Joint implementation of greenhouse gas abatement under the Kyoto protocol's ‘clean development mechanism’: Its scope and limits

The Kyoto Protocol on climate change includes four flexibility mechanisms, which pursue lower-cost global reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through voluntary international re-distribution of abatement effort. We consider the operation of one of these, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which grants transferable credit for abatement achieved by individual projects in countries without national emission targets. An uncredited pilot phase in effect since 1995 provides only limited guidance for projecting the operation of the credited CDM. Under the CDM, intractable difficulties of accounting for project-level effects are likely to bias project activity toward particular project types for which exaggeration-resistant accounting rules are most readily available. This bias will favor retrofits over new investments, and will consequently limit the CDM to a modest contribution to required abatement in developing countries. Use of CDM credits as instruments of domestic policy in investor countries, as well as instruments of international policy, may mitigate this bias and the associated limitation. So may the use of projects based on novel technologies of carbon management.     

State-Federal Diffusion and Policy Learning: From Enterprise Zones to Empowerment Zones

There is little empirical evidence on whether the federal governmentlearns from policy experimentation in the states, the "laboratoriesof democracy. " Interviews with participants involved in formulatingthe federal Empowerment Zones/Enterprise Communities programoffer evidence of limited policy learning from state enterprisezones. Respondents were aware of general trends and drew a fewgeneral conclusions, rather than borrowing from any particularstate. None of the federal policymakers conducted an activesearch for information about the state zones, but state andfederal organizations served as channels of information aboutthe state programs. This finding suggests that such organizationsassist state-federal diffusion as well as interstate diffusionof policy ideas.     

Reviews

Rita Felski, The Gender of Modernity (Harvard University Press) Cambridge, MA, 1995.

Katie Holmes, Spaces in Her Day: Australian Women's Diaries 1920s‐1930s (Allen & Unwin) St Leonards, NSW, 1995.

Ros Pesman, Duty Free: Australian Women Abroad (Oxford University Press) Melbourne, 1996.

Frances Porter and Charlotte Macdonald (eds), ’My Hand Will Write What My Heart Dictates’ (Auckland University Press with Bridget Williams Books) Auckland, 1996.

Lucy Bland, Banishing the Beast: English Feminism & Sexual Morality 1885–1914 (Penguin) Harmondsworth, 1995.

Margaret Thornton, Dissonance and Distrust: Women in the Legal Profession (Oxford University Press) Melbourne, 1996.

Diane Bell and Renate Klein (eds), Radically Speaking: Feminism Reclaimed (Spinifex Press) North Melbourne, 1996.

Rye Senjen and Jane Guthrey, The Internet for Women (Spinifex Press) North Melbourne, 1996.     

Can property taxes be reformed ? - reflections on the Ontario experience

Abstract. The history of property tax reform in Ontario dates back to 1967 when it was recommended, among other things, that real property be assessed at market value. Since that time, several studies have been undertaken, culminating in, the June 1978 announcement of the Treasurer that property tax reform would not be implemented. Some subsequent reform measures have been introduced, however. This article provides a review and appraisal of the process of property tax reform in Ontario. It looks at the history of reform and the trends in property taxes over the last decade. The strong opposition to property tax reform is particularly interesting given that property taxes actually declined throughout much of this period. In evaluating the reform process, the article considers a number of issues: the role of Toronto versus the rest of the province, the resistance to market value assessment, the perception of the property tax as a provincial tax and the favourable treatment of residential property. The article concludes that, given the resistance to property tax reform, it is unlikely that market value assessment will be implemented in Ontario in the near future. Sommaire. L'histoire de la réforme de l'impôt foncier, en Ontario, remonte à 1967, époque à laquelle on avait recommandé, entre autres choses, l‘évaluation des propriétés immobilières aux prix du marché. On a procédé depuis à différentes études sur cette réforme pour aboutir, en juin 1978, à la déclaration du trésorier annonçant qu'elle n'aurait pas lieu; ce qui n'a pas empêché, toutefois, l'introduction par la suite de certaines mesures. Les auteurs de cet article font un examen et une évaluation du processus deréforme de l'impôt foncier en Ontario. Ils considbrent l'histoire de cette réforme et les tendances dans l'application de cet impôt au cours de la dernière décennie. Il est intéressant de noter la forte réaction contre la réforme de l'impôt foncier alors que cet impôt a, en fait, proportionnellement diminué pendant la plus grande partie de cette période. En évaluant le processus de réforme, les auteurs considèrent un certain nombre de questions: le rôle de Toronto par rapport au reste de la province, la résistance à une évaluation aux prix du marché, la perception de l'impôt foncier comme étant un impôt provincial et le traitement privilégié de la propriété résidentielle. Ils concluent qu'étant donné la résistance que rencontre la réforme de l'impôt foncier, il y a peu de chance, en Ontario, que les évaluations se fassent aux prix du marché dans un proche avenir.     

Metal Railing Fences and Accidental Death

Two cases of accidental deaths caused by the sharp ends of fence or gate posts are reported. Case 1: A 47‐year‐old man was found hanging by his ankle in an inverted position on fencing. He had attempted a shortcut to a railway platform by climbing over a metal rail fence. He had slipped and been impaled through his ankle by the sharp end of the fence post, resulting in death from positional asphyxia. Case 2: An 18‐year‐old male slipped while climbing over a gate and died after being impaled on a spear tip finial, which had lacerated his external iliac vein. Death was due to exsanguination. These cases demonstrate two rare examples of accidental deaths from impalement by the ends of sharp fence posts. Mechanisms of death in such circumstances involve suspension with positional asphyxia and vascular injury with exsanguination.     

Functional anonymisation: Personal data and the data environment

Anonymisation of personal data has a long history stemming from the expansion of the types of data products routinely provided by National Statistical Institutes. Variants on anonymisation have received serious criticism reinforced by much-publicised apparent failures. We argue that both the operators of such schemes and their critics have become confused by being overly focused on the properties of the data itself. We claim that, far from being able to determine whether data is anonymous (and therefore non-personal) by looking at the data alone, any anonymisation technique worthy of the name must take account of not only the data but also its environment.This paper proposes an alternative formulation called functional anonymisation that focuses on the relationship between the data and the environment within which the data exists (the data environment). We provide a formulation for describing the relationship between the data and its environment that links the legal notion of personal data with the statistical notion of disclosure control. Anonymisation, properly conceived and effectively conducted, can be a critical part of the toolkit of the privacy-respecting data controller and the wider remit of providing accurate and usable data.