Search

Land managers' preferences towards practice- and outcome-based payments for environmental services are analysed using a labelled choice experiment applied to a Mediterranean oak savannah (dehesa or montado) as a case study. Results indicate that land managers prefer outcome- to practice-based payments, equivalent in terms of environmental targets, most probably because they are opposed to the restrictive practices included as requirements in the latter. This preference strongly depends on the environmental policy objective, with land managers being more willing to participate when the outcome-based payment targets carbon sequestration rather than biodiversity. Willingness to accept (WTA) significantly increases when the payment involves a remote-sensing monitoring system, but only for practice-based payments, hinting at differing views of the monitoring system depending on the scheme type. However, a complementary analysis focusing on acreage decision shows non-significant WTA values for the use of remote-sensing monitoring systems in practice-based payments when the requirement of the area enrolled is relaxed. This suggests that land managers may be trading off monitoring intensity against the probability of defaulting. Significant preference heterogeneity is observed, mostly explained by farms' structural and management characteristics. Results point to strong potential for the use of outcome-based payments with remote-sensing monitoring systems in oak savannahs. • Practice- & outcome-based environment-and-climate schemes (pECS & oECS) are studied. • Discrete and acreage decision is modelled based on labelled choice experiment data. • Land managers' WTA is generally higher for pECS than for oECS. • Much higher WTA for oECS targeting biodiversity, probably due to higher uncertainty. • WTA for using remote sensing monitoring differs for pECS and oECS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, waste management and prevention have become important in the transition towards a circular economy (CE). This study explores how voluntary environmental policies, adopted at a regional level, contribute to green transition from the perspective of the CE. By considering general and region-specific trends in waste management and environmental certifications, we perform a two-step analysis on a panel of 20 Italian regions between 2015 and 2019: the first step extrapolates the relative efficiency by using a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), while the second step extrapolates the efficiency in terms of productivity changes supported by Malmquist Productivity Analysis (MPA). The DEA results show an overall rising trend of efficiency among the Italian regions, supported by the MPA. Furthermore, they reveal that technological innovation in Italian waste management contributes to a greater efficiency in socio-economic systems which are characterized by 'environmental federalism'. From a decision-making perspective, this study suggests that measures such as the incentivization of voluntary environmental policies should be proposed to promote techno-organizations' transition to CE, in coherence with regional economic/industrial specializations and strategies, possibly based on a diversified policy mix, setting a knowledge-based framework by using budgetary measures and policy actions at the regional level. • Circular Economy with resource recovery is a driving force to achieve green transition. • Increase in resource efficiency is an unexplored economic opportunity to support growth. • EMAS and UNI EN ISO certifications are proxies for the level of attention paid to the environment. • Voluntary environmental certifications facilitate the transition. • Choices made at the regional level contribute to the transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the conflictive relationship between corruption and the implementation of rigorous environmental policies. According to our initial hypothesis, the higher the degree of corruption, the more likely it is that governments defend individual interests rather than environmental goals established to benefit society. Using panel data of 34 OECD members from 1996 to 2020, we investigate the potential determinants of the updated Environmental Policy Stringency index. This is a contribution from previous analysis, since the sample is significantly extended, and the analysis disaggregates among the three dimensions of the index. The estimation of the fixed-effects model confirms our assumption: perceived corruption negatively affects the development of ambitious policies in the environmental field. Specifically, more corrupt cabinets apply laxer market-based instruments and fewer technology support policies. Our empirical outcomes also hint at significant connections between other political, institutional, social or economic factors and the strictness of environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many Global South countries, experiences with CBNRM to date suggest that members of marginalized groups are often less likely to participate in CBNRM compared to members of the dominant groups. This study provides evidence on two institutional features of CBNRM that may help to narrow this gap: (1) targeted benefits that are funded from the proceeds from CBNRM and earmarked for participants belonging to marginalized groups, and (2) mandated representation of marginalized groups on the local decision-making bodies that govern CBNRM. Evidence from a framed vignette experiment with respondents in rural Nepal suggests that these two institutional features have positive effects on intentions to join CBNRM-related groups, attend meetings, and speak up at meetings among members of marginalized ethnic and caste groups, ultimately narrowing gaps in intentions to participate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To secure effective and sustainable climate change policies, it is of the utmost importance to create synergies between socioeconomic and environmental development goals. Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) programs are being promoted as a suitable mechanism furthering, among others, carbon offsetting and poverty reduction in ecologically fragile areas of developing countries. Rural households are compensated for the loss of property and business income through income transfers and potential job opportunities connected to environmental programs. While the potential pro-poor effects of such policies are well recognized, the impact of PES on extremely poor households has not been systematically reviewed. Drawing on a pooled cross-sectional dataset of 5225 households in the Province of Sichuan, this paper analyzes the income and distributional effects among poor households in rural China participating in a forest carbon sink (FCS) program. To be able to make causal inferences, we employ an Instrumental Variable (IV) approach to control for potential endogeneity and self-selection. Our results indicate a strong need to adjust the PES program: While moderately poor rural households benefit from program participation, extremely poor rural households, in fact, suffer net losses. The main reason is that income reduction resulting from limited access to forest resources is compensated mainly via wage income from participating in forest tending work. Extremely poor households with low labor ability cannot make use of these job opportunities, and thus they'll not only fail to benefit but even incur losses from a PES program. While PES programs can be a viable tool for poverty reduction in underdeveloped regions due to their overall pro-poorness, they need to be accompanied by additional benefits for extremely poor rural households to avoid net losses among marginalized population groups especially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central transfer payment for the key ecosystem zones has become the most funded payments for ecosystem services program in China. The ecological fiscal transfer (EFT) aims to improve the eco-environmental quality of the targeted counties by providing supplementary fiscal funds, though not strictly specifying the usage. This study employs a time-varying difference-in-difference strategy to investigate the impact of EFT on environmental outcome by using a comprehensive county-level dataset covering 1949 counties from 2004 to 2015. Estimates show that the policy had a positive impact on local air quality, whereas the dynamic effect is diminishing. The policy effect is achieved through more stringent environmental regulation and stricter industrial access. Reduction of industrial dust emission is more noticeable than that of sulfur dioxide. There is an economic scale effect that the scale of a county can increase effectiveness of EFT on air quality improvement, whereas an opposite development stage effect will undermine its effectiveness. Heterogeneities were detected concerning transfer intensity, intervention period, geographical region, and ecosystem type. These findings facilitate a deep understanding how EFT could play a significant role in protecting local environment in large developing countries. Several policy implications are drawn to enhance the effectiveness of the largest EFT program. • Ecological fiscal transfer is an emerging instrument in combating eco-environmental degradation. • China's ecological fiscal transfer (EFT) is taken as a quasi-experiment to evaluate its effectiveness. • A time-varying DID technique is employed by using unique county-level datasets. • China's EFT is effective in improving local air quality with a diminishing dynamic effect. • Various heterogeneities of effect were detected and impact mechanisms were identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the effects of a maritime bunker levy on ship-owner profits, trade, and emissions. Standard and augmented gravity models are employed using data from 2016 to estimate the impact of a change in transit time and transit cost on grain and soybean trade flows and on vessel speed. Results for a bunker levy of 50 USD per tonne of fuel, or less, stress that it will not trigger a change in the optimal speed of the vessel which is contrary to most theoretical models that predict an increase in fuel costs will always lead to a reduction in speed and carbon emissions. Bunker levies exceeding 100 USD per tonne may be needed to reduce carbon emissions when trade flows are sensitive to trade costs and transport time, as may be the case for many agricultural commodities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent analyses maintain that recycling in developed countries, being mostly the result of costly policies, may be already above its socially optimal level. These analyses in fact underestimate such level if increasing recycling not only reduces residual waste, but also total waste. We find that this is the case: a 10% increase in recycling rate is associated with a 1.5–2% decrease of total urban waste. This effect is largely attributable to curbside collection programs, whose adoption increases recycling rates by 8–14% and reduces waste generation by about 4%. This paper contributes to the literature on the relations between waste and recycling by providing estimates of the source reduction effect of recycling policies and pointing out the important role played in it by curbside collection programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do people try to avoid unpleasant information about the environmental consequences of their actions? If so, do they react with hostility towards others who provide the unwanted information? Fearing such hostility, do others abstain from providing the information? These are the questions we set out to explore by means of lab experiments presented here. To our surprise, and in stark contrast to related previous literature, we found few indications of willful ignorance. In a binary dictator game with an environmental charity as the recipient, an option to stay uninformed about the effects of one's actions for the charity was infrequently chosen, and did not significantly affect generosity. When another subject might choose to impose information on the dictator, almost all dictators asked for information themselves – but this was not associated with increased dictator generosity. We argue that the phenomenon of strategic ignorance is likely to be less robust and more context-dependent than one might expect based on previous research, and that this result may be important from an environmental policy perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In the late 1990s, China initiated the Conversion of Croplands to Forest Program (CCFP) and the Ecological Welfare Forest Program (EWFP) based on the Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) principle. Positive socioeconomic outcomes of the programs are essential for the long-term success of eco-environment conservation. However, there is lack of understanding of their longer-term (over 10 years) impacts on rural livelihoods. In this paper, we examine income distribution and inequality of rural households under CCFP and EWFP in rural Anhui, China after 12 years of program implementation. Results show that CCFP-participating households have higher income inequality than non-participants, while the EWFP does not have a significant effect. Local off-farm work and out-migration with remittances are the two principal income sources and both add to inequality. A regression-based decomposition of inequality shows that the CCFP indirectly alters livelihoods by increasing out-migration with remittances, but it also adds to inequality from shifting livelihoods to non-agricultural activities. Meanwhile, EWFP payments positively affect agricultural incomes and contribute 16% to agricultural income inequality. Finally, human capital, natural capital and physical capital all play important roles in generating income and inequality, but the factors affecting inequality from agricultural and non-agricultural activities are different. Highlights • We examine rural household income distribution under two concurrent PES programs. • CCFP positively affects non-farm income via out-migration followed by remittances. • EWFP positively affects agricultural income and adds slightly to inequality. • Factors affecting agricultural and non-agricultural income distributions differ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper examines the motivations of participants in a large-scale pilot project that aims at developing a new agri-environmental measure, gypsum treatment of arable fields, to reduce phosphorus loading in the Baltic Sea. We build a general model of crop production that allows for three motivations: profit maximization, utility from agricultural innovation and stewardship towards the environment by employing farmer survey and confirmatory factor analysis. Strong environmental motivation is associated with small farm size, adoption of environmentally friendly cultivation technologies, and part-time farming. Strong profit motivation is associated with large gypsum-treated areas, perceived ease of gypsum application as a water protection measure, and agricultural education, which associates also with strong innovation motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Research on Payments for Environmental Services has only recently started to pay attention to motivation "crowding", i.e. the effect that such rewards might have on either strengthening (crowding-in) or weakening (crowding-out) participants' intrinsic motivations to protect and sustainably manage natural ecosystems. In this Introduction to the special issue Crowding-out or crowding-in? Behavioral and motivational responses to economic incentives for conservation , we propose a conceptual framework that maps out how PES implementation, or incentive-based conservation more broadly, might lead to motivation and behavioural change, drawing on theoretical insights and empirical evidence from behavioural economics and social psychology. We also explain how PES design and implementation factors, such as payment type, communication and verbal rewards, inclusive and participatory decision-making, and monitoring and sanctioning procedures, might harm or enhance intrinsic motivations. We suggest that motivation crowding depends on how these policy features are perceived by and affect an individual's need for satisfaction, modulated in turn by the stimulation or inhibition of competence, autonomy, social and environmental relatedness. We highlight the importance of measuring these variables and their motivation and behavioural outcomes in future PES research, in order to relate psychological processes with other contextual determinants of PES social-ecological performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The importance of spatial, temporal and social contexts is increasingly acknowledged in the literature of modelling environmental preferences. However, the contexts of childhood nature experiences have not yet been included in economic models of environmental choices, despite significant findings from environmental psychology. We review the existing literature on childhood nature experiences to identify three constructs of the spatial, temporal and social contexts of childhood nature experiences. Based on these constructs, we suggest a dynamic model of environmental policy over time, in which past environmental policies indirectly affect current environmental policies. Using data from a discrete choice experiment, we establish the empirical link between childhood nature experiences and the economics literature of environmental choice behaviour and adulthood environmental preferences. The empirical findings of the present study qualifies the suggested dynamic model by showing that childhood nature experiences are correlated with pro-environmental preferences in the adult population - the same population that democratically decide on the current environmental policies. This may lead to self-reinforcing policy effects over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Despite the various measures taken to reduce air pollution in France, the French continue to use high-emission vehicles. We propose to evaluate the Willingness To Pay (WTP) for four means of transport: two high-emission vehicles (diesel taxi and diesel personal vehicle) and two low-emission vehicles (rented electric vehicle and public transport). Successive messages revealing the effects of air pollution on health and the environment are provided to individuals in a different order. The information conveyed changes both of the WTP of individuals and of their choices. However, the use of high-emission vehicles has not diminished, personal vehicles remain the most popular. Using data collected from our survey, a multinomial logit model is used to determine individual choices. We find that improving individuals' confidence in air pollution recommendations would be a good way to lead them to choose low-emission rather than high-emission means of transport. Moreover, these estimates also indicate that individuals who attach great importance to comfort are less likely to choose low-emission vehicles than those who value price above other factors. Individual interest can therefore prevail over collective interest, thus verifying the theory of the tragedy of the commons. Different policies (taxes, subsidies, or standard) to encourage people to adopt low-emission vehicles are then tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract There is no shortage of concepts that aim to show how our economy can become more resource- efficient such as eco-innovation, cradle to cradle. We analysed a long list of concepts using three dimensions: scope of change, ambition with regard to the (paradigmatic) degree of change, and the existence of plausible drivers and pathways of change. Reviewed literature on governance and transitions suggests that the more extensive and radical the scope and ambition of change are, the higher systemic and institutional resistance to change will be. From roughly 30 concepts reviewed, none gave a credible answer on how to overcome this dilemma. Resource scarcity is not (yet) a clear driver for change. Where in the field of climate change policy starts to respond to compelling scientific evidence of danger, in the field of resources only win-win policies are seriously considered. Advocates of radical resource efficiency must find credible pathways that allow it to be pursued at scale in practice or hope that incremental change will open up space for more radical options, in order to avoid the significant economic and social disruption from supply-demand imbalances that some now fear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Various environmental footprint concepts have already been developed and applied in sustainability research. However, these analyses tend to remain restricted to historical observation samples. At least in comparison with related research activities in other environmental policy domains (like, e.g., climate policy), it seems that applications of integrated assessment tools represent rather seldom exceptions within the resource policy domain. Our paper is, therefore, intended to strengthen the related evidence base. We present recent projections from the dynamic Multi-Region Input-Output (MRIO) simulation model GINFORS (Global Inter-Industry Forecasting System), which provide an outlook on global development trends until the year 2050. Our detailed material footprint and climate policy assessment indicates that a global agreement on a policy mix will allow a clear turnaround towards climate protection and a sustainable use of natural resources without deteriorating economic performance. If the EU decides unilaterally to lead the way, then this turnaround could also be achieved for the EU while the EU would also benefit economically from this pioneering role. A third pathway towards a resource efficient and low-carbon Europe quantifies the environmental and economic impacts of a strong transitional change induced by European citizens' commitments to far-reaching sufficiency objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce a methodology to estimate the determinants of the formation of technology diffusion networks from the patterns of technology adoption. We apply this methodology to wind energy, which is one of the key technologies in climate change mitigation. Our results emphasize that, in particular, long-term relationships as measured by economic integration are key determinants of technological diffusion. Specific support measures are less relevant, at least to explain the extensive margin of diffusion. Our results also highlight that the scope of technological diffusion is much broader than what is suggested by the consideration of CDM projects alone, which are particularly focused on China and India. Finally, the network of technological diffusion inferred from our approach highlights the central role of European countries in the diffusion process and the absence of large hubs among developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the problem of designing PES-type contracts to encourage participation and spatial coordination amongst private forest owners in Finland. The aim of the policy is to increase efforts to mitigate risks from invasive forest pests and diseases. Such control actions yield spill-over benefits to other landowners and to wider society, meaning that the level of privately-optimal disease control is likely to be less than the socially-optimal level. The policy designer may wish to encourage spatial coordination in the uptake of such PES-type contracts, as spatial coordination delivers an increase in the effectiveness of control measures on disease risks. We conducted a choice experiment with private forest owners in Finland in October 2016. The study elicited the preferences of woodland owners with respect to the design of forest disease control contracts, and gauged their willingness to cooperate with neighbouring forest owners within the framework of such programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategic niche management and transition management have been promoted as useful avenues to pursue in order to achieve both specific product or process changes and system transformation by focusing on technology development through evolutionary and co-evolutionary processes, guided by government and relevant stakeholders. However, these processes are acknowledged to require decades to achieve their intended changes, a timeframe that is too long to adequately address many of the environmental and social issues many industrialized and industrializing nations are facing. An approach that involves incumbents and does not consider targets that look beyond reasonably foreseeable technology is likely to advance a model where incumbents evolve rather than being replaced or displaced . On the other hand, approaches that focus on creating new entrants could nurture niche development or deployment of disruptive technologies, but those technologies may only be marginally better than the technologies they replace. Either approach may take a long time to achieve their goals. Sustainable development requires both radical disruptive technological and institutional changes, the latter including stringent regulation, the integration of disparate goals, and changes in incentives to enable new voices to contribute to new systems and solutions. This paper outlines options for a strong governmental role in setting future sustainability goals and the pathways for achieving them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric nitrogen pollution has severe impacts on biodiversity, but approaches to value them are limited. This paper develops a spatially explicit methodology to value the benefits from improvements in biodiversity resulting from current policy initiatives to reduce nitrogen emissions. Using the UK as a case study, we quantify nitrogen impacts on plant diversity in four habitats: heathland, acid grassland, dunes and bogs, at fine spatial resolution. Focusing on non-use values for biodiversity we apply value-transfer based on household's willingness to pay to avoid changes in plant species richness, and calculate the benefit of projected emission declines of 37% for nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) and 6% for ammonia (NH 3 ) over the scenario period 2007–2020. The annualised benefit resulting from these pollutant declines is £32.7 m (£4.4 m to £109.7 m, 95% Confidence Interval), with the greatest benefit accruing from heathland and acid grassland due to their large area. We also calculate damage costs per unit of NO 2 and NH 3 emitted, to quantify some of the environmental impacts of air pollution for use alongside damage costs for human health in policy appraisal. The benefit is £103 (£33 to £237) per tonne of NO 2 saved, and £414 (£139 to £1022) per tonne of NH 3 saved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ecosystem services literature rests on the premise that an increased understanding of ecosystems, ecosystem services and, in particular, the value of ecosystem services will feed to decision-making. Yet, there is little evidence for the assumed demand and applicability of valuation knowledge in real-life policy and decision-making processes, and the use of such knowledge has received little in-depth analytical attention. Motivated by these observations, we have conducted an empirical analysis of ecosystem service value knowledge use. Our analysis of policy actors' experiences and expectations regarding value knowledge in Finland's peatland policy draws on ten interviews with eleven policy actors. Focusing on the usefulness and uses of valuation knowledge, we analyze the ways in which values are framed and value knowledge is expected to influence the rights to use ecosystem services. Our analysis shows that policy actors expect a better understanding of ecosystem service values to support the consideration of benefits. Yet, what they view as crucial knowledge needs aligns with their sectoral or organizational position as well as the interests they represent. Hence, valuation does not provide a solution to distributional debates or conflicts over rights, but it can have an important function as the provider of background knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the effects of public policies on the occurrence of natural disasters related to extreme rainfall. By using a unique and geolocated database on natural disasters in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, I test whether variables related to public policies - e.g. forest cover and urban infrastructure - affect the occurrence of natural disasters, conditional on the existence of extreme rainfall. Results point to a significant role for public policies in order to mitigate effects of extreme weather events. More specifically, results point to an important role for urban infrastructure, as proper sewage and waste collection, and forest cover in reducing the impacts of extreme rainfall. Moreover, I discuss how these heterogeneous effects have distributional consequences and can be linked to the Environmental Justice literature. Finally, this paper reinforces the idea that adaptation policies to disasters are essential in reducing local vulnerabilities and can yield distributional and fiscal benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extent to which Payments for Environmental/Ecosystem Services (PES) programs help to promote collective stewardship of common property resources (CPRs) has been gaining attention among scholars and practitioners. One of the main concerns related to collective arrangements is that a crowding-out effect is likely to emerge when the external intervention dominates over self-determination and self-esteem of PES participants. By contrast, when participants perceive the intervention to be supportive of existing efforts, it “crowds in” intrinsic motivation. We test this contested hypothesis using prefectural data from Japan's Census of Agriculture and Forestry. In order to set up a viable quasi-experimental policy evaluation, we employ a propensity score matching approach. Our empirical result suggests that financial incentives can have a positive causal effect on collective stewardship of CPRs. This means that the potential crowding-out effect, if any, is not so profound as to expunge additional extrinsic motivation provided by the government's direct payments. Another important finding is that pre-existing social cohesiveness at the community level serves as a facilitator for PES participation. It should be noted, however, that the degree of cohesiveness in rural communities is largely a byproduct of historical experience that lies outside the immediate control of the government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrogen runoff from agricultural fertilisation causes serious environmental damage to surface waters. Environmental and consumer advocates demand government intervention to mitigate these externalities. The present study examines the effects of nudge-based regulatory strategies. Using an incentivised single-player, multi-period business management game as an experimental device, we study how nudges affect compliance with the minimum-distance-to-water rule in a sample of German farmers. We investigate two different nudge treatments: a nudge with information and pictures showing environmental and health damages that are presumably caused by breaching the minimum-distance-to-water rule, and a nudge with an additional social comparison suggesting that the majority of farmers in the same region comply with the rule. Three core experimental outcomes are observed: first, nudging has a preventive effect and reduces not only the share of non-compliant participants, but also the total area that is illicitly fertilised. Second, against all expectations, the preventive effect of the nudge with an additional social comparison is not stronger than that of the nudge with information and pictures alone. Third, despite the overall positive effects of nudging, the nudge with social comparison even increased the severity of non-complying behaviour in the deviant subpopulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cost-Benefit Analysis is a method to assess the effects of policies and projects on social welfare. CBAs are usually applied in a top-down approach, in the sense that a decision-making body first decides on which policies or projects are to be considered, and then applies a set of uniform criteria to identifying and valuing relevant cost and benefit flows. This paper investigates the possible advantages, prerequisites and limitations of applying CBA in what may be considered an alternative, “bottom-up” manner. Instead of starting out with a pre-defined policy option, the suggested approach begins with the underlying environmental problem, and then assesses costs and benefits of strategies and solutions as identified by local and directly affected stakeholders. For empirical case studies concerning two river catchments in Sweden and Latvia, the bottom-up CBA approach utilises local knowledge, assesses plans which are not only developed for local conditions but are also likely to be more acceptable to local society, and sheds additional light on possible distributional effects. By not only benefitting from, but also supporting participatory environmental planning, bottom-up CBA is in line with the growing trend of embedding stakeholder participation within environmental policy and decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Burkina Faso is currently facing a serious deterioration of water quality due to the use of pesticides in agriculture, which is an even greater challenge for the government since farmers are unaware of the toxicity of these chemicals. Therefore, reducing pesticide use requires updating farmers' beliefs about the environmental and health consequences of their actions. Drawing on the theory of positional objectivism developed by Sen, this study seeks to determine the influence of various positional characteristics (gender, education level, socio-cultural factors, etc.) on individual beliefs. In so doing, it uses a recursive bivariate probit model. The model was tested using data collected from a sample of 389 farmers. The results from this model showed that the more farmers' had beliefs about the degradation of water quality, the less they were inclined to use pesticides. These beliefs were based on personal lived experiences and were also formed through interactions with other farmers. Moreover, government agencies and NGOs in regular contact with the farmers played a crucial role in shifting the farmers' observational positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies showed that people respond more generously to individual identified victims than to equivalent statistical victims, which is referred to as the “identifiable victim effect” (IVE). While the previous literature examined the IVE for human and animal victims, we focus on vegetal entities that can be threatened. Thanks to a between design allowing to increase the degree of plants' identifiability, we test whether IVE is likely to enhance farmers' participation in a conservation program, using mail survey data among a sample of French farmers located in the Vaucluse area. Unlike humans and animals, we found that IVE does not matter regarding plants, as farmer willingness to participate in the compensation measures was found to decrease as the (plant) victim(s) become more identifiable. Moreover, this figure is even stronger with respect to organic farmers compared to their conventional counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural areas around the world are increasingly exposed to natural disasters. To guide management intervention for sustainable development after natural disasters, scientists and policymakers need a better understanding of the linkages between livelihood changes after natural disasters and recovery outcomes. Despite the growing body of disaster research, systematic evaluation of the relationship between post-disaster changes in rural livelihoods and recovery outcomes is rare, largely due to the lack of relevant data. By taking advantage of the long-term data collection and research conducted in China's Wolong Nature Reserve (Wolong), we empirically evaluated livelihood changes after the catastrophic 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake and how those changes are linked to the recovery of human well-being. Our results show that households' livelihood portfolios in Wolong conspicuously changed after the earthquake and that human well-being had been recovering. However, we found most of these livelihood changes negatively affected, instead of facilitated, human well-being recovery. The enriched understanding of the linkages between post-disaster livelihood changes and recovery outcomes has important management implications for achieving Sustainable Development Goals amid natural disasters in Wolong and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) bureaucrats represent the general public or are they more in line with an interest group? We study preferences for environmental policy using a choice experiment (CE) on three populations; the general public, Swedish EPA bureaucrats, and recreational anglers. We also test for existence of multiple preference orderings: Half of the respondents were asked to choose the alternatives that best corresponded with their opinion, and the other half was asked to take the role of a policy-maker and make recommendations for environmental policy. The SEPA bureaucrats have the highest marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) to improve environmental quality. Differences in MWTP are robust and not due to differences in socio-economic characteristics across the populations. We only found weak evidence of multiple preference orderings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic theory as well as empirical research suggest that elderly people prefer public spending on policies yielding short-term benefits. This might be bad news for policies aimed at combating climate change: while the unavoidable costs of these policies arise today, the expected benefits occur in the distant future. Drawing on data from over 12,000 households and using the ordered logit and the generalized ordered logit model, we analyze whether attitudes towards climate change and climate policies as well as public spending preferences differ with respect to age. Our estimates show that elderly people are less concerned about climate change, but more concerned about other global challenges. Furthermore, they are less likely to support climate-friendly policies, such as the subsidization of renewables, allocate less public resources to and have lower willingness-to-pay for environmental policies. Thus, our results suggest that the ongoing demographic change in industrialized countries may undermine climate policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding what influences the value of nature is crucial for informing environmental policy. From a sustainability perspective, economic valuation should not only seek to determine a society's willingness to pay for environmental goods to devise an efficient allocation of scarce resources, but should also account for distributional effects to ensure justice. Yet, how economic inequality affects the value of non-market environmental goods remains understudied. Combining recently developed theoretical results with empirical evidence, this Commentary shows that more equal societies have a higher valuation for environmental public goods and that non-market benefits of environmental policy accrue over-proportionally to poorer households. On this ground, we discuss implications for environmental valuation, management and policy-making and identify a number of fruitful areas for future research. We conclude that environmental valuation should explicitly account for economic inequality, and that encompassing assessments of the distributional effects of environmental policies must consider the distribution of non-market environmental benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has experimented with a wide range of policies to encourage firms to improve their environmental performance, often with mixed results. This paper investigates the effectiveness of combining two different policies at the same time: (1) a more centralised environmental inspection process and (2) new rules on the public disclosure of policy compliance for firms wanting to undertake an initial public offering (IPO). A theoretical framework predicts that a more centralised inspection and public disclosure should improve both a firm's environmental performance and profitability. The results of instrumental variable estimations for 536 listed Chinese firms for the period 2009 to 2019 confirm the theoretical predictions although the positive effect on profitability only lasts for two years after compliance with the IPO requirements. An investigation into possible mechanisms shows that the joint policy promotes investment in green projects while also increasing demand for the firm's products. The findings highlight greater regulatory complexity may be needed if a country wishes to change the behaviour of firms in a manner that is consistent with overcoming environmental challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high level of nitrogen emissions over the last decades and their adverse impact on the natural environment and human health are a pressing environmental issue. A nitrogen tax can be a cost-efficient and effective policy instrument to reduce nitrogen emissions. However, adverse effects on low- and middle-income households might lead to societal and political frictions that could end up in resistance. In this paper we investigate how a hypothetical nitrogen tax covering the specific external costs of nitrogen could be implemented and estimate its short-term distributional effects on household income groups in Germany. The findings show that the proposed tax would be regressive. However, if the tax rate is set equal to the true cost of nitrogen, the monetary impacts would overall be small, ranging from 1.15% of income for the first income quintile to 0.66% for the fifth. Complementary policy measures to lower the burden on low-income households, farmers and the energy sector could preempt social resistance against the tax. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agri-environmental schemes (AES) are a central component of the European environmental policy, but few of these schemes have been carefully evaluated and doubts are often expressed about their effectiveness. We use original data collected from winegrowers who participated in an AES targeting non-point source pollution from herbicides in 2011 and 2012 in the South region of France. Using the variation in the implementation of the scheme across time and space and a matching approach, we show that the quantity of herbicides used by participants in the scheme in 2011 ranges from 38 to 53% below what they would have used without the scheme and this percentage is between 42 and 50% in 2012. Further, our results suggest that least demanding AES options are effective in avoiding pollution peaks when weed pressure is high, whereas more demanding AES options guarantee an overall reduction in herbicide use, even during relatively easy farming years in which less weed pressure is experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing approaches to assess the economic impact of climate policies tend to overlook the financial sector and to focus only on direct effects of policies on the specific institutional sector they target, neglecting possible feedbacks between sectors, thus, underestimating the overall policy effect. To fill in this gap, we develop a methodology based on financial networks, which allows for analyzing the transmission throughout the economy of positive or negative shocks induced by the introduction of specific climate policies. We apply the methodology to empirical data of the Euro Area to identify the feedback loops between the financial sector and the real economy both through direct and indirect chains of financial exposures across multiple financial instruments. By focusing on climate policy-induced shocks that affect directly either the banking sector or non-financial firms, we analyze the reinforcing feedback loops that could amplify the effects of shocks on the financial sector and then cascade on the real economy. Our analysis helps to understand the conditions for virtuous or vicious cycles to arise in the climate-finance nexus and to provide a comprehensive assessment of the economic impact of climate policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the expanded role of private actors and markets in environmental governance. The public goods dimension of environmental services renders privatization and trading challenging. To illustrate the key issues involved, a series of privatization efforts and market creations are reviewed. Despite the focus on privatization, the empirical material shows that the role of the state is still very pronounced. It defines the commodities and property rights, and plays a key role in setting up and regulating the markets. In the case of payments for ecosystem services, public authorities even appear as the dominant ‘trader’. Privatization and markets may reduce costs of delivering the service, while this is not universally true. Moreover, the service delivered often is transformed to make trade possible. Finally, high transaction costs may prohibit the creation of markets. The conflict between public goods delivery and private profit motive makes public control both important and difficult. Finally, several distributional issues following this neo-liberal development are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interaction between mitigation and adaptation is a key question for the design of climate policies. In this paper, we study how land use adaptation to climate change impacts land use competition in the agriculture, forest and other land use (AFOLU) sector and how a mitigation policy in agriculture might affect this competition. We use for this purpose two sector-specific bio-economic models of agriculture and forest combined with an econometric land use shares model to simulate the impacts of two climate change scenarios (A2 and B1, 2100 horizon), and a greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture policy consisting of a tax of between 0 and 200 €/tCO 2 equivalent. Our results show that both climate change scenarios lead to an increase in the area devoted to agriculture at the expense of forest which could have a negative impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change. The mitigation policy would curtail agricultural expansion, and thus could counteract the effects of land use adaptation to climate change. In other words, accounting for land use competition results in a reduction of the abatement costs of the mitigation policy in the agricultural sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coordination of conservation policies and conservation actions between countries is expected to reduce overall costs and increase effectiveness. It rests on the assumption that, as a global public good, the provision of biodiversity conservation is independent of geographical and political jurisdictions. However, from a welfare economic perspective this assumption requires testing and justification. Indeed, distance may matter, as may the country of provision. This study applies a choice experiment to estimate individuals' marginal willingness to pay for comparable biodiversity conservation measures and outcomes across country borders, and with different distances from their place of residence to conservation locations in Denmark and in Southern Sweden. The case is designed to distinguish the effect of distance from the effect of country of residence versus country of provision. We find a clear and distinguishable effect of both location and country of provision. We find distance-related attributes to reflect bridge tolls and per-kilometre transport costs, and Swedes and Danes to prefer provision in their own country, over provision in the neighbouring country. The results of this study may be useful in discussing cooperation on regional and even global biodiversity conservation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many Asian developing countries, policy makers face tension between the needs of economic growth, human development and environmental sustainability. In a similar vein, the new global agreement on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) calls for the harmonization of economic and environmental goals. To shed light on the relationship between the economy and natural resources, our research investigates the case of the Philippines, employing a material flow accounting approach based on national statistical sources. We analyze domestic extraction, trade of materials and economic development from 1980 to 2014. We also explore differences between territorial (production) and footprint (consumption) accounts. We find that the Philippine economy managed to grow while reducing material intensity because of an increasing share of services sector activities. From net resource trade dependence in the 1980s, the Philippines become a net resource provider in 2014 because of increased extraction and exports of metal ores. Overall, the material requirements grew over the past two decades at lower rate than GDP, signifying relative decoupling. The new data and indicators we present are aimed to inform the national policy agenda. They may help to formulate policies that integrate economic and environmental priorities and guide the Philippines towards achieving the SDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As environmental impacts continue to rise, the need to identify and quantify the underlying causes of these impacts has prompted important research questions. This is heightened by the fact that the production of goods and services is becoming increasingly global with countries relying on each other through trade. As such, it is important to have a mechanism in place to understand the environmental burden shifts from one country to another. To this end, this paper exploits a paradox in global environmental analysis, which stems from a false decoupling between economic and production systems as observed in most developed nations, which results in improved territorial emissions of these developed countries at the expense of developing countries. Ecological unequal exchange is one such contemporary ecological economic concept that is used to highlight such asymmetric transfer of embodied natural resources and biophysical indicators between countries. Attempts at environmental impacts reduction efforts has largely focused on carbon emissions but given the complex supply chain created through globalisation and international trade, it is important to consider other important metrics such as land and water use alongside carbon emissions to drive environmental policies that will holistically address ecologically unequal exchanges. For developing countries in Africa where the dependence on land use and water use for agricultural activities are crucial to the development of national economies and in combating poverty, an assessment of these metrics has become even more paramount. Against this backdrop, the current work draws upon the theoretical constructs of multi-regional input-output (MRIO) framework to trace country specific sectorial-level flows of the aforementioned metrics between a representative developed nation, UK, and 27 African regions in order to fully examine their ecological exchanges. Key findings in the study suggest that for water consumption and land use, there is a net externalisation of these impacts for all the 27 African regions by the UK. It was also determined that the extent of the imbalance between the UK and the African region is exceedingly far greater for water consumption. It is recommended that in formulating a robust multi-national environmental policy where so many factors are at play, country specific and industry targeted approach to ecological unequal exchange between nations provides better and improved insight into addressing ensuing environmental issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wildlife conservation is an important part of environmental policy; in the case of whales, we must consider the balance between two uses: whaling and whale watching. This study provides an economic valuation of whale conservation using stated-preference choice experiment data collected from anti-whaling populations in Australia and Japan. Using a mixed logit model, we find higher economic valuation for a ban on whaling than for conventional protection actions in Australia. Despite the popularity of whale watching, limiting protections for species that are observed during whale-watching tours do not necessarily increase valuation. In contrast, we do not find a policy favored among the anti-whaling Japanese, who are in the minority and are significantly different from the general population in socio-demographic terms. Nonetheless, protection focusing on endangered whales is utility increasing for both countries. Overall, the results show a significant difference even among the anti-whaling populations of the two countries, suggesting a high bar for reaching international consensus over whaling. Lastly, the results from a latent class model also suggest that the level of demand for whale conservation in Japan could match the Australian level by proclaiming the importance of conserving endangered species and providing information on whales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study contributes to the literature on public responses to climate policies in two ways. We investigate the effect of institutional contexts on attitudes toward policies, and we examine the relevance of political values for these effects. Institutional theory suggests that the institutional context influences whether “individual rationality” (IR) or “social rationality” (SR) frames choices. To investigate the effects of such contexts and political values on attitudes toward policies aimed at reducing private car use, we conducted a survey experiment involving 1500 car owners in Oslo, Norway. One group of respondents received a text emphasizing the individual health gains from reducing local air pollution (IR context), a second group received a text emphasizing the social responsibility for avoiding climate change (SR context), and a control group received no such text. We found effects of the contexts on attitudes toward emission-reducing policies, and found that the effects vary across individuals with different political values. The SR context yielded higher support for an increase in petrol prices among non-individualists only. The IR context yielded higher support for a decrease in space for cars among both non-individualists and individualists. Ways forward regarding expanding this field of research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Swiss government pays subsidies for the adoption of innovative conservation technologies such as no-tillage and slurry spreading with banding. Both a theoretical model and a quantitative survey show that dedication to innovation and conservation triggers farmers' participation in these schemes. Analysis of an excerpt from three interviews with participants shows cases of farmers who are primarily motivated by the possibility of additional income and emphasize the importance of using glyphosate. While this questions their environmental dedication, it underlines the importance of supplementary qualitative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature dedicated to the analysis of the different climate agreements has usually focused on the effectiveness of the aims for emissions in the light of the advance in climate change. This article quantifies the variation in emissions that the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) will entail and their financial allocation and policies country-by-country and regionally. The objective is evaluating the Paris Agreement feasibility regarding the INDCs and its economic and environmental constraints. The criteria through which the 161 INDCs are analysed are as follows: i/ socio-economic impact of the transition; ii/ focus on energy management; iii/ substitution of non-renewable sources; iv/ the role of technology; v/ equality of the transition; vi/ compliance with emission reductions. The results obtained show that the Paris Agreement excessively relies on external financial support (41.4%). Moreover, its unilateralist approach, the socio-economic and biophysical constraints could be the underlying cause of the ineffectiveness of the 2 °C objective. This way, each country would emit an average of 37.8% more than in the years 2005–2015. When this is weighted, the figure would be a 19.3% increase, due mainly to the increases in China and India. These figures would lead the temperatures up to 3°–4 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem Services (ES) – the direct (e.g., food and natural medicines) and indirect (e.g., cultural diversity and aesthetic values) benefits people obtain from various ecosystems – need to be assessed to aid decision makers and concerned public in creating policies that ensure continuous flow of ES to their beneficiaries (e.g., fisheries, food, income, livelihood, and traditional way of life to fishers and consumers). However, to date, ES assessments in Philippine reefs are mostly concentrated only on fisheries and tourism or on few areas in the Philippines (e.g., Pangasinan and Bohol Marine Triangle). This study fills research gaps by assessing coral reefs across 15 regions in the Philippines by estimating the following: (1) potential reef fisheries and Willingness-To-Pay (WTP) biodiversity values using underwater surveys and literature data, (2) reef fisheries value using Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and literature data, (3) tourism value using Department of Tourism (DOT) and literature data, and (4) Total Economic Value (TEV). The TEV of Philippine reefs' ES amounted to 4 billion US$/yr or 140,000 US$/km 2 /yr. Furthermore, in each region of the Philippines, annual TEV ranged from 100 to 800 million US$, with potential reef fisheries value contributing the most in the TEV, followed by reef fisheries, tourism, and WTP biodiversity values. In addition, the Visayas regions have the highest values of benefits from coral reefs. Although the Philippines is deriving millions to billions of dollars of economic benefits from coral reefs, the observed degradation and temporal decline in coastal ecosystems could lead to a decline in the potential reef fisheries value, subsequently the TEV. The Philippines need to improve accounting and managing the derived benefits from coral reefs to ensure the sustainability and continuous flow of these benefits for present and future Filipino beneficiaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops an Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare for Spain from 1970 to 2012 and seeks to update valuation approaches to a number of items. Two approaches have proven particularly controversial over recent decades; the costs of energy depletion and of climate change. The valuation implications in measuring present welfare have proven problematic, as both include future sustainability consequences arising from resource depletion and environmental impacts. This study includes a ‘ transition cost ’ approach to energy depletion, a modified approach to costs of climate change and water pollution, and removes the cost of ozone depletion. The results illustrate that while GDP per capita increased significantly, the ISEW per capita shows a widening gap. Household labour contributes strongly, but income distribution, energy depletion and costs of climate change limit improvement. Sensitivity analysis shows that accumulating climate change costs and escalating energy depletion costs have significant effects. Nevertheless, the new valuation approaches do not alter conclusions that welfare has shown little improvement. The ISEW provides a useful alternative to current indicators such as GDP subject to awareness of limitations. It is a measure of welfare that uses sustainability accounting methods when estimating costs, but is not an indicator of whether welfare is actually sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding which aspects of forest governance have the potential to effectively reduce deforestation is central to reversing trends in global deforestation. There is a multitude of empirical studies examining this relationship using various measures of governance and study designs, coming to diverse conclusions. In order to identify the source of variation across studies, this article conducts a meta-analysis of 32 empirical cross-country studies in the field of economics, containing 227 estimates of the impact of different governance measures on deforestation. Using an ordered probit model, we find that the choice of the governance measure is the main factor in explaining variations in the outcomes of the studies. In particular, studies using environmental policy, ownership rights, presence of environmental NGOs, and rule of law as measures of governance, are more likely to find that better governance reduces deforestation. In contrast, studies using democracy and rights as a measure of governance are more likely to find that deforestation increases, when governance is improved. The finding that not all aspects of governance improvements are equally supportive of forest conservation suggests that more nuanced analyses of specific aspects of environmental governance are required to guide evidence-based policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National ecosystem accounting is an emerging framework for measuring the links between ecosystems and human well-being for national planning. It directly addresses Sustainable Development Goal 15.9, in which countries have agreed to integrate ecosystem values into national planning. The community of practice for national ecosystem accounting includes not only the international and national researchers who develop such a framework, but also the national analysts who implement it and the decision makers who apply it. To foster convergence within this community on such a common measurement platform, it is first necessary to understand the issues of divergence of values and preferences among the diverse and international ethical perspectives, disciplines and roles involved. A cluster analysis of a survey of 131 expert stakeholders in national ecosystem accounting reveals agreement within this community on the need for broadening the scope, addressing multiple decision contexts and mainstreaming national ecosystem accounting in national planning. The most important sources of divergence in this community of practice are attributed to ethical positions regarding monetization of ecosystem services, differences in the interpretation of several core concepts, such as biodiversity and ecosystem services, and the role of spatial analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been many initiatives and policy commitments in natural capital accounting in the recent years. Based on a survey for statistical offices, ministries and independent experts worldwide, we provide some preliminary evidence that there is very little use of natural capital accounts for public policy decisions and, more so, in developing countries. The most relevant obstacles are the lack of political support by key people and institutional leadership unable to promote policy use by other ministries. Concerning developing countries, the factor which is considered as the most relevant in preventing the use of natural capital accounts for policy making is the stage of development of the country. In addition, respondents from statistical institutes and developing countries are firstly, concerned about institutional obstacles and secondly, about data availability and cooperation. Respondents from ministries and independent experts are particularly concerned about design obstacles. Not many accounts may be available to be used in the policy-making process due to data gaps, design challenges and the required investment, the problem being more acute in developing countries. A key result of the survey is the need to evaluate the added value of natural capital accounts with respect to statistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although some local governments in China have implemented mandatory environmental regulation policies to address severe pollution problems due to expanding pig production, whether such executive policies conform to the objective development law of pig production and are capable of effectively reducing pollution emissions is a pending issue. In this paper, we establish a theoretical model to illuminate the potential effects of the scale and agglomeration of pig production on the pollutant treatment rate and propose four theoretical hypotheses. Furthermore, we use survey data collected from Jiaxing city – the largest pig supply base in China's Yangtze River Delta region – and employ both linear and nonlinear models to empirically test the theoretical hypotheses. The results show that the rate of faeces applied to the fields as manure decreases with the scale of pig production, while the rate of other harmless modes of pollutant treatment increases with the scale of production, resulting in a U-shaped relationship between the pollutant treatment rate and the scale of pig production. In addition, the total pollutant treatment rate increases with the agglomeration of pig production. We suggest that effective environmental regulation of pig production should differentiate between the types of pollution emissions generated by pig producers; according to their scale of production, pig producers should be classified as point or nonpoint sources of pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]