The Role of Flexibility Mechanisms in EU Climate Strategy: Lessons Learned and Future Challenges?

The main objective of this paper is to examine the evolution of European Union (EU) climate strategy, scrutinising in particular developments in EU's views on the so-called flexibility or Kyoto mechanisms. In brief, the paper argues that there has been a gradual change in EU's views, from the role of a sceptic in the run-up to Kyoto towards becoming more of a frontrunner on emissions trading in recent years. The need to 'save Kyoto' and the protracted development of EU climate policy are highlighted as two of the most important drivers behind this process of change. This paper also discusses some of the lessons learned from international negotiations and the development of EU climate policy. Finally, and drawing upon the lessons learned, the paper explores key future challenges for the further development of EU climate strategy.     

The Impact of Gender and Department Climate on Job Satisfaction and Intentions to Quit for Faculty in Science and Engineering Fields

This study investigates whether gender and the perceptions of department climate affects faculty job satisfaction and intentions to quit (work outcomes) with surveys responses from 308 faculty members in science and engineering fields. The study finds that both gender and department climate are related to work outcomes and that two facets of department climate (affective and instrumental) mediate the relationship between gender and both job satisfaction and intention to quit. This finding suggests that universities can benefit from improving department climate, which then may improve the retention of both male and female faculty, but may have an even greater impact on improving job satisfaction and reducing intentions to quit of female faculty.     

重视道德认知力行道德实践——从新时期领导者道德修养建设谈起

社会主义市场体制的逐步建立,经济的发展,教育、科学、文化等各项社会事业的全面进步,以及中华民族优良的领导者道德修养传统,为领导者道德建设提供了有利的物质条件和精神土壤。但当前出现的政府高级官员或知名企业家的诸多腐败问题,说明了新时期领导者的素质尤其是道德素质并未与时代同步提高,甚至在退化,因而必须重视这一问题。     

古代中西伦理文化异同新论

中国古代伦理文化的基本特点是伦常日用、务实求真的世俗色彩,兼容并收、融合扬弃的思想体系,注重修身、追求心性的内在修养。古代西方伦理文化的特色是突出道德及精神生活价值,强调群体利益高于个人利益等。中西古代伦理文化既有共同点,也有相异处。认真研究其基本特点及异同,对于建构、完善当代世界伦理文化新体系,具有借鉴意义。     

Judging politicians: The role of political attentiveness in shaping how people evaluate the ethical behaviour of their leaders

Political theorists have developed well‐defined normative understandings of what constitutes ethical political conduct. Based on democratic theory as well as the demands of practical politics, these understandings prescribe certain types of behaviour and proscribe other types. However, it is unclear to what extent this normative framework has resonance for ordinary citizens. This article demonstrates that attention to politics tends to increase the resonance of this normative framework. The analysis identifies three norms about the holding of public office that are expected to structure citizens' ethical judgments: the avoidance of conflicts of interest; conformity with the law or institutional rules; and the maximisation of the public good. The article assesses the importance of these norms in structuring judgments by means of an experiment embedded in a population survey conducted in Great Britain. The analysis finds that informational cues pertaining to conflict‐of‐interest avoidance only condition responses among the attentive, while information pertaining to law conformity has far wider resonance. This finding has implications for approaches to political ethics focusing on normative considerations that appear to have low salience for much of the general public.     

‘Multicolored’ green criminology and climate change’s achromatopsia

While green criminology may be an effective name or label for the sub-field or perspective within criminology that considers a wide range of environmental issues, it is, in reality, a ‘multicolored green’ – a criminology that engages a spectrum of issues, that reflects the interests of some racial groups more than others, that reveals and analyzes environmental harms which disproportionately impact some racial groups more than others, and that can be approached from a number of vantage points or that can be viewed with variously tinted lenses. This article begins with an overview of climate change, including a discussion of its anticipated impacts and indicators of its already-being-felt effects. It then offers some general comments on the disproportionate impact of environmental threats and harms before turning to a discussion of the present and anticipated distributional impacts of climate change. Here, this article argues that climate change is, in effect, achromatopsic – it is color-blind, in that it affects us all regardless of skin color – but that those impacts will be distributed unevenly/unequally and that various groups are and will continue to be in different positions to adapt to climate change. This article concludes by suggesting that while the environmental harms caused by climate change are real – and the risks and threats they pose tangible and serious – climate change presents an exciting challenge for our creative potential as humans. In the process of reducing our consumption of fossil fuels and stabilizing (or, better yet, reducing) our greenhouse gas emissions, we might better assist those geopolitical regions most at risk (i.e. poor, developing countries) to become more resilient – an approach that is necessary for both the physical health of the planet and the prospects for social justice.     

Covenant of Mayors: Reasons for Being an Environmentally and Energy Friendly Municipality

The Covenant of Mayors (CM) is the mainstream European movement involving local authorities who voluntarily commit to increase energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources within their territories with the aim of reducing CO₂ emissions and meet the European Union objectives by 2020. One country that has a greater number of signatories of this agreement is Spain. This article analyzes which factors influence the decision of Spanish local authorities to join the ever‐growing movement. An empirical model is formulated to describe the behavior of Spanish local governments, this being a binary choice model which is a function of various political, economic, and technical factors. Among the prominent factors that influence this decision are population, availability of renewable energy, fiscal and environmental stress, citizens’ political preference, the contagion effect of neighboring municipalities, the existence of covenant coordinators, and finally, economic motivations.     

Russia: A Country with an Unpredictable Past

Russia is a key player in the Kyoto process, and the fate of the Protocol itself heavily depends on future developments in the country, in particular in its energy sector. This article analyses the contradictory and complex relationships between carbon dioxide emissions, gas exports to Western Europe and the energy security of Russia. The paper reviews emerging trends in the energy sector of Russia that will have a long-term impact on these three parameters and assesses the possible influence of these trends on the implementation of the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution in Russia. Proceeding from the latest developments in the Russian energy scene, the author tries to forecast how Russia will integrate into the international community in the energy sphere. The study concludes that gas export commitments to Europe will be met despite the serious problems in the domestic gas sector, that energy saving in Russia is the most feasible way of finding a compromise between the three parameters, and that enhancing the energy security of Russia might have rather controversial consequences for Europe.     

理性市场秩序呼唤道德支持——规范市场秩序的伦理思考

市场秩序混乱是我国当前经济生活中十分突出的问题.本文对这一经济现象从伦理道德的角度加以审视,认为理性的市场秩序既是一种经济秩序,也是一种伦理道德秩序.市场失序不仅源于制度约束机制的软化,在更深层次上,它是转型时期社会伦理道德失范在经济领域的反映,是伦理上层建筑对经济生活反作用的集中表现.因此,道德秩序是市场秩序的精神支柱,活而有序的市场机制的建立既要有完备的法规体系作保障,又要有相应的伦理价值观念予以支撑.     

一种新的经济张力——伦理道德与经济相融合

伦理精神作为一种中介,它有可能使非经济因素的伦理道德转化为一种特殊的经济因素。伦理精神激励社会和个人的潜能,促使社会和个人将伦理信念转化为社会经济发展的实际行动,使道德成为一种实践性的伦理,实现非经济因素转化为经济因素。