Renewable Portfolio Standards and Policy Stringency: An Assessment of Implementation and Outcomes

This research examines the impact of increasing the stringency of renewable portfolio standards (RPS) on the consumption of energy produced from renewable sources. Putting prior findings in the context of policy learning, first we focus on technological innovation, factor endowments, and economic energy dependence of American states to track how RPS have proliferated and strengthened. Next, we look at the net effect of this RPS evolution on state fossil fuel energy divestment. To evaluate the interplay between: a) the political desire to lower fossil fuel use, b) technological feasibility to do so, and c) the economic trade‐offs and risks, we focus on the industrial sector dependence on energy security and affordability. Our results indicate that energy security is a priority and even in light of increasing RPS stringency, states with relatively weak but mandatory RPS are leaders in aggregate renewable energy consumption. This fact is due to favoring biofuel and hydro generation rather than solar and wind because of lower deployment costs.     

Technology Innovation as a Response to Climate Change: The Case of the Climate Change Emissions Management Corporation of Alberta

Innovation is the central element of climate change policy in many jurisdictions. Reduced to technology development and linked to market‐driven priorities, innovation accommodates the interests of large emitters in the energy sector and underpins a sustainable development discourse that denies ecological limits to economic growth. This study examines the use of innovation as a key component of climate change policy in the case of Alberta's Climate Change Emissions Management Corporation, utilizing a political economy approach to explain the drivers of government funding priorities. An analysis of this technology fund's investments over nine years, under two different governments, revealed that nearly half of the revenue has been used to subsidize R&D in the fossil fuels industry in the name of clean energy development, and that this priority has continued despite recent government commitments under the Paris CoP agreement. The carbon levy system that generates revenue for the fund has been unsuccessful in incentivizing facility reductions, pointing to the need for more stringent regulation. Innovation as a framework for transition to a post‐carbon economy is severely limited by its exclusion of the roles of social knowledge and citizen participation in envisaging and designing paths for change.     

Second‐Order Devolution or Local Activism? Local Air Agencies Revisited

In response to calls from previous scholarship for further bottom‐up examination of local government roles in environmental policy, the authors revisit local air agencies to examine two separate phenomena occurring in environmental federalism: one from the top down (second‐order devolution) and one from the bottom up (local activism). Using survey data from local air agencies on devolved authorities to set air quality standards and to enforce federal and/or state standards, the authors identify three different types of local agencies: state administrative subunits (only enforcement authority), fully devolved agencies (authority to both set and enforce standards), and activist agencies (neither authority). Further findings indicate that state administrative subunits and fully devolved agencies are likely functions of second‐order devolution, while activist agencies are likely functions of local activism. Conclusions suggest that both top‐down and bottom‐up approaches to environmental federalism are shaping local government roles in environmental management.     

浅谈流动人口犯罪防控机制建设

胡锦涛总书记在十七大报告中指出要加强流动人口服务和管理,健全社会治安防控体系,加强社会治安综合治理,推动建设和谐社会。我国刑事犯罪实际状况表明,流动人口犯罪是当前影响社会治安稳定的重要因素之一。公安机关一要转变角色,发动社会力量,群防群治,二要针对犯罪热点,治理诱发犯罪的物理空间。     

腐败产生的原因、性质与反腐败的原则、指向——西方行政与管理理论的启示

以西方行政与管理理论的研究成果来分析,当前我国腐败现象产生的主要原因是人性缺陷与社会转型期的局限而非反腐败力度不足;主要性质是一般规律性现象而非特殊的偶然现象,即主要是我国的行政环境而非制度供给不足的结果。因此,反腐败的主要指向是腐败行为而非腐败现象,主要原则是与改革、发展、稳定、转型相协调而非相对立。     

论工作环境权

工作环境权是在多重因素影响下形成的新型权利，其与传统的职业安全卫生权利之间既有密切联系，又有区别。工作环境权的权利人应为劳动者，义务人主要是国家和雇主，其内容可根据不同的标准予以体系化区分，学界则对其权利内容的界定存有广狭义之分。但比较而言，从狭义上将工作环境权界定为以“职工参与”为核心的集体性和程序性权利更妥。     

环境法“生态人”人性预设之否定——基于西方法律人性预设演进的视角

法律的人性预设的基本要求一是必须注意区分法律的人性预设与伦理道德的人性要求，二是必须基于对现实客观的人性标准的认识。作为法律的环境法的人性预设既应区分“环境法的人性预设”和“环境伦理的人性要求”，又必须准确把握现实人的人性标准。以这样的基本要求为工具审视环境法理论界的“生态人”理论，就能看出学者们共同采用了“应然模式”，没有注意区分“环境法的人性预设”与“环境伦理的人性要求”，且普遍存在不忠实于现实人性，不符合环境法人性预设的基本要求。所以，现阶段不宜直接将“生态人”作为环境法的人性预设。     

International Cooperation and Coordination on Prevention and Control of the Environmental Damage Caused by Ship＇s Ballast Water

船舶压载水在提高船舶安全性的同时也给海洋环境带来了严重的甚至永久性的损害。而海洋环境的有机统一性和船舶世界航行的特点，决定了国际社会只有通过广泛的合作与协调，才能防控船舶压载水造成的海洋环境损害。本文论证了防控船舶压载水造成海洋环境损害国际合作与协调的必要性和路径选择，进一步研究了实现上述合作与协调的相应机制，为我国应对防控船舶压载水造成海洋环境损害的国际合作与协调趋势提出了建议。     

论跨界环境损害责任的确定因素

跨界环境损害的通常含义是指跨过国家边界线的物理存在或溢出造成的损害。污染方责任的确定首先应该考虑直接决定污染的因素,包括预防措施及恢复原状的成本和合理反应措施的费用。前者指符合成本效益的费用,即建立和维持集体行动制度的成本。后者是在确定这样的救济时,核心问题应该是合理和谨慎的主权国家或其代理人为减轻污染造成的损害而将采取的步骤,并同时注意技术可行性、有害的负作用以及这种再生过程的兼容性或其重叠性,以及在多大程度上这种努力超出了某一点变得多余或过于昂贵。其次需要考虑的是间接决定污染的因素,包括人身、财产与环境的损害。另外,在判断受害国的哪些损害应由加害国承担赔偿责任的问题上,需要考虑的另外一种情况是损害不是单纯由不法行为引起的,而是由并存的原因引起的。还有一个促成损害的问题需要考虑。