The economic significance of “insignificant” rules

We know relatively little about the economic effects of “insignificant” rules because they are not typically analyzed. Yet, these rules could be cumulatively important. We provide an economic analysis of one proposed rule to control hazardous air pollutants, which is not considered to be economically significant. This rule is of particular interest because it is one of the first in a long series of rules that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will consider for limiting hazardous air pollutant emissions. Our analysis suggests that the proposed controls that EPA has considered are not likely to pass a benefit–cost test. We recommend that an agency base its decision to allocate additional resources to benefit–cost analysis on the expected value of the improved information. In addition, agencies should consider applying a rule of thumb that would specify a threshold level of risk reduction that needs to be achieved before some kinds of regulation are considered.     

论环境友好行为的形成与培养

环境友好行为划分为目的导向型和结果导向型环境友好行为。因此要采取更新环保观念、健全环保制度和转变发展及消费模式等多元化途径培养环境友好行为。     

Investments in Global Warming Mitigation: The Case of “Activities Implemented Jointly”

This paper examines bilateral cooperation between developed countries (home country) and developing countries (host country) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to enhance carbon dioxide sinks. With the home-host country pair as the unit of analysis, our logistic regression model examines 158 Activities Implemented Jointly (AIJ) investment projects from 1993 until 2002 across 2541 country-pairs. Because the marginal costs of reducing emissions may be lower in developing countries, the AIJ projects served as a policy laboratory to assess whether such investments might be advantageous to both countries in the event future regimes allowed emission credits from such bilateral projects. Instead of investing in home countries where maximum pollution reductions (or carbon sequestration) might be possible, home countries invest in locations where they can conduct their policy experiments at low transaction costs. Prior trade and aid relationships were used as a proxy. Regarding energy projects, location decisions are driven by home countries’ desire to reduce air pollution that they receive from abroad. Geography – proximity of a host country to a home country – in interaction with host country's coal production, is a very important driver of location decision in AIJ energy sector projects. Location of sequestration projects is impacted by the host country's potential for avoiding deforestation as well as by previous aid and trade patterns between a home and a host country. Proximity is not important in this case.     

Regulatory Commitment to Negotiated Agreements: Evidence from the United States, Germany, The Netherlands, and France

Negotiated Agreements (NAs) are arrangements between firms and regulators in which firms voluntarily agree to reduce their pollution. This article analyzes the institutional features that facilitate or hamper the implementation of NAs. We illustrate the analysis with case studies on the implementation of NAs in the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, and France. We find that NAs are implemented when regulators are able to commit credibly to the objectives of NAs. Institutional environments marked by fragmentation of power and open access in policymaking reduce regulatory credibility and thus hamper the implementation of NAs.     

Commonwealth Small States,Education and Environmental Uncertainty: Learning from the Sharp End

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the Commonwealth’s inclusive role in engaging with the distinctive challenges of education provision in small states, an agenda that is often neglected elsewhere. We examine the origins of Commonwealth work on education in small states, the nature of its comparative advantage, its role in facilitating small states’ engagement with international education dialogue and regional co-operation, and the demand and potential for ongoing Commonwealth support for education. Particular attention is given to experience within the Caribbean region and to the potential for the Commonwealth and the wider international community to learn from small states in the light of their distinctive educational challenges, achievements and priorities – and, most notably, their experience at the ‘sharp end’ of environmental uncertainty and climate change.     

The Evolving Structure of the Environmental Justice Movement in the United States: New Models for Democratic Decision-Making

Over the last two decades in the United States, mainstream environmental organizations have reduced, rather than increased, democratic participation by citizens in environmental problem-solving. The environmental justice movement, on the other hand, has served to enlarge the constituency of the environmental movement by incorporating poorer communities and oppressed people of color into environmental decision making process; build community capacity by developing campaigns and projects that address the common links between various social and environmental problems; and facilitate community empowerment by emphasizing grassroots organizing over advocacy. This paper outlines the different components in the environmental justice movement. It is our contention that if researchers and policymakers continue to conceive of the ecological crisis as a collection of unrelated problems, then it is possible that some combination of regulations, incentives, and technical innovations can keep pollution and resource destruction at tolerable levels for more affluent socioeconomic populations. However, poor working class communities and people of color which lack the political–economic resources to defend themselves will continue to suffer the worst abuses. However, if the interdependency of issues is emphasized as advocated by the environmental justice movement, then a transformative environmental politics can be invented.     

环境社会系统发展学发轫

叶文虎教授在研究可持续发展基本理论的基础上,于1999年提出了"环境社会系统发展学"的思想和概念[1],并指出这将是一门划时代的新学科.本文论述了环境社会系统发展学创立的学术和时代背景,以及这门学科的现状,提出了它的基本问题、基本内容和研究方法.     

网络化行政生态的理论审视

网络时代的到来向实体政府施加了不容回避的影响力,＂网络化生存＂的政府只有顺应时代转型的内在要求,实施政府再造,方能在网络时代维系其合法性和权威性。在网络时代面临再造重任的政府,必须对其所处的全新环境做出理性认知与判断。本文对网络化行政生态的描述集中于四个方面：网络政治的勃兴、网络经济的崛起、网络社会的成型、网络文化的繁盛。     

Overview of: “Crime Place and Pollution: Expanding Crime Reduction Options Through a Regulatory Approach”

Research Summary Crime reduction policy has focused almost exclusively on offenders. Recent studies and evaluations show that expanding our policy portfolio to include places may be highly productive. We show that there is considerable research showing that crime is concentrated at a relatively few locations, that high-crime places are stable, that changing places can reduce crime, that displacement is not only far from inevitable but also less likely than the diffusion of crime prevention benefits, and that owners of high-crime places can be held accountable for the criminogenic conditions of their locations. We link these findings to environmental policy, where environmental scientists, economists, and regulators have developed a broad set of regulatory options. The core of this article describes a portfolio of environmental policy instruments directly applicable to crime places. We also discuss major decisions local governments will need to make to implement various forms of regulation, and we list challenges that governments must anticipate in planning for such implementation. We argue that a regulatory approach to crime places has the potential to lower the cost to taxpayers of reducing crime by shifting costs from governments to the relatively few place owners whose actions create crime-facilitating conditions. Policy Implications Taking a regulatory approach to crime places substantially expands the crime policy options under consideration. Regulatory options may increase local governments’ effectiveness at reducing crime while reducing governments’ costs. This is because regulatory approaches have the potential to shift some portion of the financial burden for crime fighting to owners of criminogenic locations. Policy makers can select between means-based anticrime regulations that focus on how place owners manage their locations and ends-based regulations that focus on the number of crimes allowed at places. Both of these approaches contain several alternative regulatory instruments, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Experimenting with various regulatory instruments could lead to the development of a range of new crime reduction policies. In addition, a regulatory approach has implications for the funding of policy research. Means-based regulatory instruments require governments to develop evidence that the means they regulate have the desired impact on crime. Ends-based regulatory instruments shift this burden to the regulated places.     

中国环境法治的历史、现状与走向——中国环境法治30年之评析

1978年以来，中国的环境立法、环境执法、环境司法、环境守法、环境参与和环境法律监督工作取得了巨大的成就。1997年国家正式提出依法治国方略後，中国的环境保护工作正式走向法治化的轨道。目前，无论是从环节上，还是从整体的判断指标上分析，或者从实效上评估，都说明中国的环境法制架构已经基本形成。符合科学发展观和生态文明要求的环境友好型和资源节约型环境法治工作正在完善之中。完善的措施既包括立法完善工作，还包括执法、司法、守法、参与和监督环节的体制、制度和机制的创新工作。