略论环境污染民事责任制度的完善

在我国,环境污染侵权责任的主要法律依据分散于<民法通则>、环境基本法与单行法之中.此外,民事诉讼法的有关规定也与之密切相关.相对于发达国家环境污染侵权责任制度,其不足之处很明显,了解了我国现有环境污染侵权民事责任制度的不足,就可以针对这些问题采取相应的对策加以健全和完善.完善的主要途径有:删除环境污染侵权以"违法性"为前提之规定、适当拓宽损害赔偿的范围、明确举证责任倒置与因果关系推定规则、细化排除侵害的构成与方式、采取责任保险与损害补偿基金制度、授予受害人的咨询权和责任鉴定请求权、完善行政调解与仲裁制度.     

Stern Review 2.0? The Report of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate

Eight years after the launch of the Stern Review of the economics of climate change, a new major report on economic growth and climate change (Better Growth, Better Climate) has been published by a Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, chaired by Nicholas Stern. While this comprehensive review of recent evidence has some overlap with the original Stern Review, it focuses more on the short‐term costs and benefits of action needed to reduce carbon emissions in specific parts of the economy such as cities, energy and agriculture. Perhaps the most noted conclusion of the report is that policies which governments should be pursuing anyway, because they will reduce pollution, improve health, raise productivity and reduce congestion, will cut carbon emission by between 50 and 90 per cent of what is needed to get to a 2°C pathway. This is an important report that will have considerable influence, although it has had lower public visibility than the original Stern Review. However, it also points to the need for a better understanding of the politics of climate policy, and why the opportunities to adopt policies that have multiple long‐term public benefits do not get taken. While Better Growth, Better Climate does have a chapter on the political economy of change, the analysis is limited, and could be deepened by bringing in the growing literature on the politics of climate policy.     

我国水污染犯罪的立法缺陷及其完善

近年来,水污染犯罪问题日益呈现,然而现行刑法对此问题的规范却极不完善。纵观国外的立法,我国刑法可采用修正案形式规定水污染犯罪的主观罪过、行为犯、危险犯和刑罚等,以弥补在这方面的缺憾。     

大气污染政府间协同治理组织的结构要素与网络特征

大气污染具有扩散性和不确定性,需要多个部门、多个地区的协调配合。建立有效的协同治理组织成为地方政府大气污染治理的重要工作,并已经形成了多种类型的组织。这一背景下,如何有效识别这些组织的特征是区域治理研究的重要议题。协同组织是通过不同行政隶属关系的正式机构连接而成,具有网络特征的倾向,故以Provan提出的共享型(SG)、领导型(NLO)和行政型(NAO)三种网络治理模式为理论基础,结合Ansell合作治理框架提出识别大气污染协同治理组织结构的模型,并以我国实际组织案例进行验证分析。研究发现,大气污染协同治理组织并非与三种网络治理模式完全对应,故分为联席类、牵头类和支持类三种组织。联席类组织适合于合作基础较好的关联区域,对应具有联合性质的组织;牵头类组织适合于范围中等且成员异质性高的关联区域,对应具有领导、指挥和协调性质的组织;支持类组织适合于规模较大且稳定性要求较高的关联区域,对应具有成员多元化或领导性质的组织。     

Personal attributes and (mis)perceptions of local environmental risk

Individuals' risk perceptions shape their attitudes and behaviors, and to the extent that governments respond to public demands, they also influence public policy priorities. Conversely, risk misperceptions—that is, when risk perceptions do not align with realities—may lead to suboptimal behaviors and inefficient public policy. This study investigates the phenomena of environmental risk misperceptions. Specifically, with an original survey that enables a direct comparison of perceived and actual environmental risks at the local level, it examines the relationships between personal attributes and risk misperceptions. The findings show that individuals exhibit optimism bias in assessing local environmental risk. On average, people rank their communities as experiencing less risk from toxic air pollution than objective measures suggest. Moreover, Whites, males, conservatives, and older people tend to have larger optimism bias and have lower chances of possessing correct risk perceptions than their counterparts, respectively, while respondents who are married, poor, who go to church regularly, and have strong pro-environmental orientation, tend to have smaller optimism bias and have higher chances of possessing correct risk perceptions than their respective counterparts. The systematic misperception of local environmental risk underscores the importance of information provision and risk communication, and the sociopolitical correlates of misperception suggest that targeted and more nuanced strategies are required to correct misperceptions.