negotiations and thus the level of environmental policy integration in the adopted...

Environmental policy-making networks and the future of the Amazon

OpenAIRE

Lemos, Maria Carmen; Roberts, J. Timmons

2008-01-01

This article examines four periods of environmental policy-making in the Amazonian region of Brazil. It specifically analyses the role of pro-environment and pro-development policy networks in affecting policy design and implementation. It argues that the efforts of environmentalist networks trying to advocate or block relative developmentalist policies in the Amazon depend on three critical factors - whether they are able to attract the support of elites (or at least block their developmenta...

Cogema and the environment. Environmental policy. The Cogema group in the environment service

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1997-01-01

This document presents the organization of the environmental policy at Cogema facilities. The first part presents the environmental policy of the group: integration of environment management at all levels, reduction of effluents and control of their environmental impact, integrating environment protection at the design stage of facilities, quality and improvement policy, expenses devoted to environment protection (investments, R and D, funds), public information. The second part concerns the transfer of Cogema's know-how in environmental engineering towards other industrial sectors: radioactivity measurements, mine and quarry sites rehabilitation, industrial wastes and effluents processing, decontamination and rehabilitation of ancient polluted industrial sites, foreign activities (rehabilitation of US-DOE military sites, aid to Eastern countries. (J.S.)

Environmental and social risks: defensive National Environmental Policy Act in the US Forest Service

Science.gov (United States)

Michael J. Mortimer; Marc J. Stern; Robert W. Malmsheimer; Dale J. Blahna; Lee K. Cerveny; David N. Seesholtz

2011-01-01

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and its accompanying regulations provide a spectrum of alternative analytical pathways for federal agencies proposing major actions that might significantly impact the human environment. Although guidance from the President's council on Environmental Quality suggests the decision to develop an environmental impact...

Environmental protection and competition policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mehrlaender, H.

1993-01-01

The area 'Environmental protection and competition policy' follows the introductory guideline by Sir Leon Brittan, vice-president of the EC-Commission: 'We must seek the most market driven, dynamic approach to solutions, such that competition and technological advance bring the maximum economic and environmental benefits'. From this concrete measures are derived. (HSCH) [de

42 CFR 137.287 - What is the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... Process § 137.287 What is the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)? The NEPA is a procedural law that... and documenting the environmental impact of their actions. NEPA establishes a comprehensive policy for... procedures of the Act. CEQ regulations (40 CFR 1500-1508) establish three levels of environmental review...

Environmental Economics And Policy: Course Evaluation Survey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Petr Šauer

2013-09-01

Full Text Available The main objective of this paper is to outline the educational aspects of environmental economics referring to an example of a course taught at The University of Economics, Prague. A quantitative survey among students was conducted to describe their perceptions of the environmental topics and the diverse components of the course. This learners’ perspective is compared with students’ examination results and their level of activity in seminars. One of the main questions asked in this text is: do students interested in economic policy and regional economics consider the environmental orientation of the course important? And if yes what aspects of the course do they value, what benefits do they get from the course, what are their learning strategies and what role does this play with regards to students’ concern for environmental issues? Probably the most important finding of the research is the students’ advocacy of environmental economics as a beneficial part of curriculum both by those clustered as ‘environmentalists’ and ‘non-environmentalists’ (or even ‘anti-environmentalists’. Students appreciate having a chance to participate actively in the course. A well balanced proportion of lectures and seminars with enough space for deep discussion seem to be crucial for retaining students’ interest. The data doesn’t equip us with sufficient information to construct regression models with reasonable predictive power concerning exam results. A challenge for further research is to work with a better informed analysis of students’ learning strategies.

Environmental budget and policy goal

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Noh, Sang Hwan [Korea Environment Institute, Seoul (Korea)

1998-12-01

The assigned budget for environmental sector is quite insufficient to meet enormous environmental demand. Under this circumstance, there is only one way to solve environmental problems efficiently, i.e. to use a given budget efficiently. Therefore, the study on efficient utilization of a given environmental invested finance is needed by customizing a diagnosis of present condition on the operation of environmental budget and environmental investment analysis. In this respect, an entire national budget of 1999 and environmental budget were analyzed in this study. By analyzing economic efficiency of sewage disposal program, integrated septic tank system, VOC regulation, incinerator construction program, food waste disposal program, and recycling program, an efficient budget policy was presented. 19 refs., 18 figs., 169 tabs.

Towards a more efficient environmental policy. A socio-economic analysis of four persistent environmental problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2000-11-01

For the benefit of the National Environmental Policy Plan that will be published in 2001, the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis analysed four persistent environmental problems. These problems are the environmental effects of the manure surplus in the agricultural sector; the climate problem; the acidification by traffic and the air traffic noise around the airport Schiphol. This study not only looks ahead, but also looks back on 30 years of environmental policy. From a welfare economic perspective an analysis is made of the efficiency and effectiveness of that policy. Several questions are answered,e.g.: how could the manure problem of such a small sector as the livestock breeding persist for so many years?; how effective were the agreements with the industry and other sectors on energy efficiency improvement?; what made the acidification policy directed on traffic so successful?; why is the noise production of air traffic still a problem whereas the number of seriously bothered houses is decreased? The answers on these questions provide information which can be useful for the formulation of the future environmental policy. This information refers to the conditions for formulating adequate policy goals, the relation between those goals and policy instruments and the differences between direct versus indirect steering. This report also gives some points of interest for tackling complex international environmental problems. refs

Policy and Strategies for Environmental Remediation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2015-01-01

In the environmental remediation of a given site, concerned and interested parties have diverse and often conflicting interests with regard to remediation goals, the time frames involved, reuse of the site, the efforts necessary and cost allocation. An environmental remediation policy is essential for establishing the core values on which remediation is to be based. It incorporates a set of principles to ensure the safe and efficient management of remediation situations. Policy is mainly established by the national government and may become codified in the national legislative system. An environmental remediation strategy sets out the means for satisfying the principles and requirements of the national policy. It is normally established by the relevant remediation implementer or by the government in the case of legacy sites. Thus, the national policy may be elaborated in several different strategies. To ensure the safe, technically optimal and cost effective management of remediation situations, countries are advised to formulate an appropriate policy and strategies. Situations involving remediation include remediation of legacy sites (sites where past activities were not stringently regulated or adequately supervised), remediation after emergencies (nuclear and radiological) and remediation after planned ongoing operation and decommissioning. The environmental policy involves the principles of justification, optimization of protection, protection of future generations and the environment, efficiency in the use of resources, and transparent interaction with stakeholders. A typical policy will also take into account the national legal framework and institutional structure and applicable international conventions while providing for the allocation of responsibilities and resources, in addition to safety and security objectives and public information and participation in the decision making process. The strategy reflects and elaborates the goals and requirements set

78 FR 74129 - National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology

Science.gov (United States)

2013-12-10

... for Environmental Policy and Technology AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Notice... Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT). NACEPT provides advice to the EPA Administrator on a broad range of environmental policy, technology, and management issues. NACEPT members represent academia...

Sustainable city policy. Economic, environmental, technological

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Camagni, R.; Capello, R. [Politecnico di Milano, Milan (Italy). Economics Dept.; Nijkamp, P. [Dept. of Spatial Economics. Fac. of Economics and Econometrics. Vrije Univ., Amsterdam (Netherlands)

1995-12-31

While the reasons for advocating intensified environmental concerns at the urban level are more and more accepted and clear, the question how to overcome such concerns is still fraught with many difficulties. The aim of the present paper is to formulate some policy guidelines, based on economic principles, for a `sustainable city`; it is an ambitious aim, since a unique and operationally defined `recipe` is difficult to envisage. An urban policy for a sustainable city needs to take different (and contrasting) aspects and many conflicting interests into consideration, while many political, social and economic frictions need to be overcome. A description of various aspects and concepts concerning sustainability issues at the urban level is given in Section 2. Section 3 then provides some considerations on possible technological, economic and environmental urban policies, by creating a typo logy of policy tools associated with different causes of urban decline. Section 4 provides some new, and partly provocative, suggestions for specific urban sustainability policies; in particular it deals with the problem of urban sustainability indicators, measures, and critical threshold levels at which urban sustainability policies should be implemented. Some reflective remarks will conclude the paper. 3 figs., 4 tabs., 25 refs.

Sustainable city policy. Economic, environmental, technological

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Camagni, R.; Capello, R.

1995-01-01

While the reasons for advocating intensified environmental concerns at the urban level are more and more accepted and clear, the question how to overcome such concerns is still fraught with many difficulties. The aim of the present paper is to formulate some policy guidelines, based on economic principles, for a 'sustainable city'; it is an ambitious aim, since a unique and operationally defined 'recipe' is difficult to envisage. An urban policy for a sustainable city needs to take different (and contrasting) aspects and many conflicting interests into consideration, while many political, social and economic frictions need to be overcome. A description of various aspects and concepts concerning sustainability issues at the urban level is given in Section 2. Section 3 then provides some considerations on possible technological, economic and environmental urban policies, by creating a typo logy of policy tools associated with different causes of urban decline. Section 4 provides some new, and partly provocative, suggestions for specific urban sustainability policies; in particular it deals with the problem of urban sustainability indicators, measures, and critical threshold levels at which urban sustainability policies should be implemented. Some reflective remarks will conclude the paper. 3 figs., 4 tabs., 25 refs

75 FR 25240 - National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology

Science.gov (United States)

2010-05-07

... ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology... for Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT). NACEPT provides advice to the EPA Administrator on a broad range of environmental policy, technology, and management issues. NACEPT is a committee of...

Physical Health Problems and Environmental Challenges Influence Balancing Behaviour in Laying Hens.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephanie LeBlanc

Full Text Available With rising public concern for animal welfare, many major food chains and restaurants are changing their policies, strictly buying their eggs from non-cage producers. However, with the additional space in these cage-free systems to perform natural behaviours and movements comes the risk of injury. We evaluated the ability to maintain balance in adult laying hens with health problems (footpad dermatitis, keel damage, poor wing feather cover; n = 15 using a series of environmental challenges and compared such abilities with those of healthy birds (n = 5. Environmental challenges consisted of visual and spatial constraints, created using a head mask, perch obstacles, and static and swaying perch states. We hypothesized that perch movement, environmental challenges, and diminished physical health would negatively impact perching performance demonstrated as balance (as measured by time spent on perch and by number of falls of the perch and would require more exaggerated correctional movements. We measured perching stability whereby each bird underwent eight 30-second trials on a static and swaying perch: with and without disrupted vision (head mask, with and without space limitations (obstacles and combinations thereof. Video recordings (600 Hz and a three-axis accelerometer/gyroscope (100 Hz were used to measure the number of jumps/falls, latencies to leave the perch, as well as magnitude and direction of both linear and rotational balance-correcting movements. Laying hens with and without physical health problems, in both challenged and unchallenged environments, managed to perch and remain off the ground. We attribute this capacity to our training of the birds. Environmental challenges and physical state had an effect on the use of accelerations and rotations to stabilize themselves on a perch. Birds with physical health problems performed a higher frequency of rotational corrections to keep the body centered over the perch, whereas, for both

Physical Health Problems and Environmental Challenges Influence Balancing Behaviour in Laying Hens.

Science.gov (United States)

LeBlanc, Stephanie; Tobalske, Bret; Quinton, Margaret; Springthorpe, Dwight; Szkotnicki, Bill; Wuerbel, Hanno; Harlander-Matauschek, Alexandra

2016-01-01

With rising public concern for animal welfare, many major food chains and restaurants are changing their policies, strictly buying their eggs from non-cage producers. However, with the additional space in these cage-free systems to perform natural behaviours and movements comes the risk of injury. We evaluated the ability to maintain balance in adult laying hens with health problems (footpad dermatitis, keel damage, poor wing feather cover; n = 15) using a series of environmental challenges and compared such abilities with those of healthy birds (n = 5). Environmental challenges consisted of visual and spatial constraints, created using a head mask, perch obstacles, and static and swaying perch states. We hypothesized that perch movement, environmental challenges, and diminished physical health would negatively impact perching performance demonstrated as balance (as measured by time spent on perch and by number of falls of the perch) and would require more exaggerated correctional movements. We measured perching stability whereby each bird underwent eight 30-second trials on a static and swaying perch: with and without disrupted vision (head mask), with and without space limitations (obstacles) and combinations thereof. Video recordings (600 Hz) and a three-axis accelerometer/gyroscope (100 Hz) were used to measure the number of jumps/falls, latencies to leave the perch, as well as magnitude and direction of both linear and rotational balance-correcting movements. Laying hens with and without physical health problems, in both challenged and unchallenged environments, managed to perch and remain off the ground. We attribute this capacity to our training of the birds. Environmental challenges and physical state had an effect on the use of accelerations and rotations to stabilize themselves on a perch. Birds with physical health problems performed a higher frequency of rotational corrections to keep the body centered over the perch, whereas, for both health categories

The policy relevance of global environmental change research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yarnal, Brent

1996-01-01

Many scientists are striving to identify and promote the policy implications of their global change research. Much basic research on global environmental change cannot advance policy directly, but new projects can determine the relevance of their research to decision makers and build policy-relevant products into the work. Similarly, many ongoing projects can alter or add to the present science design to make the research policy relevant. Thus, this paper shows scientists working on global change how to make their research policy relevant. It demonstrates how research on physical global change relates to human dimensions studies and integrated assessments. It also presents an example of how policy relevance can be fit retroactively into a global change project (in this case, SRBEX-the Susquehanna River Basin Experiment) and how that addition can enhance the project's status and science. The paper concludes that policy relevance is desirable from social and scientific perspectives

The Role of Adaptability in Tackling Climate and Environmental Challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Andrew J.; Liem, Gregory Arief D.

2015-01-01

Adaptability is our capacity to respond to change, uncertainty, and variability. We report on recent research investigating how young people's adaptability is related to their environmental awareness, environmental concerns, and pro-environmental attitudes that support the need for policy and action to sustain the environment.

The impact of the member states on EU environmental policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Mikael Skou

1996-01-01

This paper explores the impact of the fourth enlargement (with Sweden, Austria and Finland) on the European Union's environmental policy. This is done by comparing the priorities and strategies of the newcomers with those of the former environmental pioneers (Germany, Netherlands and Denmark)....

CEP energy policy : Policy 917

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2002-10-01

Some of the environmental challenges facing the world in the twenty-first century are energy and global warming. Vital human needs such as warmth, light and transportation require energy, which is also required in the production of goods. Absent from the debate concerning the energy industry and its efforts to stop climate change is the voice of energy workers. Previous policies from the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) were replaced by this policy document. After providing a brief introduction, the document tackled global challenge: climate change. The following section dealt with global challenge: corporate rule. Canada's energy industries were examined from the workers' perspective, and the state of Canada's energy reserves was discussed. From national policies to national betrayal was the title of the following section of the document. Energy de-regulation and privatization was discussed, and an argument was made for a Canadian energy policy. The industrial policy was explored, as was the environment. A transition to sustainability was examined. refs

Environmental education policy research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Læssøe, Jeppe; Feinstein, Noah Weeth; Blum, Nicole

2013-01-01

in the areas of Environmental Education (EE), Education for Sustainable Development and Climate Change Education. It especially makes a case for two kinds of research on EE policy: (1) a multi-sited approach to empirical documentation and theory development which explores the relationships between...

Essays on Environmental Policy in Energy Markets

Science.gov (United States)

Boomhower, Judson Paul

related to groundwater contamination, also improved sharply. These results suggest that incomplete internalization of environmental and safety costs due to bankruptcy protection is an important determinant of industry structure and safety effort in hazardous industries, with significant welfare consequences. The second chapter focuses on the importance of a regulator's inability to distinguish between households responding to a subsidy, and households doing what they would also have done in the absence of policy. Economists have long argued that many recipients of energy-efficiency subsidies may be "non-additional,'' getting paid to do what they would have done anyway. Demonstrating this empirically has been difficult, however, because of endogeneity concerns and other challenges. In this paper we use a regression discontinuity analysis to examine participation in a large-scale residential energy-efficiency program. Comparing behavior just on either side of several eligibility thresholds, we find that program participation increases with larger subsidy amounts, but that most households would have participated even with much lower subsidy amounts. The large fraction of inframarginal participants means that the larger subsidy amounts are almost certainly not cost-effective. Moreover, the results imply that about half of all participants would have adopted the energy-efficient technology even with no subsidy whatsoever. Finally, the third chapter addresses consequences of renewable energy subsidies in other markets. Electricity generated from logging residues provides a large and growing share of US renewable electricity generation. Much of the low-value wood used by biomass power plants might otherwise be left in the field. This increased harvest can negatively affect forest health. I investigate the supply of woody biomass fuel in Maine using a 15-year panel of prices and quantities for whole tree wood chips. I find that doubling the price of woody biomass increases

Environmental Policy and Capital Movements: The Role of Government Commitment

OpenAIRE

Marsiliani, Laura; Renström, Thomas I

2003-01-01

This paper explores the relationship between environmental protection and international capital movements, when tax policy is endogenous (through voting). A two-period general equilibrium model of a small open economy is specified to compare the effects of two different constitutions (commitment or no commitment in tax policy), as well as income inequality. Under the commitment regime, the equilibrium is characterised by a lower labour tax, higher environmental tax and less capital moving abr...

Strategic environmental policy when the governments are threatened by relocation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Greaker, Mads

2003-01-01

This paper analyzes how the threat of relocation influences environmental policy. The stringency of environmental policy is determined in a game between two governments. There is one firm in each jurisdiction, and both firms threaten to relocate their production to the other jurisdiction. Because there is asymmetric information about the cost of relocation, the governments do not know the credibility of the threat. We compare the outcome of this game with the outcome of a game in which relocation is not possible. We find that the threat of relocation can increase both the level of environmental regulation and welfare. The profit tax level proves to be the most decisive for the result; that is, the higher the profit tax level, the lower the level of environmental regulation

Responses to Environmental & Societal Challenges for our Unstable Earth (RESCUE) foresight initiative - towards a European response to grand challenges in sustainability research and learning

Science.gov (United States)

Avril, B.; et al.

2012-04-01

The "Responses to Environmental and Societal Challenges for our Unstable Earth" (RESCUE; www.esf.org/rescue) foresight initiative - a joint COST-ESF "Frontiers of Science" initiative - aimed to help Europe address the societal and scientific challenges related to global environmental change and the related resilience issues. In RESCUE, the focus of attention was on people and the goal was to stimulate an integrated, innovative response from natural, social and human sciences. The RESCUE foresight initiative began in September 2009 and has recently been completed. RESCUE had the following key objectives: 1. To propose a strategic process for natural, social and human sciences to improve their ability and capacity to work together to address global environmental change through interdisciplinary synergy and to respond effectively to societal and policy-relevant needs; 2. To articulate new scientific issues related to global environmental change and the related resilience issues, especially those of transdisciplinary nature and of major relevance to society; 3. To explore new approaches towards truly integrated, interdisciplinary science, and to facilitate the 'revolution' in education and capacity building it requires. The work of RESCUE focused on the following themes: · Contributions from social sciences and humanities in developing responses to challenges of the Anthropocene; · Collaboration between the natural, social and human sciences in global environmental change and resilience studies; · Requirements for research methodologies and data; · Education and capacity building - towards a 'revolution'; · The interface between science and policy, communication and outreach. The RESCUE recommendations include the following issues to be addressed by science-funders, science policy-makers, researchers, practitioners, educators and a range of other societal actors: · develop an institutional framework for an open knowledge society, · re-organise research so

Which environmental problems get policy attention? Examining energy and agricultural sector policies in Sweden

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Engstroem, Rebecka; Nilsson, Mans; Finnveden, Goeran

2008-01-01

Not all environmental problems get the same level of policy attention. An interesting question is thus why certain aspects receive attention and others do not. This paper studies the level of policy attention given to different environmental aspects in agriculture and energy policy in Sweden and explores empirically some factors that can explain the level of attention. The first step was to explore the link between environmental issue characteristics and the level of policy attention. The level of policy attention was measured through a content analysis of Swedish government bills. The results from the content analysis are clear and stable over the studied time period. In the agriculture sector biodiversity and toxicity are in focus whereas in the energy sector climate change and resources are given the attention. Besides these aspects, the attention is limited. These results were compared with the results from sector-wide environmental assessments of the same sectors. These assessments were based on hybrid input-output analysis and life cycle assessment methodologies. A main finding from the study is that issue importance is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for policy attention. Other explanations are needed to understand which environmental issues get attention in sectoral policy. Our assessment showed that while the level of knowledge does not provide an explanation, the presence of strong and well-organised stakeholders within the sector, with an interest in having a certain issue on the agenda, might be decisive for issue attention. Path dependency and limited attention capacity are other important factors

MUNICIPAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT: A PROPOSAL OF INSTRUMENTS FOR DIAGNOSIS OF PUBLIC ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES IN THE METROPOLITAN AREA OF SALVADOR (MAS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tânia Cristina Azevedo

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The aim in this paper is to propose a model for mapping strategies of municipal environmental management for local environmental public policies. To do so, the study adopted a theoretical approach. More specifically, there is discussion on the concepts of public policies and the scenario of the Brazilian municipal environmental management, a brief history of the aspects that involve current national environmental policies. Methodologically, a bibliographical study was carried out through a literature review, which enabled the proposal of instruments for mapping actions and strategies of environmental management in the municipalities of the Metropolitan Area of Salvador (MAS. This theoretical study resulted in the creation of a model form that will be used by empirical researches for mapping the environmental public policies in the MAS City Halls.

How do environmental policies fit within larger strategic planning processes

OpenAIRE

Crowe, Lynn

2015-01-01

This chapter explores how environmental policies fit within larger strategic processes relevant to sport management and development. It identifies key policy areas such as environmental impact assessment, sustainable land use planning, environmental protection and visitor impact management. Good practice and guidelines which will enable sport managers to integrate their work with these environmental policies are explored. Detailed guidance on design and longer term management and maintenance ...

Environmental justice in Scotland: policy, pedagogy and praxis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scandrett, Eurig

2007-01-01

In the first decade of Scottish devolution, environmental justice became a significant component of environmental policy for the Scottish Executive, especially under First Minister Jack McConnell. This paper analyses how a discourse developed within policy narratives which separated environmental justice from economic growth and the interests of capital. In particular, it explores the role which research has played in justifying this discourse. By contrast, an alternative discourse has developed through reflexive and dialogical research associated with the praxis of the environmental organization Friends of the Earth Scotland. This alternative discourse is embedded in the embryonic environmental justice movement in Scotland, and identifies environmental justice as a social conflict which exposes negative externalities at the heart of economic development

Environmental justice in Scotland: policy, pedagogy and praxis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Scandrett, Eurig [Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh (United Kingdom)

2007-10-15

In the first decade of Scottish devolution, environmental justice became a significant component of environmental policy for the Scottish Executive, especially under First Minister Jack McConnell. This paper analyses how a discourse developed within policy narratives which separated environmental justice from economic growth and the interests of capital. In particular, it explores the role which research has played in justifying this discourse. By contrast, an alternative discourse has developed through reflexive and dialogical research associated with the praxis of the environmental organization Friends of the Earth Scotland. This alternative discourse is embedded in the embryonic environmental justice movement in Scotland, and identifies environmental justice as a social conflict which exposes negative externalities at the heart of economic development.

The European Environmental Policy with Respect to Stationary Sources. Harmonisation versus Differentiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van der Laan, R.

2002-01-01

Glancing at the actual development of environmental policy in the European Community over the past three decades, one sees a picture that seems to be very much in contradiction with the advise of neo-classical economics. With the support of the Council, the European Commission has been developing a Community environmental policy from 1972 on. Principal instruments of this Community environmental policy have been directives that require harmonisation of environmental standards for similar industries in the various Member States. In its most strict sense of full harmonisation, this policy would imply uniform environmental standards. Industry would then use the environment with the same intensity independent of where producers are situated in the European Community. The consequence of a harmonised approach would be that in countries where environmental quality is scarce, pollution per unit of output would be as high or low as it is in countries where environmental quality is relatively abundant. This dissertation has been inspired by this apparent discrepancy between the advice from economic theory and the practice of the Community environmental policy. A first question, which is the main issue of this book, is whether the observation of a discrepancy is correct or perhaps a faulty perception. A next question is whether an explanation can be given for the discrepancy in so far as it turns out to exist. These questions are analysed on the bases of a selection of directives aimed at or having a strong impact on polluting emissions by stationary point sources. The first issue addressed is to determine what economic theory says exactly about the international harmonisation of environmental standards. A second question concerns the legal base for the environmental secondary legislation that was chosen by the European Institutions. A third question concerns the reasons for harmonisation of environmental standards that are used. A fourth question concerns the actual level of

Essays on Industry Response to Energy and Environmental Policy

Science.gov (United States)

Sweeney, Richard Leonard

This dissertation consists of three essays on the relationship between firm incentives and energy and environmental policy outcomes. Chapters 1 and 2 study the impact of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments on the United States oil refining industry. This legislation imposed extensive restrictions on refined petroleum product markets, requiring select end users to purchase new cleaner versions of gasoline and diesel. In Chapter 2, I estimate the static impact of this intervention on refining costs, product prices and consumer welfare. Isolating these effects is complicated by several challenges likely to appear in other regulatory settings, including overlap between regulated and non-regulated markets and deviations from perfect competition. Using a rich database of refinery operations, I estimate a structural model that incorporates each of these dimensions, and then use this cost structure to simulate policy counterfactuals. I find that the policies increased gasoline production costs by 7 cents per gallon and diesel costs by 3 cents per gallon on average, although these costs varied considerably across refineries. As a result of these restrictions, consumers in regulated markets experienced welfare losses on the order of 3.7 billion per year, but this welfare loss was partially offset by gains of 1.5 billion dollars per year among consumers in markets not subject to regulation. The results highlight the importance of accounting for imperfect competition and market spillovers when assessing the cost of environmental regulation. Chapter 2 estimates the sunk costs incurred by United States oil refineries as a result of the low sulfur diesel program. The complex, regionally integrated nature of the industry poses many challenges for estimating these costs. I overcome them by placing the decision to invest in sulfur removal technology within the framework of a two period model and estimate the model using moment inequalities. I find that the regulation induced between 2

Grand Challenges for Environmental Magnetism

Science.gov (United States)

Verosub, K. L.

2009-05-01

The development of new, inexpensive, and rapid geochemical methods for determining the ages of geologic materials, their elemental composition, and their isotopic ratios over a broad array of elements puts into sharp focus the question: What information can environmental magnetic methods provide that can't be obtained using these other methods? Because iron is ubiquitous in the Earth's crust and because it exists in so many different forms, a discipline that looks in detail at iron-bearing minerals does have the potential to make significant contributions to the study of surficial processes. However, to reach that potential requires the development of new environmental magnetic methods. I would like to put forward three Grand Challenges for environmental magnetism that have the potential to move the field forward to a new level of scientific sophistication and that will allow environmental magnetists to compete successfully in a world increasingly dominated by geochemists. The first Grand Challenge is the development of new techniques that lead to the direct and unambiguous identification of the full suite of magnetic minerals. For many environmental magnetic applications, the key magnetic minerals are not just magnetite and hematite but also iron oxy-hydroxides (goethite, lepidocrocite, akaganeite, ferrihydrite), carbonates (siderite) and sulfides (pyrrhotite and greigite) as well as compounds involving iron and other transition metals (cobalt and nickel). The second Grand Challenge is the development of new analytical methods that provide specific quantitative values for the amount of each magnetic mineral present in a sample. One promising approach to this problem is the application of two- or three-component multivariate analysis to arrays of downcore environmental magnetic parameters. The third Grand Challenge is the development of new ways of determining, not just the average values, but the actual distributions of grain sizes and coercivities of each mineral

Towards new roads in environmental policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2003-01-01

From this report it appears that the environmental policy in the Netherlands is not sufficient to deal with the environmental problems that will occur in the (near) future. In a separate report six cases are presented and discussed which illustrate the results of this report [nl

From Practice to Policy in Environmental Education

African Journals Online (AJOL)

practical skills that are needed to solve them. While infusion was the main focus of the country's environmental ... innovative work in the field of environmental education, thus recognising that additional thinking and experimentation are necessary to future policy formulation.The Uttarakhand. Environmental Education Centre ...

Integrative Governance of Environmental Water in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin: Evolving Challenges and Emerging Pathways.

Science.gov (United States)

Bischoff-Mattson, Zachary; Lynch, Amanda H

2017-07-01

Integration, a widely promoted response to the multi-scale complexities of social-environmental sustainability, is diversely and sometimes poorly conceptualized. In this paper we explore integrative governance, which we define as an iterative and contextual process for negotiating and advancing the common interest. We ground this definition in a discussion of institutional factors conditioning integrative governance of environmental water in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin. The Murray-Darling Basin is an iconic system of social-ecological complexity, evocative of large-scale conservation challenges in other developed arid river basins. Our critical assessment of integrative governance practices in that context emerges through analysis of interviews with policy participants and documents pertaining to environmental water management in the tri-state area of southwestern New South Wales, northwestern Victoria, and the South Australian Riverland. We identify four linked challenges: (i) decision support for developing socially robust environmental water management goals, (ii) resource constraints on adaptive practice, (iii) inter-state differences in participatory decision-making and devolution of authority, and (iv) representative inclusion in decision-making. Our appraisal demonstrates these as pivotal challenges for integrative governance in the common interest. We conclude by offering a perspective on the potential for supporting integrative governance through the bridging capacity of Australia's Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder.

ENERGY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE PRESENT CHALLENGES TO THE EUROPEAN COMMON SECURITY AND DEFENCE POLICY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriel ANDRUSEAC

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The Common Security and Defence Policy is a part of the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP and establishes the policy framework for the institutional structures and military instruments which have to deal with the security challenges in Europe’s geopolitical neighborhood. The article aims to identify and analyze the role of energy as one of the present challenges to the European Common Security and Defence Policy in the context of the recent events in the world economy.

Environmental policy in the 9th German Bundestag and the Bundesrat (1980-1983)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1983-01-01

This presentation of environmental policy constitutes the continuation of copies No. 49 and No. 72 of the 'Materialien' [Materials] (Environmental policy in the 7th German Bundestag or environmental policy in the 8. German Bundestag and in the Bundesrat, resp. - 1976 to 1980). References to factual terms espec. indications of speech references, apply to the register annexed to 'Verhandlungen des Deutschen Bundestages und des Bundesrates' (Deliberations of the German Bundestag and the Bundesrat) for the 9th period of office on which the 'Materialie' is based. Among other things, the 'Materialie' comprises: General fundamentals and primaples, aspects of structural policy, scientific and technical/technological fundamentals, organizational fundamentals, international and intergovernmental co-operation, air-borne emission abatement, waste management, chemical substances released to environment, nuclear energy. (orig./HP) [de

Environmental protection and the public within the framework of energy policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schulz zur Wiesch, J.

1978-01-01

Environmental protection policy has - before the background of topical conflicts on the long-term securing of energy in spite of increasing consumption and limited resources - developed into a problem of the whole the Federal Republic of Germany which makes high demands on the disposing capacity of the corporations involved. Decisions on long-term energy and economic policy will have to be made without sufficient knowledge of all potential environmental crises and will have to be accounted for in the face of the population. The topics 'Energy - Environment - Public' were discussed from the different political and scientific angles within a seminar held by the Deutsches Institut fuer Urbanistik and the Bundesakademie fuer Oeffentliche Verwaltung. The topics were discussed with 28 specialists from institutions of the Bund, Laender, and communities. The proceedings include the lectures held and the contributions to a panel discussion about the future energy and environmental protection policy in Bund, Laender, and Communities as well as a summary of the final discussion. (orig.) [de

National Environmental Policy Act compliance guide. Volume II (reference book)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1994-09-01

This document (Volume II of the National Environmental Policy Act Compliance Guide) contains current copies of regulations and guidance from the Council on Environmental Quality, the Department of Energy, the Department of State, and the Environmental Protection Agency, related to compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA).

Macro-environmental policy: Principles and design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huppes, G.

1993-01-01

The central theme of this book is how macro-environmental policy can be developed, which does not prescribe or suggest specific technologies and products bu realizes the environmental quality desired by changing the general context. The publication is composed of four main parts. The framework for analysis and the normative principles for policy design and evaluation, the first two parts, form the analytic core. The framework for analysis gives a classification of instruments in terms of permutations of a limited number of defining elements. The normative principles guide choices in instrument design and, as the flexible response strategy, guide their application in specific policies. Detailing two main new instruments (the standard method for life cycle analysis and the substance deposit, and applying the instrument strategy as developed to the cases make up the next two parts

Globalization of the energy sector: Environmental challenges and options for future actions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Benavides, Pablo

1998-12-01

This publication relates to environmental challenges of the energy sector and options for future action. Following themes are discussed: Globalisation of the energy sector; environmental challenges; the challenge of climate change; options for future action

The control of environmental tobacco smoke: a policy review.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

McNabola, Aonghus

2009-02-01

According to World Health Organisation figures, 30% of all cancer deaths, 20% of all coronary heart diseases and strokes and 80% of all chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are caused by cigarette smoking. Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) exposure has also been shown to be associated with disease and premature death in non-smokers. In response to this environmental health issue, several countries have brought about a smoking ban policy in public places and in the workplace. Countries such as the U.S., France, Italy, Ireland, Malta, the Netherlands, Sweden, Scotland, Spain, and England have all introduced policies aimed at reducing the population exposure to ETS. Several investigations have monitored the effectiveness of these smoking ban policies in terms of ETS concentrations, human health and smoking prevalence, while others have also investigated a number of alternatives to smoking ban policy measures. This paper reviews the state of the art in research, carried out in the field of ETS, smoking bans and Tobacco Control to date and highlights the need for future research in the area.

Policy proceses, principles and decision making of the environmental policy in Great Britain and France. Vol. 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schreiber, H.

1991-01-01

Research of central aspects of French environmental policy. This report concentrates on the role of the constitutional system and the influence of ecological topics on the politics of the central level. The implementation of central environmental topics of lower levels - regional departmental and communal level. Presentation of the state of the French environment (Pollution: Air, Water, Waste, Soil, Radiactivity and Noise). Beyond that this report evaluates French positions and activities of environmental policy on EEC-level and worldwide. Finally the bilateral cooperation on the field of environmental protection between France and the Federal Republic of Germany is analyzed. (orig.) With 31 refs., 12 tabs., 3 figs [de

EU environmental state aid policy: wide implications, narrow participation?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Flaam, Karoline

2008-11-15

This article investigates the 2008 reform of the EU's environmental state aid guidelines, with an eye to determining the degree of external pressure and lobbyism towards environmental state aid policies. What is found is a strikingly low level of external pressure on the policy-field, not least on the part of the private sector. In fact, EU environmental state aid policy is largely the making of a few Commission officials, without much external 'interference'. The article discusses possible reasons for this, and asks whether state aid policy-making might be marked less by clear and established interests and utility maximising, and more by actors constrained by complexity and bounded rationality. (author). refs.,tab

Healthcare Policy in Romania. Frameworks and Challenges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Buţiu Călina Ana

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The objective of the paper is to review some of the healthcare policy issues of Romania and identify those challenges which may be addressed through social intervention. Based on statistical data, documents, reports and applicable laws one will review the health condition of Romanian population and the state of the national health system, and will examine the broad strategies and policies currently under the scrutiny of appropriate ministries. The findings of the study suggest looking at health policies also through the lens of social inclusion.

Commodities and Switzerland: Development Policy Challenges and Policy Options

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Werner Thut

2013-09-01

Full Text Available EDITOR’S NOTEThis paper, written in December 2012, is a contribution to the ‘Policy Debate’ section of the International Development Policy. In this section, academics, policy makers and practitioners engage in a dialogue on global development challenges. Papers are copy-edited but not peer-reviewed. Instead, an initial thematic contribution is followed by critical comments and reactions from different stakeholders. This paper by Werner Thut is followed by reactions and analysis from a non-profit policy institute (Alexandra Gillies, Revenue Watch Institute, New York, ‘Crafting a Strategic Response to the Commodity-Development Conundrum’, a Southern scholar (Prof. Humberto Campodonico, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima ‘Going Beyond Transparency and Good Governance’ | ‘Más allá de la transparencia y una buena gobernanza’ and a representative of the trading sector (Stéphane Graber, Secretary General of Geneva Trading & Shipping Association – ‘Reassessing the Merchants’ Role in a Globalized Economy’.PAPER’S ABSTRACTSwitzerland is one of the world’s largest commodity trading hub. The author, senior policy adviser at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC, reviews experiences and policy options related to commodity trading from a development policy perspective. While this sector has become of strategic importance to Switzerland’s economy, it also entails a number of risks. On the other hand, Swiss development cooperation efforts focus on several resource-rich countries, whose mineral and agricultural commodities are traded via Switzerland. How can Switzerland assist these countries to reap the benefits of their natural resource wealth? This paper looks at development policy aspects of commodity trading in relation to Swiss foreign and domestic policy. It examines ongoing policy debates in Switzerland and discusses development policy options.

Making offshore industries greener: negotiating environmental policy in the Dutch oil and gas sector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hinssen, J.

1994-01-01

In this paper the negotiations between the Dutch Government and the oil and gas sector regarding environmental measures for the offshore industry are analysed. Dutch environmental policy is presently being developed via 'Target Group Management'. The instrument used in this approach is policy negotiations, resulting in covenants. By signing a covenant, both government and industry take responsibility for the development and implementation of a realistic environmental policy. Negotiating environmental policies, however, can be problematic. This relates to the delay in obtaining an integrated approach to environmental problems. It is not unlikely that, in the four years required for the negotiation process, a legally binding environmental law might also have been developed. It is concluded that the value of the covenant mainly depends on the goodwill of the parties involved. (Author)

Global environmental security: Research and policy strategies for the 1990s

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lazaro, M.A.; Wang, Hua.

1992-01-01

The subject of global environmental change is emerging as one of the most hotly debated international issues for the 1990s. In fact, our earth system has undergone a nature-induced gradual change in climate on both a temporal scale that spans over millions of years and a spatial scale ranging from regional to transcontinental. Pollutant emissions associated with population growth and industrial activities manifest the anthropogenic climatic forcing that has been superimposed on the background of natural climate fluctuations. Our incomplete understanding of the global impacts of environmental pollution on the earth systems (atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, and lithosphere), however, make the prediction of the timing, magnitude, and patterns of future global change uncertain. This paper examines the science and policy background of global environmental change. The major scientific uncertainties and policy issues confronting decision makers are identified; and the scientific framework, as well as current national and international research programs aimed at resolving the scientific uncertainties, are discussed. A coherent, stable, and flexible policy is needed to provide a foundation for coordinated international-interagency programs of observation, research, analysis, and international negotiation toward a policy consensus concerning global environmental security. On the basis of what is currently known about global change, recommendations are presented on both near-term and long-term policy option decisions

Global environmental security: Research and policy strategies for the 1990s

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lazaro, M.A.; Wang, Hua

1992-09-01

The subject of global environmental change is emerging as one of the most hotly debated international issues for the 1990s. In fact, our earth system has undergone a nature-induced gradual change in climate on both a temporal scale that spans over millions of years and a spatial scale ranging from regional to transcontinental. Pollutant emissions associated with population growth and industrial activities manifest the anthropogenic climatic forcing that has been superimposed on the background of natural climate fluctuations. Our incomplete understanding of the global impacts of environmental pollution on the earth systems (atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, and lithosphere), however, make the prediction of the timing, magnitude, and patterns of future global change uncertain. This paper examines the science and policy background of global environmental change. The major scientific uncertainties and policy issues confronting decision makers are identified; and the scientific framework, as well as current national and international research programs aimed at resolving the scientific uncertainties, are discussed. A coherent, stable, and flexible policy is needed to provide a foundation for coordinated international-interagency programs of observation, research, analysis, and international negotiation toward a policy consensus concerning global environmental security. On the basis of what is currently known about global change, recommendations are presented on both near-term and long-term policy option decisions.

Global environmental security: Research and policy strategies for the 1990s

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lazaro, M.A.; Wang, Hua.

1992-01-01

The subject of global environmental change is emerging as one of the most hotly debated international issues for the 1990s. In fact, our earth system has undergone a nature-induced gradual change in climate on both a temporal scale that spans over millions of years and a spatial scale ranging from regional to transcontinental. Pollutant emissions associated with population growth and industrial activities manifest the anthropogenic climatic forcing that has been superimposed on the background of natural climate fluctuations. Our incomplete understanding of the global impacts of environmental pollution on the earth systems (atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, and lithosphere), however, make the prediction of the timing, magnitude, and patterns of future global change uncertain. This paper examines the science and policy background of global environmental change. The major scientific uncertainties and policy issues confronting decision makers are identified; and the scientific framework, as well as current national and international research programs aimed at resolving the scientific uncertainties, are discussed. A coherent, stable, and flexible policy is needed to provide a foundation for coordinated international-interagency programs of observation, research, analysis, and international negotiation toward a policy consensus concerning global environmental security. On the basis of what is currently known about global change, recommendations are presented on both near-term and long-term policy option decisions.

Directed Technical Change and Economic Growth Effects of Environmental Policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kruse-Andersen, Peter Kjær

2016-01-01

A Schumpeterian growth model is developed to investigate how environmental policy affects economic growth when environmental policy also affects the direction of technical change. In contrast to previous models, production and pollution abatement technologies are embodied in separate intermediate...... unambiguously directs research efforts toward pollution abatement technologies and away from production technologies. This directed technical change reduces economic growth and pollution emission growth. Simulation results indicate that even large environmental policy reforms have small economic growth effects....... However, these economic growth effects have relatively large welfare effects which suggest that static models and exogenous growth models leave out an important welfare effect of environmental policy....

Partner Country Series: Understanding Energy Challenges in India - Policies, Players and Issues

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2012-07-01

A combination of rapidly increasing energy demand and fuel imports plus growing concern about economic and environmental consequences is generating growing calls for effective and thorough energy governance in India. Numerous policy reforms over the past 20 years have shifted the country’s energy sector from a state-dominated system towards one that is based on market principles. However, with the reform process left unfinished, India now finds itself trapped halfway along the transition to an open and well-performing energy sector. India suffered from the largest power outage ever in late July 2012, affecting nearly half of the population. While this incident highlights the importance of modern and smart energy systems, it indicates that the country is increasingly unable to deliver a secure supply of energy to its population, a quarter of which still lacks access to electricity. Understanding Energy Challenges in India aims to provide an informative and holistic understanding of India’s energy sector to stakeholders in India as well as the broad public. The publication explores in detail the policies, players and issues of the country’s power, coal, oil and gas, renewables and nuclear sectors. It also highlights the key challenges India faces, challenges that must be resolved for the evolution of the fast-growing country’s energy sector towards a sustainable energy future and eventually critical for the prospects of the Indian and global economies.

National Environmental Policy Act guidance: A model process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Angle, B.M.; Lockhart, V.A.T.; Sema, B.; Tuott, L.C.; Irving, J.S.

1995-04-01

The ''Model National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Process'' includes: References to regulations, guidance documents, and plans; training programs; procedures; and computer databases. Legislative Acts and reference documents from Congress, US Department of Energy, and Lockheed Idaho Technologies Company provide the bases for conducting NEPA at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL). Lockheed Idaho Technologies Company (LITCO) NEPA / Permitting Department, the Contractor Environmental Organization (CEO) is responsible for developing and maintaining LITCO NEPA and permitting policies, guidance, and procedures. The CEO develops procedures to conduct environmental evaluations based on NEPA, Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations, and DOE guidance. This procedure includes preparation or support of environmental checklists, categorical exclusion determinations, environmental assessment determinations, environmental assessments, and environmental impact statements. In addition, the CEO uses this information to train personnel conducting environmental evaluations at the INEL. Streamlining these procedures fosters efficient use of resources, quality documents, and better decisions on proposed actions

Challenges for policy mix in the context

OpenAIRE

Stawska, Joanna; Grzesiak, Lena

2015-01-01

The aim of this article is to present the essence of policy mix and the extraordinary actions undertaken by the monetary and fiscal authorities in Poland in response to the recent financial crisis. In the article, the hypothesis has been put forward that the challenges faced by monetary and fiscal authorities have contributed to carrying out coordinated actions, especially in support of economic growth during the recent financial crisis. As a result, in Poland during the last f...

Implementing the Provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act

Science.gov (United States)

1988-01-01

This handbook provides guidance and assistance to NASA officials in carrying out their responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act and the applicable NASA procedures (14 CFR 1216.3, Attachment A to NMI 8800.7). The handbook, as was contemplated by the regulations of the Council on Environmental Quality, stresses the need for environmental analysis from the time of early planning through environmental assessment and environmental impact statement preparation to implementation of the subject action, and provides for necessary follow up. It stresses the need for NASA officials to draw upon all the appropriate disciplines from the natural and social sciences plus the environmental design arts in planning and decision making on actions which may have an impact on the human environment. The handbook is applicable to NASA Headquarters and field installations.

EDITORIAL: The need and challenge for Environmental Research Letters

Science.gov (United States)

Kammen, Daniel M.

2006-11-01

Why another journal? This is the inevitable question that every effort to launch a new journal must, and should, address. A common statistic in the business world is that nine out of ten new restaurants fail. In the academic world something similar, but less definitive, can happen: a potentially interesting, but practically flawed, effort can be launched, never truly build an intellectual community, but then continue as a sub-critical, little-known journal for far too long. The challenge any new publication, academic or professional, faces is thus extreme. A new journal must find a way to usefully compete, and bring new value, in the face of multiple existing outlets for significant results, tremendous barriers to establishing a 'track record' or 'name recognition' against existing publications, and a print and a cyberspace increasingly desperate in the search for 'content', scientific or otherwise. In the case of Environmental Research Letters (ERL), however, these questions answered themselves and, as a result, I cannot imagine a more critically needed new publication. Indeed, the goal of ERL is to be more than simply one more good new journal. It is to be a place—both physical and online—that those engaged in environmental issues—from researchers within the physical and natural sciences, to those concerned with applied systems studies, modeling and simulation techniques, practical engagement in environmental activism, and developing, conducting or critiquing policy, legal, or business efforts—will all want to go to read, and to engage with colleagues. The environmental field has witnessed an incredible intellectual and professional proliferation. The areas of ecological resilience, global change science, policy, law and economics, industrial ecology, green buildings, environmental genomics, environmental archaeology, and the sociology of environmental movements have become increasingly regarded and, to varying degrees, recognized themselves as major

Parameter uncertainty in CGE Modeling of the environmental impacts of economic policies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abler, D.G.; Shortle, J.S.; Rodriguez, A.G.

1999-01-01

This study explores the role of parameter uncertainty in Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) modeling of the environmental impacts of macroeconomic and sectoral policies, using Costa Rica as a case for study. A CGE model is constructed which includes eight environmental indicators covering deforestation, pesticides, overfishing, hazardous wastes, inorganic wastes, organic wastes, greenhouse gases, and air pollution. The parameters are treated as random variables drawn from prespecified distributions. Evaluation of each policy option consists of a Monte Carlo experiment. The impacts of the policy options on the environmental indicators are relatively robust to different parameter values, in spite of the wide range of parameter values employed. 33 refs

Parameter uncertainty in CGE Modeling of the environmental impacts of economic policies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Abler, D.G.; Shortle, J.S. [Agricultural Economics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA (United States); Rodriguez, A.G. [University of Costa Rica, San Jose (Costa Rica)

1999-07-01

This study explores the role of parameter uncertainty in Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) modeling of the environmental impacts of macroeconomic and sectoral policies, using Costa Rica as a case for study. A CGE model is constructed which includes eight environmental indicators covering deforestation, pesticides, overfishing, hazardous wastes, inorganic wastes, organic wastes, greenhouse gases, and air pollution. The parameters are treated as random variables drawn from prespecified distributions. Evaluation of each policy option consists of a Monte Carlo experiment. The impacts of the policy options on the environmental indicators are relatively robust to different parameter values, in spite of the wide range of parameter values employed. 33 refs.

Environmental science-policy interactions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kamelarczyk, Kewin Bach Friis

+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks) process and the phenomenon of deforestation in Zambia as research examples. The research was carried out from mid 2008 and to mid 2013 and applies a mixed methods research design. Fieldwork was carried out...... to science? This PhD thesis contributes to answering this questions; however it does this by questioning the conceptions of science that contribute to political decision-making and by exploring the relationship between scientific knowledge, other types of knowledge and policy. This PhD study employs the REDD...... in future REDD+ design and implementation. To curtail potential negative consequences of the identified mode of science-policy interaction in Zambia, the study concludes by making a number of proposals. The proposals are generic in nature and may be found relevant in environmental policy processes outside...

Environmental ethics and environmental policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hoehn, H.J.

1994-01-01

In a difficult economic situation where the problems of many companies to adapt to changed economic conditions threaten to supersede ecological interests the Council of Experts appointed by the Federal Environment Minister submitted its 1994 environmental expertise. This scientific political counseling document would deserve little attention if it was limited to the appeal of considering pollution control as an integrated part of all political activities or if it only contained a catalog of measures for the ecological repair of technico-industrial faults and failures. The structural change of economy and the necessity of ecological modernization, however, are taken into account by representing an ecological-economic model which contributes to a long-term conceptional orientation of environmental policy and which is elaborate enough to be suited for the development of solutions to concrete problems. The main points of the expertise are discussed. (orig./UA) [de

Technological challenges for boosting coal production with environmental sustainability.

Science.gov (United States)

Ghose, Mrinal K

2009-07-01

The global energy requirement has grown at a phenomenon rate and the consumption of primary energy sources has been a very high positive growth. This paper focuses on the consumption of different primary energy sources and it identifies that coal will continue to remain as the prime energy source in foreseeable future. It examines the energy requirement perspective for India and demand of coal as the prime energy source. Economic development and poverty alleviation depend on securing affordable energy sources and Indian coal mining industry offers a bright future for the country's energy security, provided the industry is allowed to develop by supportive government policies and adopts latest technologies for mining. It is an irony that in-spite of having a plentiful reserves, India is not able to jack up coal production to meet its current and future demand. It discusses the strategies to be adopted for growth and meeting the coal demand. But such energy are very much concerned with environmental degradation and must be driven by contemporary managerial acumen addressing environmental and social challenges effectively The paper highlights the emissions of greenhouse gases due to burning of fossil fuels and environmental consequences of global warming and sea-level rise. Technological solutions for environment friendly coal mining and environmental laws for the abatement of environmental degradation are discussed in this paper.

Systematic environmental monitoring model for decision in Public Policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jair Cunha Cardoso Filho

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Addresses the existing interdisciplinary between Information Science and public policies, and proposes to environmental monitoring tool as a relevant tool for improving the process of evaluating the effectiveness of these social policies and social programs, there included the legislative branch, through the collection, processing and provision of information allowing to identify the environmental changes and propose, consistently, the improvement of public policies that meet the demands of citizens.

Global Challenges and New Approaches in the Common Agricultural Policy 2014 - 2020

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bánhegyi Gabriella

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Unfavorable environmental issues raise attention globally toward the concept of sustainability. Agriculture is not only a sector influenced greatly by environmental conditions, but at the same time, as the most important utilizer of land, a major shaper of the environmental conditions. When forming agricultural policies special attention should be paid to issues such as climate change, scarcity of fresh water, food shortage and biodiversity loss — just to name some of them. The new European general strategy for the upcoming 7 years period has brought new measures for the agricultural policy as well, environment and sustainability being among the top issues.

The role of government commitment for environmental policy and capital movements.

OpenAIRE

Marsiliani, L.; Renström, T. I.

2006-01-01

This paper explores the relationship between environmental protection and international capital movements, when tax policy is endogenous (through voting). A two-period general equilibrium model of a small open economy is specified to compare the effects of two different constitutions (commitment or no commitment in tax policy), as well as income inequality. Under the commitment regime, the equilibrium is characterised by a lower labour tax, higher environmental tax and less cap...

The impact of new member states on EU environmental policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Mikael Skou

1996-01-01

The fourth enlargement of the EU, with Sweden, Finland and Austria, which took effect on 1 January 1995, is by many expected to have a positive impact on the environmental policy dimension of the Union, which has been under strain since the Rio Summit in 1992.......The fourth enlargement of the EU, with Sweden, Finland and Austria, which took effect on 1 January 1995, is by many expected to have a positive impact on the environmental policy dimension of the Union, which has been under strain since the Rio Summit in 1992....

COPE-SMARTER - A decision support system for analysing the challenges, opportunities and policy initiatives: A case study of electric commercial vehicles market diffusion in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Barfod, Michael Bruhn; Kaplan, Sigal; Frenzel, Ina

2016-01-01

Stakeholder's strategies in encouraging wide-scale market penetration depend on their perceptions. This study focuses on perceptions of Danish practitioners in policy-making organizations regarding the perceived challenges, opportunities and policy initiatives for the majority-market adoption...... of electric commercial vehicles (ECVs) in commercial sector in Denmark. We propose a new four-step expert-based technique, named COPE-SMARTER, for evaluating the market diffusion of environmental friendly technologies by combining SWOT analysis and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) techniques. We focus...... on the perceptions regarding: (i) the potential promotional strength of motivators for ECV market penetration, (ii) the severity of the technological, financial, physical and operational challenges, (iii) the efficiency of policy initiatives in encouraging the market diffusion of ECVs, (iv) the expected market...

Interactions management in environmental policy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Krozer, Yoram; Franco Garcia, Maria Maria; Micallef, David

2013-01-01

Purpose: The paper aims to address regulator-management interactions in environmental policy with reference to direct regulations, social regulations and market-based regulation. Design/methodology/approach: Revision of literature to identify the European Union regulations for companies producing

76 FR 73632 - National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology

Science.gov (United States)

2011-11-29

... and Technology AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Request for Nominations to the National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT). SUMMARY: The U.S. Environmental... appointment to the National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT). Vacancies are...

EUROPEAN POLICY CONCERNING THE PROTECTION OF THE QUALITY OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL FACTOR - WATER

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

FLORICA BRASOVEANU

2012-05-01

Full Text Available European Union environmental policy, as was established in the EC Treaty aims at ensuring environmental sustainability activities through its inclusion in EU sectoral policies, by developing measures to prevent by following the basic principles of sustainable development and by taking joint responsibilities. Environmental legislation is one of those tools that combine management of natural resources with the prevention and control of the pollution. These laws attempt to prevent, or at least limit the effects of environmental degradation caused by the phenomenon of pollution. Environmental legislation should primarily be flexible in the sense to allow the fulfillment of current and the future goals in order to stimulate sustainable development concept and to base on general criteria for the purposes of allowing the extension to complex environmental problems. The environmental legislation is due to focus on integrating the source - effect policy, that is to focus on regulations for issuing permits for pollution, but also the responsibility of companies and citizens.Despite the significant improvements that have occurred especially in reducing air and water pollution, European legislation should be developed further. It is true that there are still many points that require completion and perfection, but the path followed is the best. In the European Union the process of implementation and adoption of new regulations on environmental protection (regulations, directives, decisions,recommendations to combat the causes of degradation of environmental quality and life quality time with them continues.

A new approach to environmental education: environment-challenge for science, technology and society

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Popovic, D.

2002-01-01

The paper presents a new approach to environmental education within the project Environment: Challenge for Science, Technology and Education, realized on the Alternative Academic Education Network (AAEN) in Belgrade. The project is designed for graduate or advanced undergraduate students of science, medicine, engineering, biotechnology, political and law sciences. It is multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary project aimed to support students interest in different areas of the environmental sciences through strong inter-connection between modern scientific ideas, technological achievements and society. The project contains four basic courses (Living in the Environment; Physical and Chemical Processes in the Environment; Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Development; Environmental Philosophy and Ethics) and a number of elective courses dealing with environmental biology, adaptation processes , global eco politics, environmental ethics, scientific and public policy, environmental consequences of warfare, environmental pollution control, energy management, environmental impact assessment, etc. The standard ex catedra teaching is replaced with active student-teacher communication method enabling students to participate actively in the subject through seminars, workshops, short essays and individual research projects

Competition policies and environmental quality: Empirical analysis of the electricity sector in OECD countries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Asane-Otoo, Emmanuel

2016-01-01

Over the last decades, electricity markets across OECD countries have been subjected to profound structural changes with far-reaching implications on the economy and the environment. This paper investigates the effect of restructuring – changes in entry regulations, the degree of vertical integration and ownership structure – on GHG emissions. The findings show that competition policies – particularly reducing the degree of vertical integration and increasing privatization – correlate negatively with emission intensity. However, the environmental effect of reducing market entry barriers is generally insignificant. Integration of competition and stringent environmental policies are required to reduce GHG emissions and improve environmental quality. - Highlights: •Empirical study on competition policies and GHG emissions from the electricity sector. •Product market regulation scores for OECD countries are used to measure the extent of competition. •Evidence of a positive relationship between competition policies and environmental quality. •Integration of competition and stringent environmental policies is recommended.

Multisectoral Actions for Health: Challenges and Opportunities in Complex Policy Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Viroj Tangcharoensathien

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Multisectoral actions for health, defined as actions undertaken by non-health sectors to protect the health of the population, are essential in the context of inter-linkages between three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social, and environmental. These multisectoral actions can address the social and economic factors that influence the health of a population at the local, national, and global levels. This editorial identifies the challenges, opportunities and capacity development for effective multisectoral actions for health in a complex policy environment. The root causes of the challenges lie in poor governance such as entrenched political and administrative corruption, widespread clientelism, lack of citizen voice, weak social capital, lack of trust and lack of respect for human rights. This is further complicated by the lack of government effectiveness caused by poor capacity for strong public financial management and low levels of transparency and accountability which leads to corruption. The absence of or rapid changes in government policies, and low salary in relation to living standards result in migration out of qualified staff. Tobacco, alcohol and sugary drink industries are major risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCDs and had interfered with health policy through regulatory capture and potential law suits against the government. Opportunities still exist. Some World Health Assembly (WHA and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA resolutions are both considered as external driving forces for intersectoral actions for health. In addition, Thailand National Health Assembly under the National Health Act is another tool providing opportunity to form trust among stakeholders from different sectors.

Anthropology and environmental policy: What counts?

Science.gov (United States)

Susan Charnley; William H. Durham

2010-01-01

In this article, we call for enhanced quantitative and environmental analysis in the work of environmental anthropologists who wish to influence policy. Using a database of 77 leading monographs published between 1967 and 2006, 147 articles by the same authors, and a separate sample of 137 articles from the journal Human Organization, we document a...

Strategic environmental assessment policy integration model for solid waste management in Malaysia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Victor, Dennis; Agamuthu, P.

2013-01-01

Highlights: • We identified policy drivers of SEA in solid waste policy planning. • The SEA primary policy drivers are benefits, barriers and enablers need. • The SEA sub-drivers are environmental attitude and environmental awareness. • Optimal SEA policy integration requires public participation and capacity building. • SEA integration should be a long-term sustainable policy strategy for SWM. -- Abstract: This paper examines the strategic environmental assessment (SEA) systemic policy drivers for solid waste management (SWM) policies, plans and programmes (PPP) in Malaysia. Solid waste generation in Malaysia has been increasing drastically from 9.0 million tonnes in 2000 to an expected 15.6 million tonnes in 2020. This projected rate of solid waste generation is expected to burden the country's environmental and water quality resources. The key problem the study frames is the lack of environmental integration in the SWM process which is only conducted during the environmental impact assessments (EIA) stage of SWM facilities. The purpose of this study is to expand the SEA subject knowledge by validating a behaviour based theoretical framework and identifying key policy drivers that influence the integration of SEA in SWM policy planning. The study methodology utilized a confirmatory covariance based structural equation modelling approach to validate the proposed theoretical model based on the policy makers/implementers interview questionnaire data collection. The study findings indicate five latent SEA policy drivers which were named policy knowledge, environmental attitude, perceived benefits, perceived barriers and perceived enablers. The study has conceptualized and tested a SEA policy model which indicates that SEA integration behaviour is influenced directly by three main drivers (perception of benefits, perception of barriers and perception of enablers) and influenced indirectly by two sub-drivers environmental attitude and environmental knowledge

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Compliance Guide, Sandia National Laboratories

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hansen, R.P. [Hansen Environmental Consultants, Englewood, CO (United States)

1995-08-01

This report contains a comprehensive National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Compliance Guide for the Sandia National Laboratories. It is based on the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) NEPA regulations in 40 CFR Parts 1500 through 1508; the US Department of Energy (DOE) N-EPA implementing procedures in 10 CFR Part 102 1; DOE Order 5440.1E; the DOE ``Secretarial Policy Statement on the National Environmental Policy Act`` of June 1994- Sandia NEPA compliance procedures-, and other CEQ and DOE guidance. The Guide includes step-by-step procedures for preparation of Environmental Checklists/Action Descriptions Memoranda (ECL/ADMs), Environmental Assessments (EAs), and Environmental Impact Statements (EISs). It also includes sections on ``Dealing With NEPA Documentation Problems`` and ``Special N-EPA Compliance Issues.``

Shelter from the Storm: Roles, responsibilities, and challenges in United States housing policy governance.

Science.gov (United States)

Willison, Charley

2017-11-01

Housing is a critical social determinant of health. Housing policy not only affects health by improving housing quality, affordability, and insecurity; housing policy affects health upstream through the politics that shape housing policy design, implementation, and management. These politics, or governance strategies, determine the successes or failures of housing policy programs. This paper is an overview of challenges in housing policy governance in the United States. I examine the important relationship between housing and health, and emphasize why studying housing policy governance matters. I then present three cases of housing governance challenges in the United States, from each pathway by which housing affects health - housing quality, affordability, and insecurity. Each case corresponds to an arm of the TAPIC framework for evaluating governance (Krieger and Higgins) [1], to assess mechanisms of housing governance in each case. While housing governance has come a long way over the past century, political decentralization and the expansion of the submerged state have increased the number of political actors and policy conflict in many areas. This creates inherent challenges for improving accountability, transparency, and policy capacity. In many instances, too, reduced government accountability and transparency increases the risk of harm to the public and lessens governmental integrity. Copyright © 2017 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The economics of environmental policy in Poland: implications for countries in transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Livingston, M.L.; Bochniarz, Z.; Bolan, R.

1995-01-01

The objective of this article is to generate insights into the problems and opportunities faced by countries in transition in implementing environmental policy based on the recent experience of Poland. There is much to be learned from the experience of the country that arguably took the riskiest and boldest path of environmental and economic institutional change. The experience of Poland can be enlightening in terms of the problems and opportunities in establishing an institutional framework that can validate the long term legitimacy of sustainable development as a national goal. From the unique set of circumstances facing Poland, lessons can be derived for other countries in transition. The paper begins by introducing the basic welfare economics of institutional choice. The theoretical arguments are presented in terms general to institutional design and specific to environmental policy. Subsequently, the recent experience of Poland in terms of the problems faced and key environmental policy innovations are documented. The concluding section presents policy implications that can be drawn from the Polish experience and speculates about their applicability to other countries in transition. 28 refs., 5 figs., 8 tabs

Pollution control through innovation and technological development. Environmental policy concepts of the BDI

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Meller, E

1987-02-01

Increasing acceptance of pollution control tasks call for enhanced innovative power both of industry and politics. One pre-requisite of boosting innovation is an environmental policy concept fit into the framework of the economic policy: A clear environmental strategy stating priorities and foreseeable, fixed data for the required adjustment of industry, selection of pollution control measures by means of verifiable cost-benefit analyses in cooperation with industry, embedding environmental policy in the context of the free market system and harmonization of means and methods on an international level. (orig./HSCH).

Engaging with Comparative Risk Appraisals: Public Views on Policy Priorities for Environmental Risk Governance.

Science.gov (United States)

Rocks, Sophie A; Schubert, Iljana; Soane, Emma; Black, Edgar; Muckle, Rachel; Petts, Judith; Prpich, George; Pollard, Simon J

2017-09-01

Communicating the rationale for allocating resources to manage policy priorities and their risks is challenging. Here, we demonstrate that environmental risks have diverse attributes and locales in their effects that may drive disproportionate responses among citizens. When 2,065 survey participants deployed summary information and their own understanding to assess 12 policy-level environmental risks singularly, their assessment differed from a prior expert assessment. However, participants provided rankings similar to those of experts when these same 12 risks were considered as a group, allowing comparison between the different risks. Following this, when individuals were shown the prior expert assessment of this portfolio, they expressed a moderate level of confidence with the combined expert analysis. These are important findings for the comprehension of policy risks that may be subject to augmentation by climate change, their representation alongside other threats within national risk assessments, and interpretations of agency for public risk management by citizens and others. © 2017 The Authors Risk Analysis published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Risk Analysis.

78 FR 47316 - National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology

Science.gov (United States)

2013-08-05

... and Technology AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Request for nominations to the National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT). SUMMARY: The U.S. Environmental... Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT). Vacancies are anticipated to be filled by February, 2014. Sources...

After the Conference of United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. The aims of the state environmental policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1996-01-01

Total 162 aims of the Strategy of the state environmental policy and next followed programs, projects and measures of the environmental policy of the Slovak Republic can be grouped into 4 blocks: (1) the environmental policy in the protection of air, water and before of risk factors, in the nuclear safety and waste economy (environmental safety; (2) the environmental policy in protection of the nature and the country, protection and use of mineral surroundings, soils and forest;; (3) the environmental policy in the economy; (4) the environmental policy in the guidance, education, public information, organization, control and coordination of the ministration on the environment. These aims are grouped into 10 sectors: Sector A - Protection of the air and ozone layer; Sector B - Protection and rationalize waters use; Sector C - Waste economy; Sector D - Risk factors and nuclear safety; Sector E - The ministration on the nature and the country and land development; Sector F - The protection and using of mineral surroundings, soils and forest; Sector G - The economy of the environment; Sector H - Environmental information science and monitoring; Sector I - Environmental guidance, education, and promotion; Sector J - Organization and control of the ministration on the environment

The Political Economy of Carbon Securities and Environmental Policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Polborn, Sarah

The costs of the current suboptimal carbon abatement policy are likely in the range of 3 to 6 trillion 2005 US dollars. Using methods from the political economy of environmental policy, the paper develops a new carbon abatement policy instrument, carbon securities. A carbon security entitles its...... owner to a ?xed proportion of ex ante unknown total emissions. This creates an additional group of stakeholders on the side of the issue that has traditionally been underrepresented. The advantages over existing systems include an equilibrium carbon price closer to the social optimum, a more predictable...

An evaluation of the effectiveness of environmental policy in Jordan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adel Yacoub Shamaileh

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This study examines the impact of the environmental policy in Jordan. The article reviews laws, measures, instruments and the implementation process and evaluates their effectiveness in banning, removing and/or reducing negative externalities in Jordan. Data was collected by administration of questionnaires distributed to all key enforcement officials working in the Ministries of Environment, Agriculture, and Health. Additional sources were laws, regulations, official documents and reports issued by the government, international organizations, NGOs and media. The study shows that Jordan’s environmental policy relies solely on the command and control approach to mitigate negative externalities, while completely overlooking price-based and rights -based instruments. Such instruments are widely and increasingly employed in developed countries and have proved their efficiency and effectiveness in protecting the environment. The results of the study reveal that command and control measures are insufficient to achieve effective environmental policy and consequently are incapable of internalizing negative externalities in Jordan. The results may motivate government regulators to endorse price-based and rights-based measures, in addition to command and control measures.

Environmental Policy Integration: Towards an Analytical Framework

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lafferty, W.M.; Hovden, Eivind

2003-01-01

Environmental policy integration (EPI) is a key defining feature of sustainable development. Despite the fact that EPI has been the subject of much debate both in academic and policy-making circles, conceptual issues relating to EPI have received relatively little treatment. The conceptual work that

Participation, Poverty and Public Policies: 3P Challenging Community Environmental Psychology (The Case of the Communal Councils in Venezuela

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Esther Wiesenfeld

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Participation, poverty and public policy are three relevant topics for the state, society and academy, particularly for environmental and community social psychology. Meanings and ways of addressing these topics by the above mentioned sector have varied across time and places. Recent impact of new governance models, such as participative democracy, has provoked changes in public policy modes of influence, as a strategy for poverty reduction. Such changes’ orientations coincide with those of environmental community psychology, social constructionist theoretical perspective and qualitative methodology. In Venezuela, only Latin American country where participation has been given a constitutional and legal status, it is important to study participation’s meanings and its implications in public management as a strategy for poverty reduction. Communal councils constitute the main community participatory structure, which integrates poor sectors and vehicles their requirements together with governmental entities. Conscious as we are of existing gaps between discourses and actions, the present research analyses official discourses on participation, through the Venezuelan Constitution and the Organic Communal Councils Law, and compares them with participatory meanings and experiences provided by communal councils’ members and other community stakeholders’ narratives. Results show differences between official and community perspectives on participation in communal councils, as well as discrepancies within communities: they also point out to the difficulties of state induced participation, as is the venezuelan case, for its protagonists’ limitations for transcending projects and exerting power outside community boundaries.

Assessment of environmental impacts following alternative agricultural policy scenarios.

Science.gov (United States)

Bárlund, I; Lehtonen, H; Tattari, S

2005-01-01

Abstract Finnish agriculture is likely to undergo major changes in the near and intermediate future. The ifuture policy context can be examined at a general level by strategic scenario building. Computer-based modelling in combination with agricultural policy scenarios can in turn create a basis for the assessments of changes in environmental quality following possible changes in Finnish agriculture. The analysis of economic consequences is based on the DREMFIA model, which is applied to study effects of various agricultural policies on land use, animal production, and farmers' income. The model is suitable for an impact analysis covering an extended time span--here up to the year 2015. The changes in land use, obtained with the DREMFIA model assuming rational economic behaviour, form the basis when evaluating environmental impacts of different agricultural policies. The environmental impact assessment is performed using the field scale nutrient transport model ICECREAM. The modelled variables are nitrogen and phosphorus losses in surface runoff and percolation. In this paper the modelling strategy will be presented and highlighted using two case study catchments with varying environmental conditions and land use as an example. In addition, the paper identifies issues arising when connecting policy scenarios with impact modelling.

A Participatory Regional Partnership Approach to Promote Nutrition and Physical Activity Through Environmental and Policy Change in Rural Missouri.

Science.gov (United States)

Barnidge, Ellen K; Baker, Elizabeth A; Estlund, Amy; Motton, Freda; Hipp, Pamela R; Brownson, Ross C

2015-06-11

Rural residents are less likely than urban and suburban residents to meet recommendations for nutrition and physical activity. Interventions at the environmental and policy level create environments that support healthy eating and physical activity. Healthier Missouri Communities (Healthier MO) is a community-based research project conducted by the Prevention Research Center in St. Louis with community partners from 12 counties in rural southeast Missouri. We created a regional partnership to leverage resources and enhance environmental and policy interventions to improve nutrition and physical activity in rural southeast Missouri. Partners were engaged in a participatory action planning process that included prioritizing, implementing, and evaluating promising evidence-based interventions to promote nutrition and physical activity. Group interviews were conducted with Healthier MO community partners post intervention to evaluate resource sharing and sustainability efforts of the regional partnership. Community partners identified the benefits and challenges of resource sharing within the regional partnership as well as the opportunities and threats to long-term partnership sustainability. The partners noted that the regional participatory process was difficult, but the benefits outweighed the challenges. Regional rural partnerships may be an effective way to leverage relationships to increase the capacity of rural communities to implement environmental and policy interventions to promote nutrition and physical activity.

Innovating innovation Policy. Rethinking green innovation policy in evolutionary perspective

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Arentsen, Maarten J.; Dinica, V.; Marquart, N.E.

1999-01-01

Advanced environmental standards such as sustainability require substantial improvements in the environmental performances of present technologies. Governments are faced with the challenge to design green innovation policies able to support producers and users of technologies to comply with such

Environmental challenges posed by veld fires in fragile regions: The case of the Bulilima and Mangwe districts in southern Zimbabwe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ernest Dube

2015-11-01

Full Text Available This original research confronted challenges to environmental management and sustainability posed by veld fires in the Bulilima and Mangwe Districts of Matabeleland in the South Province in southern Zimbabwe. Veld fires have affected the fauna and flora, polluted air and water, and destroyed livelihoods. The study aimed at establishing challenges to environmental sustainability posed by veld fires, identifying the type of environment upon which veld fires have impacted, analysing legal issues and other interventions surrounding the control of veld fires and suggesting new control measures for veld fires. A qualitative research design and quota sampling were used. The study involved 30 participants. Data was collected through a questionnaire, an interview guide and participant observation. Challenges to environmental management and sustainability posed by veld fires include property damage, reduced soil fertility, destruction of vegetation, air and water pollution and destruction of wildlife. Most veld fires are a result of human actions that emanate from the disposal of cigarettes, the burning of vegetation when preparing fields, the use of fire by hunters, smoking out bees and the making of fires by motorists along highways. The government should consider reviewing the current environmental statues. Fireguards should be wide enough to lessen veld-fire impact. Lastly, veld-fire campaigns and rehearsals should be run on a regular basis. It is hoped that this work would make a significant contribution through improving the current thinking about environmental management and sustainability, thereby benefiting policy makers, practitioners and stakeholders.

White Paper No 24 (2000-2001).The government's environmental policy and the state of the environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2001-01-01

The report to the Norwegian parliament deals with the national environmental policy and aspects of the international co-operation on environmental issues and protection in the polar areas. It has sections on the main elements of the governmental policy, cross-sectional environmental policy and sustainable urban development, conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, outdoor recreation, cultural heritage, eutrophication and oil pollution, hazardous substances, waste and recycling, climate change, air pollution and noise as well as international aspects on these issues and environmental protection. The publication consists of the report in Norwegian and an English summary

Choosing Environmental Policy Instruments in the Real World

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Greenspan Bell, R.

2003-01-01

In their enthusiasm for efficiency over other values, the advocates for market-based instruments for environmental control have reversed the order in which environmental solutions are found. They have written their prescriptions without first doing a physical examination of the patient; in other words, they have first recommended environmental instruments and secondarily tried to bend institutions to support the already identified cure. The engine for environmental regulation consists of the institutions available country by country to carry out environmental policy. Institutional inadequacies such as low functioning legal systems, historical experience (or inexperience) with markets, distorting and often institutionalised corruption, and public acceptance certainly can be fixed. But changing these fundamentals can be a long and arduous process. Those who advise governments to adopt reforms for which the institutional basis does not yet exist put the cart before the horse, a costly mistake that directs weak countries in the direction of solutions they have little hope of implementing. Instead, the donors and advisors should be seeking alternative approaches, for example to encourage incremental improvements and pragmatic goals, by considering a transitional or tiered approach that will take into account existing capabilities and institutions, at the same time acknowledging that a long learning curve lies ahead with inevitably uneven implementation and slippage from time to time. Another approach would be to find examples of small, albeit imperfect, efforts that seem to be working and building on them. The long-term goal should be efficient solutions, but only the most developed countries should be encouraged to attempt difficult environmental policy instruments like taxation and emissions trading schemes

Emission and costs up to and including 2030 for the current environmental policy. Background information for the National Environmental Outlook 5

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Wee, G.P.; Kuijpers-Linde, M.A.J.; Van Gerwen, O.J.

2001-03-01

Every four years the Dutch National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) publishes an Environmental Outlook in preparation for the National Environmental Policy Plan (NEPP). The fifth National Environmental Outlook (NEOS) describes developments in the quality of the environment in the Netherlands for 2000-2030 against a background of developments on the European and global scales. The two macro-economic scenarios of the Netherlands Bureau for Economic and Policy Analysis (CPB) used are the European Coordination (EC) scenario and the Global Competition scenario (GC). Consequences for public health, nature and the human physical environment are also indicated. 'Fixed policy' scenarios are used in the Environmental Outlook for the Netherlands. In 'fixed policy' scenarios it is assumed that all policy measures agreed on by the year 2000 will be implemented, but no new measures taken. In this way the Outlook offers baseline scenarios that can be compared with targets and objectives to facilitate the development of new policy. The Fifth National Environmental Outlook was realised with the assistance of many other Dutch research institutes. This background document to NEOS presents estimated levels of energy use, emissions and costs of environmental measures for the 1995-2020 period. The main conclusions are: The environmental problems most difficult to tackle are climate change and noise nuisance. These problems are highly related to energy use and transportation; The policy as presented in the 'Uitvoeringsnota Klimaatbeleid', a document describing the Dutch Kyoto-related climate policy, results in a reduction of greenhouse gases of 15 Mton CO2 equivalents (GS scenario) with respect to the pre-Kyoto policy in 2010. To meet the Kyoto agreements a further reduction of approximately 45 Mton CO2 equivalents is needed. If policies in the 'Uitvoeringsnota Klimaatbeleid' are further instrumentalised and made concrete, an extra reduction of 10 Mton is possible

The precautionary principle in environmental science.

Science.gov (United States)

Kriebel, D; Tickner, J; Epstein, P; Lemons, J; Levins, R; Loechler, E L; Quinn, M; Rudel, R; Schettler, T; Stoto, M

2001-01-01

Environmental scientists play a key role in society's responses to environmental problems, and many of the studies they perform are intended ultimately to affect policy. The precautionary principle, proposed as a new guideline in environmental decision making, has four central components: taking preventive action in the face of uncertainty; shifting the burden of proof to the proponents of an activity; exploring a wide range of alternatives to possibly harmful actions; and increasing public participation in decision making. In this paper we examine the implications of the precautionary principle for environmental scientists, whose work often involves studying highly complex, poorly understood systems, while at the same time facing conflicting pressures from those who seek to balance economic growth and environmental protection. In this complicated and contested terrain, it is useful to examine the methodologies of science and to consider ways that, without compromising integrity and objectivity, research can be more or less helpful to those who would act with precaution. We argue that a shift to more precautionary policies creates opportunities and challenges for scientists to think differently about the ways they conduct studies and communicate results. There is a complicated feedback relation between the discoveries of science and the setting of policy. While maintaining their objectivity and focus on understanding the world, environmental scientists should be aware of the policy uses of their work and of their social responsibility to do science that protects human health and the environment. The precautionary principle highlights this tight, challenging linkage between science and policy. PMID:11673114

Food concerns and support for environmental food policies and purchasing.

Science.gov (United States)

Worsley, Anthony; Wang, Wei C; Burton, Melissa

2015-08-01

Consumer support for pro environmental food policies and food purchasing are important for the adoption of successful environmental policies. This paper examines consumers' views of food policy options as their predisposition to purchase pro environmental foods along with their likely demographic, educational and cognitive antecedents including food and environmental concerns and universalism values (relating to care for others and the environment). An online survey to assess these constructs was conducted among 2204 Australian adults in November 2011. The findings showed strong levels of support for both environmental food policies (50%-78% support) and pro environmental food purchasing (51%-69% intending to purchase pro environmental foods). Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling showed that different cognitive mediators exist along pathways between demographics and the two outcome variables. Support for food policy was positively related to food and environment concerns (std. Beta = 0.25), universalism (0.41), perceived control (0.07), and regulatory issues (0.64 but negatively with food security issues (-0.37). Environment purchasing intentions were positively linked to food and nutrition concerns (0.13), food and environment concerns (0.24), food safety concerns (0.19), food and animal welfare concerns (0.16), universalism (0.25), female gender (0.05), education (0.04), and perceived influence over the food system (0.17). In addition, health study in years 11 and 12 was positively related to the beginning of both of these pathways (0.07 for each). The results are discussed in relation to the opportunities that communications based on the mediating variables offer for the promotion of environmental food policies and purchasing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

MANAGING ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY FOR TOURISM DEVELOPMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Margarita Matlievska

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Based on variety of impacts that tourism poses over national economies, each country is interested in supporting its development. Moreover, everyone urges measures for increasing the number of tourists who are eager in meeting their travel and tourism preferences. Since the motive for tourism flows lies in natural or cultural background, it is necessary to find solutions for enhancing such basis. This paper supports the fact that tourism development may not be addressed if environment is neglected. For that purpose, the research is focused on environmental policy as a precondition for preserving safe and sound grounds for tourism development. In this respect, the case of Macedonia is investigated with its corpus of environmental laws being in a state of approximation with the ‘horizontal’ legislation of the European Union. So, the contribution of this paper lies in the fact that provides overview and facts at glance not only on the environmental protection legislation in Macedonia, but on the constitutional regulation as well. The research outcomes confirm the starting research hypothesis for obtaining national environmental legislation fully in line with already established international standards. Hence, one may argue that environmental policy provides basis and legal opportunities for strengthening tourism development.

CULTURAL POLICY IN TRANSITIONAL ECONOMIES: NEW CHALLENGES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ulyana V. SHCHURKO

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The article is dedicated to the new conditions of countries’ development in the post-crisis period. Challenges to the cultural and socio-economic policy during last decade were analyzed. Religious factors are offered to be considered as important mechanisms of solving transition period problems, and at the same time as the causes of many conflicts in the world. It was offered to include those factors as inevitable elements into modern policy making process.

Agri‐environmental Policies to Meet Consumer Preferences in Japan: An Economic‐Biophysical Model Approach

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Tetsuya Uetake

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Promoting environmentally friendly farming products is crucial to meeting consumer demand. Although governments implement policy measures to improve the environmental performance of the agriculture sector, theirimpacts are difficult to assess. This study analyses the performance of agri‐environmental policies in Japan, by using the OECD’s policy impact model and reference level framework. In particular, it identifies the environmental impacts of three simulated agri‐environmental policies based on farms’ characteristics. The results suggest that a policy mix of regulation and an incentive payment would reduce environmental impacts, suggesting that targeted approaches could improve the cost‐effectiveness of agri‐environmental policies.

THE JEOPARDIZED SITUATION OF ELECTRONIC WASTE IN BANGLADESH: CAN CUSTOMIZED POLICY APPROACH SOLVE THE CHALLENGE?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khalid Md. Bahauddin

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Electronic waste (e-waste is one of the fastest-growing pollution problems worldwide given the presence if a variety of toxic substances which can contaminate the environment and threaten human health, if disposal protocols are not meticulously managed. In Bangladesh almost 2.7 million metric tons of e-waste generated per year. Of this amountonly 20 to 30 percent is recycled and the rest of the waste is released in to landfills,  rivers, drains lakes, canals, open spaces which are very hazardous for the health and environment. Since Bangladesh is in the stream of rapid technological advancement, it is seldom to take necessary steps to avoid the future jeopardized situation because of e-waste. The current practices of e-waste management in Bangladesh suffer from a number of drawbacks like the difficulty in inventorisation, unhealthy conditions of informal recycling, inadequate legislation and policy, poor awareness and reluctance on part of the corporate to address the critical issues. The paper highlights the associated issues and strategies to address this emerging problem, analyses the policy and its gaps. Therefore, this paper also suggest that e-waste policy development may require a more customized approach where, instead of addressing e-waste in isolation, it should be addressed as part of the national development agenda that integrates green economy assessment and strategic environmental assessment as part of national policy planning. Finally this work also suggests some alternative strategies and approaches to overcome the challenges of e-waste.

Environment 1994: Policy for sustainable, environmentally compatible development. Summary

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1994-08-01

Economic, social and ecological development are inseparably interlaced. This is the essential message of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development 1992 in Rio. Linking of economic, social and ecological aspects is also the main approach of German environmental policy. Environmentally compatible recycling, comprehensive product liability, and just attribution of environmental consumption costs are major targets of this national strategy for the promotion of sustainable development. High standards and strict limiting values form the foundation of effective environmental protection. The further integration of environmental protection in all areas of activity and policy fields will be a central concern especially in the 90s. (orig./TF) [de

Applying market-based instruments to environmental policies in China and OECD countries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1998-01-01

China's rapid economic growth since the late 1970s has been a remarkable achievement, and is projected to continue. However, this prospect could be compromised by pollution of air, water, and land, the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources, and the environmental impacts on public health. Air pollution associated with the use of coal for energy and industrial purposes is a particularly serious challenge in China, with important domestic and transboundary implications. This book presents papers from an international workshop co-sponsored by the OECD and China's National Environmental Protection Agency on the application of economic instruments to control air pollution in China and OECD countries. It presents the state-of-the-air in this field, based upon contributions from Chinese and OECD country policy makers and experts