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Although market-based CO 2 emission control measures (e.g., carbon tax and carbon trading market) have been deeply discussed, government-based measures have received limited attention. This has led to increased uncertainty regarding the formulation of targeted emission reduction policies. Using a unique dataset, the non-radial directional distance function, a proposed spatial meta-frontier analysis method, and the log t convergence model, this study comprehensively investigates the spatio-temporal trends in fiscal environmental expenditure efficiency (FE) and corresponding causes for in a case study for 106 Chinese cities over 2007–2019. The results show that city-level FE presented a slow upward trend at a relatively low level, with a clearly skewed distribution. The technology gap effect between city groups and the overall best production technology, and the efficiency gap effect within city groups were the main drivers widening the overall FE gap. Convergence analysis indicated that three convergence clubs of FE were found, which were distributed across the country. This study highlights that, when constructing fiscal environmental expenditure policies, the government should focus on balancing the regional gap of FE while comprehensively improving FE. • Fiscal environment expenditure efficiency has effects on reducing emissions. • Spatial meta-frontier analysis method for decomposing changes in FE was proposed. • City-level energy consumption data for China were estimated. • FE had a slow upward trend with a skewed distribution from 2007 to 2019. • Three convergence clubs of FE were found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few years, many sectors such as energy generation, industry, domestic supply, and agriculture have encountered serious environmental problems due to the lack of rainfall. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to review the current methodology of royalties distribution from Itaipu hydroelectric plant. In the proposed approach, two criteria were considered to establish the division of Itaipu royalties: (1) the relative percentage of the water flow in the generation of electricity and, (2) the relative percentage of the drop in the height of water. 62 hydroelectric plants were evaluated in this study. In 52 plants the water flow was the factor that most contributed to the generation of electricity. In 2013, 346 municipalities benefited the Itaipu royalties. With the proposed methodology, 1,327 municipalities will receive the resource, what would increase the revenue of each of these municipalities by, on average, US$ 87,436.91 per year. The methodology presented herein proposes a reduction in the environmental disparity that now exists in Brazil, through improvement to Government instruments and environmental policies. The distribution of royalties throughout the watershed can provide additional resources to support payment programs for environmental services at the state and municipality levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyse incentives, equilibria and implications of the governance framework for the disposal of municipal solid waste in an N -Region model where waste mobility is allowed. The key decisions revolve around the flow of waste between regions and the externalities associated with its final disposal. Two different institutional settings are considered: a centralised framework where a central planner takes all the decisions and a decentralised model where each region decides on its waste flows. When the regions are characterised by different levels of efficiency in the final treatment of waste, a certain degree of mobility might allow to reap the benefits of higher efficiency. However, when coupled with decentralisation, waste flows may produce sub-optimal outcomes that undermine environmental protection. In the light of these results, we show how the regulator can use the transfer price and the proximity principle as welfare-improving tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transboundary air pollution is a global environmental and public health problem including in the U.S., where pollution emissions from China, the largest emitter of anthropogenic air pollution in the world, can travel across the Pacific Ocean and reach places like California and Oregon. We examine the effects of transboundary air pollution following major events in China, specifically sandstorms, a natural-occurring source of air pollution, and Chinese New Year, a major 7-day holiday, on background air quality in the U.S. We focus on high elevation sites on the west coast between 2000 and 2013. We use regression analysis and a natural experiment to exploit the variation in the timing of these events in China, which are plausibly uncorrelated to other factors that affect air quality in China and the U.S. We find that sandstorms are associated with statistically significant increases in background coarse and fine particulate matter (PM) in the U.S., representing between 16 and 39% of average weekly PM levels. We also find Chinese New Year is associated with modest reductions in background air quality in the U.S., representing between 0.4 and 2.5% of PM levels. Findings are robust to different models and falsification tests. These results suggest that regression analysis could be a powerful tool to complement other, more widely used techniques in the environmental sciences that study this problem. This also has important implications for policymakers, who could track major sandstorms in China and prepare for possible increased foreign pollution emissions in the U.S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many factors that influence the day-ahead market bidding strategies of a generation company (GenCo) within the framework of the current energy market. Environmental policy issues are giving rise to emission limitation that are becoming more and more important for fossil-fueled power plants, and these must be considered in their management. This work investigates the influence of the emissions reduction plan and the incorporation of the medium-term derivative commitments in the optimal generation bidding strategy for the day-ahead electricity market. Two different technologies have been considered: the high-emission technology of thermal coal units and the low-emission technology of combined cycle gas turbine units. The Iberian Electricity Market (MIBEL) and the Spanish National Emissions Reduction Plan (NERP) defines the environmental framework for dealing with the day-ahead market bidding strategies. To address emission limitations, we have extended some of the standard risk management methodologies developed for financial markets, such as Value-at-Risk (VaR) and Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR), thus leading to the new concept of Conditional Emission at Risk (CEaR). This study offers electricity generation utilities a mathematical model for determining the unit's optimal generation bid to the wholesale electricity market such that it maximizes the long-term profits of the utility while allowing it to abide by the Iberian Electricity Market rules as well as the environmental restrictions set by the Spanish National Emissions Reduction Plan. We analyze the economic implications for a GenCo that includes the environmental restrictions of this National Plan as well as the NERP's effects on the expected profits and the optimal generation bid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1,4-Dioxane (dioxane) is a groundwater contaminant of emerging concern for which bioremediation may become a practical remediation strategy. Therefore, it is important to advance our heuristic understanding of geochemical parameters that are most influential on the potential success of intrinsic bioremediation of dioxane-impacted sites. Here, Pearson's and Spearman's correlation and linear regression analyses were conducted to discern associations between 1,4-dioxane biodegradation activity measured in aerobic microcosms and groundwater geochemical parameters at four different contaminated sites. Dissolved oxygen, which is known to limit dioxane biodegradation, was excluded as a limiting factor in this analysis. Biodegradation activity was positively associated with dioxane concentrations ( p < 0.01; R < 0.70) as well as the number of catabolic thm A gene copies ( p < 0.01; R = 0.80) encoding dioxane monooxygenase. Thus, whereas environmental factors such as pH, temperature, and nutrients may influence dioxane biodegradation, these parameters did not exert as strong of an influence on potential biodegradation activity as the in situ concentration of substrate dioxane at the time of sampling. This analysis infers that aerobic sites with higher dioxane concentrations are more likely to select and sustain a thriving population of dioxane degraders, while sites with relatively low dioxane concentrations would be more difficult to attenuate naturally and may require alternative remediation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnobotany is an adequate tool to identify the most import wild edible plants used by local people and to develop strategies for its sustainable use and policy making. This research records the wild edible plants used by the inhabitants of the Sierra la Laguna Biosphere Reserve, in Mexico, and identified priority species for sustainable development. The employed quantitative approach included the application of a food-oriented index named Food Significance Index (FSI), which integrated cultural, agricultural and food parameters; moreover, it used multivariate analysis to identify priority edible species for use and/or conservation. Fifty taxa were identified as the most important wild edible plants in the reserve, integrated into five priority groups. Foods in priority group 1 had the highest culinary diversity by grouping three fruits ( Ficus petiolaris , Stenocereus thurberi , and Cyrtocarpa edulis ), one almond-like seed ( Cnidoscolus maculatus ), one vegetable ( Matelea cordifolia ), and one condiment ( Capsicum annuum ). Priority groups 2–5 were selective for one or two types of food, such as fruits, teas, or seeds. Since group 1 was the most diverse, the FSI and the employed strategy permitted to identify the priority wild edible plant species with the highest potential for food security. The selected six species should be included in the future management program of the reserve as the priority wild edible plants to develop strategies for conservation, sustainable use, and improvement of the local population income. General policies to manage the selected six species are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new framework for decision making in sustainable drainage system (SuDS) scheme design. It integrates resilience, hydraulic performance, pollution control, rainwater usage, energy analysis, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and costs, and has 12 indicators. The multi-criteria analysis methods of entropy weight and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) were selected to support SuDS scheme selection. The effectiveness of the framework is demonstrated with a SuDS case in China. Indicators used include flood volume, flood duration, a hydraulic performance indicator, cost and resilience. Resilience is an important design consideration, and it supports scheme selection in the case study. The proposed framework will help a decision maker to choose an appropriate design scheme for implementation without subjectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite an increasing number of third-party logistics service providers (3PLs) regard environmental sustainability as a key area of management, there is still great uncertainty on how 3PLs implement environmental strategies and on how they translate green efforts into practice. Through a multiple case study analysis, this paper explores the environmental strategies of a sample of medium-sized 3PLs operating in Italy and the UK, in terms of environmental organizational culture, initiatives, and influencing factors. Our analysis shows that, notwithstanding environmental sustainability is generally recognised as a strategic priority, a certain degree of diversity in the deployment of environmental strategies still exists. This paper is original since the extant literature on green strategies of 3PLs provides findings predominantly from a single country perspective and mainly investigates large/multinational organizations. It also provides indications to help managers of medium-sized 3PLs in positioning their business. This is particularly meaningful in the 3PL industry, where medium-sized organizations significantly contribute to the generated turnover and market value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this literature review based paper we explored the concept of exclusion of local communities from accessing resources in forest protected areas (FPAs) in Zimbabwe. We discussed the colonial and post-colonial forms, causes and mechanisms of exclusion and their social, economic and ecological outcomes. We examined the range of powers embodied in and exercised through various mechanisms, processes and social relations and their impact on local communities' access to FPA resources and associated benefits along the historical trajectory of forest governance in Zimbabwe. Results showed that the forms and extent of exclusion changed over time in tandem with the shifting political and economic landscape. During the colonial period, it was total exclusion whereby people were evicted from forest land as well as being denied access to basic resources for their livelihoods. Local communities' access to low value FPA resources improved during the post-colonial period but access to high value resources like commercial timber as well as sharing income benefits derived from FPA commercial activities remained a pipe dream. Regulation, legitimation, force and markets constituted the mixture of the power elements that FPA governing authorities used to exclude local communities. These powers remained intact despite attempts at collaborative governance in the 1990s. However, from the year 2000, local communities expressed their dissatisfaction with the centralised exclusionary governance system by invading the FPAs rendering them ungovernable. There is therefore a need for policy reform within the FPA sector to improve the current dire situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Galicia is an Autonomous Community located in the north-west of Spain. As a starting point to implement mitigation and adaptation measures to climate change, a regional greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory is needed. So far, the only regional GHG inventories available are limited to the territorial emissions of those production activities which are expected to cause major environmental degradation. An alternative approach has been followed here to quantify all the on-site (direct) and embodied (indirect) GHG emissions related to all Galician production and consumption activities. The carbon footprint (CF) was calculated following the territorial life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology for data collection, that combines bottom-up and top-down approaches. The most up-to-date statistical data and life cycle inventories available were used to compute all GHG emissions. This case study represents a leap of scale when compared to existing studies, thus addressing the issue of double counting, which arises when considering all the production activities of a large region. The CF of the consumption activities in Galicia is 17.8 ktCO 2 e/year, with 88% allocated to Galician inhabitants and 12% to tourist consumption. The proposed methodology also identifies the main important contributors to GHG emissions and shows where regional reduction efforts should be made. The major contributor to the CF of inhabitants is housing (32%), followed by food consumption (29%). Within the CF of tourist consumption, the share of transport is highest (59%), followed by housing (26%). The CF of Galician production reaches 34.9 MtCO 2 e/y, and its major contributor is electricity production (21%), followed by food manufacturing (19%). Our results have been compared to those reported for other regions, actions aimed at reducing GHG emissions have been proposed, and data gaps and limitations identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrologic monitoring began on two headwater streams (<1 km2) on the University of Kentucky's Robinson Forest in 1971. We evaluated stream-water (1974–2013) and bulk-deposition (wet + dust) (1984–2013) chemistry in the context of regional wet-deposition patterns that showed decreases in both sulfate and nitrate concentrations as well as proximal surface-mine expansion. Decadal time steps (1974–83, 1984–93, 1994–2003, 2004–2013) were used to quantify change. Comparison of the first two decades showed similarly decreased sulfate (minimum flow-adjusted annual-mean concentration of ≈13.5 mg/L in 1982 to 8.8 mg/L in 1992) and increased pH (6.6–6.8) in both streams, reflecting contemporaneous changes in both bulk and wet deposition. In contrast, concentrations of nitrate (0.14 to >0.25 mg/L) and base cations increased between these two decades, coinciding with expansion of surface mining between 1985 and 1995. In 2004, stream-water pH (6.7 in 2004), sulfate (9.2 mg/L), and nitrate (>0.11 mg/L) were similar to 1982, despite wet-deposition concentrations being lower. Base-cation concentrations were higher in the stream adjacent to ongoing surface mining relative to the stream situated near the middle of the experimental forest. However, pH decreased to approximately 5.7 by 2013 for both streams, which, combined with a shift in dominant cations from calcium to magnesium and potassium, indicates that the soil-buffering capacity of this landscape has been exceeded. Ratios of bulk deposition and stream-water concentrations indicate enrichment of sulfate (1.7–25.2) and cations (0.5–64.8), but not nitrogen (0.1–5.6), indicating that the Forest is not nitrogen saturated and that ongoing changes in water-quality are sulfate driven. When concentrations were adjusted to account for changes in streamflow (climate) over the 4 decades, external influences (land management/regulation) explained most change. The amount and direction of change differed among constituents, both between consecutive decades and between the first and last decades, reflecting the influence of localized surface mining even as regional wet deposition continued to improve due to the Clean Air Act. The implication is that localized stressors have the potential to out-pace the benefits of national environmental policies for communities that depend on local water-resources in similar environments. [Display omitted] • Analyzed bulk deposition (30 yrs) and stream-water (40 yrs) from forested Appalachia. • Local bulk (wet + dust) deposition significantly differs from regional wet deposition. • Stream-water chemistry indicates ongoing acidification and shift of base cations. • Headwater tributaries are enriched in sulfate and cations, but not nitrogen saturated. • Changes in stream-water acids and cations are driven by surrounding land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese government has made great efforts in air pollutant reduction and carried out strict regulation policies. Since numerous air pollutants and CO 2 tend to have the same root, source, and process, recent studies argue that environmental regulation may also contribute to reducing carbon emissions. To investigate how various types of environmental regulations affect carbon emissions reduction, this paper constructs the spatial Durbin model and panel threshold model based on provincial panel data in China during 2003–2019. The main findings are as follows: First, China's net carbon emissions show a decreasing trend from east to west, displaying significant spatial agglomeration characteristics. Then, formal and informal environmental regulations have inverted U-shaped impacts on net carbon emissions. The "green paradox" and "reverse emission reduction" effects come into play at different stages. Finally, the threshold model reveals that with the improvement of regional technological innovation levels, the carbon-reducing effect of environmental regulation will increasingly come to the fore. These research findings are conducive to providing theoretical guidance for government to formulate and implement environmental regulation policies rationally. • Carbon sink effect is considered in the carbon emissions assessment framework. • The spatial spillover and threshold effects of environmental regulation is studied. • Environmental regulation has an inverted U-shaped impact on net carbon emissions. • Technological innovation level exerts a threshold effect between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the extent of collaboration among stakeholders is key to supporting mangrove management. Despite the existence of robust policies, collaboration among stakeholders of mangrove co-management remains largely unexplored in Sri Lanka. This was partly due to the civil war, natural disasters, and other socio-economic changes over the past 30 years. Our study aimed to identify the collaboration between stakeholders of mangrove management and their perceptions regarding mangrove co-management in Sri Lanka using social network analysis and content analysis. Surveys were conducted in all five coastal provinces of Sri Lanka. Stakeholders included in the study were from government departments, non-governmental organizations, and private institutes. Our results showed that there were differences between coastal provinces in the mangrove management networks, specifically in the number of stakeholders involved and their degree of collaboration. Some important stakeholders (for example the Land Use and Policy Planning Department) were excluded from the social networks in certain provinces (Eastern and Western provinces). There were various issues hampering effective mangrove management such as inefficient communication, inconsistencies between policies, and insufficient financial capacity of government stakeholders responsible for policy implementation. According to the stakeholders in our study, providing mangrove management initiatives with long-term collaboration, post-care, continuous monitoring, and funding may help to overcome these challenges. Additionally, we suggest the establishment of a common platform to coordinate stakeholders. We further encourage increasing the participation of academics, researchers, and students from national universities in the mangrove co-management of Sri Lanka. Insights from this island-wide survey can be adapted to mangrove and other natural resource management trajectories in other countries as well. [Display omitted] • Social Network Analysis was used to identify mangrove networks in Sri Lanka. • Social networks were based on mangrove management stakeholder collaboration. • Stakeholders relevant to mangrove management are often left out of the networks. • Improved communication and sufficient funding are needed to include stakeholders. • Enhancing collaboration is crucial for sustainable mangrove management in Sri Lanka. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic and environmental policy actions are often substitutionary in their impacts, as one man's food could be another's poison. One of the critical emphases at the recent Conference of Parties 26 (COP26) is the need for coal to be phased out in the energy consumption basket of nations to achieve environmental sustainability, but this could be at the expense of the positive performance of other socio-economic fundamentals. The best bet could then be to maintain an optimal consumption level to strike a balance. Relying on this, we examine the environmental, economic, and health impacts of coal consumption in the world's highest coal-consuming countries, putting the latter's threshold level into consideration. In summary, we find that there is a trade-off between pushing for a sustainable environment through a reduction in coal consumption and achieving better growth and health status. This implies that phasing out of coal totally will have severe economic and health costs. However, based on our threshold regression model results, it is most reasonable to maintain a lower level of coal use in the overall energy mix of these countries. This will definitely yield a relatively low level of carbon, but will still assure a certain level of economic growth and health performance. As such, reducing the intensity of coal gradually and simultaneously providing a substitute that can also serve economic and health needs are encouraged. • Implications of COP26 coal's phase-out agenda on the environment, economy, and health. • Coal consumption has a trade-off with environmental quality, economic growth, and health. • The phase-out of coal will reduce carbon emissions, but drag growth and impair health status. • However, a low level of coal use will create a balance among low carbon level, growth and health status. • Crucial policy implications for energy demand, energy transition, and environmental sustainability are drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem complexity is often assumed to hamper effective environmental policy delivery. However, this claim is hardly substantiated, given the dominance of qualitative small-n designs in environmental governance research. We studied 37 types of contemporary problems defined by German water governance to assess the impact of problem complexity on policy delivery through public authorities. The analysis is based on a unique data set related to these problems, encompassing both in-depth interview-based data on complexities and independent official data on policy delivery. Our findings show that complexity in fact tends to delay implementation at the stage of planning. However, different dimensions of complexity (goals, variables, dynamics, interconnections, and uncertainty) impact on the different stages of policy delivery (goal formulation, stages and degrees of implementation) in various ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last twenty years an increasing number of studies have relied on the standard definition of the Malmquist-Luenberger index proposed by Chung et al. (1997) [ J. Environ. Manage ., 51, 229–240], to assess environmental sensitive productivity change. While recent contributions have shown that it suffers from relevant drawbacks related to inconsistencies and infeasibilities, no one has studied systematically the performance of the original model, and to what extent the existing results are unreliable. We introduce the optimization techniques that implement the model by Aparicio et al. (2013) [ Eur. J. Oper. Res. , 229(3), 738–742] solving these problems, and using a country level database on air pollutants systematically compare the results obtained with both approaches. Over the 1995–2007 period environmental productivity stagnation prevails across developed and developing countries, and while increasing technical progress takes place in the later years, it is offset by declining efficiency. Results show also that inconsistencies and infeasibilities in the original model are increasing in the number of undesirable outputs included, reaching remarkable values that seriously question the reliability of results, and compromise any environmental policy recommendation based on them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanization has altered many ecosystems, causing a decline in many ecosystem services, generating serious ecological crisis. To cope with these challenges, we presented a comprehensive framework comprising five core steps for identifying and managing hotspots of critical ecosystem services in a rapid urbanizing region. This framework was applied in the case study of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) Region. The study showed that there was large spatial heterogeneity in the hotspots of ecosystem services in the region, hotspots of supporting services and regulating services aggregately distributing in the southwest mountainous areas while hotspots of provisioning services mainly in the northeast plain, and hotspots of cultural services widespread in the waterbodies and southwest mountainous areas. The regionalization of the critical ecosystem services was made through the hotspot analysis. This study provided valuable information for environmental planning and management in a rapid urbanizing region and helped improve China's ecological redlines policy at regional scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A crowdsourcing study supported by a public participation GIS tool was designed and carried out in two Norwegian regions. The aim was to improve the knowledge about emissions from wood burning for residential heating in urban areas based on the collection of citizens' localized insights. We focus on three main issues: 1) type of dwelling and residential heating source; 2) wood consumption and type of wood appliances; and 3) citizens' perception of the urban environment. Our study shows the importance of wood burning for residential heating, and of the resulted particle emissions, in Norwegian urban areas. Citizens' localized insights on environmental perception highlight the areas in the city that require particular attention as part of clean air strategies. Information about environmental perception is combined with existing environmental data showing certain correlation. The results support the urban environmental management based on co-benefit approaches, achieving several outcomes from a single policy measure. Measures to reduce urban air pollution will have a positive impact on the citizens' environmental perception, and therefore on their quality of life, in addition to reducing the negative consequences of air pollution on human health. The characterization of residential heating by fuelwood is still a challenging activity. Our study shows the potential of a crowdsourcing method as means for bottom-up approaches designed to increase our knowledge on human activities at urban scale that result on emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this research was to conduct a performance evaluation of three food waste/biowaste-to-biogas pilot projects across 7 scenarios in China based on multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methodology. The projects ranked included a food waste-biogas project in Beijing, a food waste-biogas project in Suzhou and a co-digestion project producing biomethane in Hainan. The projects were ranked from best to worst based on technical, economic and environmental criteria under the MCDA framework. The results demonstrated that some projects are encountering operational problems. Based on these findings, six national policy recommendations were provided: (1) shift away from capital investment subsidies to performance-based subsidies; (2) re-design feed in tariffs; (3) promote bio-methane and project clustering; (4) improve collection efficiency by incentivizing FW producers to direct waste to biogas projects; (5) incentivize biogas projects to produce multiple outputs; (6) incentivize food waste-based projects to co-digest food waste with other substrates for higher gas output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Striving for long-term sustainability in catchments dominated by human activities requires development of interdisciplinary research methods to account for the interplay between environmental concerns and socio-economic pressures. In this study, we present an integrative analysis of the Lake Simcoe watershed, Ontario, Canada, as viewed from the perspective of a socio-ecological system. Key features of our analysis are (i) the equally weighted consideration of environmental attributes with socioeconomic priorities and (ii) the identification of the minimal number of key socio-hydrological variables that should be included in a parsimonious watershed management framework, aiming to establish linkages between urbanization trends and nutrient export. Drawing parallels with the concept of Hydrological Response Units, we used Self-Organizing Mapping to delineate spatial organizations with similar socio-economic and environmental attributes, also referred to as Socio-Environmental Management Units (SEMUs). Our analysis provides evidence of two SEMUs with contrasting features, the “undisturbed” and “anthropogenically-influenced”, within the Lake Simcoe watershed. The “undisturbed” cluster occupies approximately half of the Lake Simcoe catchment (45%) and is characterized by low landscape diversity and low average population density <0.4 humans ha −1 . By contrast, the socio-environmental functional properties of the “anthropogenically-influenced” cluster highlight the likelihood of a stability loss in the long-run, as inferred from the distinct signature of urbanization activities on the tributary nutrient export, and the loss of subwatershed sensitivity to natural mechanisms that may ameliorate the degradation patterns. Our study also examines how the SEMU concept can augment the contemporary integrated watershed management practices and provides directions in order to promote environmental programs for lake conservation and to increase public awareness and engagement in stewardship initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attempt to design cost-effective adaptation policies incorporating non-market values to inhibit climate change impacts on water resources may increase the interest in applying the Benefit Transfer method. Benefit Transfer is a practical way to consider non-market values using functions and estimates acquired through primary valuation methods from other sites. Among the primary methods, Choice Experiments appear to particularly accommodate Benefit Transfer. Nevertheless, validity and reliability of international value transfers obtained from Choice Experiments have not been adequately examined. To this end, two identical Choice Experiments were conducted in Greece and Italy in the context of river services adaptation, testing validity and reliability of Benefit Transfer. The application of validity and reliability tests for different types of transfers is supportive for the use of Benefit Transfer, at least for the value transfer types. In particular the reliability of value transfer was higher when income adjustments were taken into account. Overall, Benefit Transfer can be attentively considered to evaluate cost-effective adaptation policies across countries experiencing similar climate change trends. The latter gains more importance given that an international Benefit Transfer setting as regards the non-market benefits of adaptation to climate change for river services is absent in the relevant literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of remote sensing technology, significant progress has been made in the evaluation of the eco-environment. The remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) is one of the most widely used indices for the comprehensive evaluation of eco-environmental quality. This index is entirely based on remote sensing data and can monitor eco-environmental aspects quickly for a large area. However, the use of RSEI has some limitations. For example, its application is generally not uniform, the obtained results are stochastic in nature, and its calculation process cannot consider all ecological elements (especially the water element). In spite of the widespread application of the RSEI, improvements to its limitations are scarce. In this paper, we propose a new index named the remote sensing ecological index considering full elements (RSEIFE). The proposed RSEIFE is compared with commonly used evaluation models such as RSEI and RSEI LA (Remote Sensing Ecological Index with Local Adaptability) in several types of study areas to assess the stability and accuracy of our model. The results show that the calculation process of RSEIFE is more stable than those of RSEI and RSEI LA , and the results of RSEIFE are consistent with the real eco-environment surface and reveal more details about its features. Meanwhile, compared with RSEI and RSEI LA , the results of RSEIFE effectively reveal the ecological benefits of both water bodies themselves and their surrounding environments, which lead to more accurate and comprehensive basis for the implementation of environmental protection policies. [Display omitted] • We propose a new ecological index for land surface eco-environment simulation. • The instability and incompleteness of the RSEI, RSEI LA calculation was solved. • RSEIFE has stability and versatility in cities with different ecological contexts. • RSEIFE can monitor eco-environmental of cities with abundant water bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participatory techniques are widely recognized as essential in addressing the challenges of agri-environmental policy and decision-making. Furthermore, it is well known that stakeholder analysis and social network analysis are useful methods in the identification of actors that are involved in a system and the connections between them. To identify key stakeholders and improve the transfer of information from national-to farm-level, we compared a stakeholder analysis with farmer-centric networks for primary productivity, carbon regulation and biodiversity through the case study of Latvia. Farmer-centric networks show a higher number of stakeholders communicating on the topic of primary productivity network comparing to other topics. We found three pathways for improving knowledge transfer in agri-environmental governance: horizontal strengthening of farming community, horizontal strengthening of policy departments, and vertical strengthening between policy departments and farmers. The first step is to ensure that policy-makers have a common understanding of the results that should be achieved. The second step is the transfer of know-how between farmers to develop new solutions. The third step is the training of advisers in the land multifunctionality and the strengthening of communication and knowledge transfer between policy departments and farmers in order to jointly achieve the desired direction at that national level. Long-term cooperation between many stakeholders, including knowledge transfer, the development and implementation of solutions, and monitoring are essential in order to adequately address global societal challenges. The application of our mixed methods approach to elucidate pathways for improved governance of knowledge and information is of direct relevance to other jurisdictions seeking to transition towards multifunctional and sustainable land management. [Display omitted] • Common understanding of desired directions between different stakeholders and levels can help in achieving socio-economic and environmental objectives. • Farmers receive information overload and they need to distill it into practical actions and management plans by themselves. • Advisers are in a unique position to influence on-farm decisions and to help achieve national and international objectives on sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the drivers of distribution of pollution-intensive enterprises (PIEs) at the intraurban level that are less studied. Employing the complete spatial database of PIEs obtained from the National Economic Census of 2004, 2008, and 2013, the paper analyses the spatial restructuring of PIEs within Foshan, China, a typical manufacturing city in transition. We find that the changing role of environmental regulation induced by the environmental policy regime transformation has resulted in the siting strategy shift of PIEs, and both the 'Pollution Haven Hypothesis' and the 'Porter Hypothesis' have been overly simplified in the research conducted at the regional or global level. Based on the Foshan case, we further conceptualize the pattern of spatial restructuring of PIEs that would help to understand the fast green economy transition taking place in Chinese cities, followed by some policy and research implications. • The relocation and drivers of polluting firms at a local level are studied. • The environmental policy regime shift leads to the siting strategy shift of firms. • Polluting firms initially seek a pollution haven before 2008. • New firms after 2008 site in areas with strict environmental regulation. • The local government motivation is more important in the Chinese context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the ‘storyline’ of the early and recent growth of sustainable remediation (SR) practice in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), in order to inform and support other SR stakeholders, and to identify some lessons learned. Achievement of full acceptance and consistency across relevant ANZ regulatory jurisdictions and industry sectors will take time and will require publication of successful examples of SR application. The article describes the respective policy and regulatory contexts for sustainable remediation practice in Australia and in New Zealand; several milestone activities and events in the growth of SR in ANZ; and example SR methodologies and policies produced by stakeholders and remediation practitioners including the Sustainable Remediation Forum of Australia and New Zealand (SuRF ANZ). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of sustainability considerations in contaminated land management (CLM) is highlighted in policy frameworks all around the world. It means that while the reduction of risks to human health and the environment remains the main goal of CLM, a variety of other environmental factors as well as economic and social aspects have an increasing role in decision making. The success of finding the right balance between these considerations and incorporating them in the risk management approach defines the overall sustainability of the outcome. Although the concept and principles of sustainable CLM are already widely accepted, they have not been fully realized in national procedures. According to several studies this often results from the lack of explicit policy measures. A sound policy framework in conjunction with functional policy instruments is therefore a prerequisite for the attainment of sustainable practices. In Finland, the environmental administration along with other key stakeholder groups, including regional authorities, landowners, consultants, industries, research institutes and academia, has developed a national strategy and associated policy measures in order to promote sustainable CLM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much research has focused on the organisational and reputational benefits of ISO 14001. However, less discussed is the symbolic adoption that some firms are implementing without experiencing significant reductions in environmental impacts. This work analyses the relationships between the different ISO 14001 adoption profiles (from symbolic profile to factual approach) and both environmental performance and profitability. These relationships are examined using a sample of 1214 manufacturing firms in 7 OECD countries while controlling for selection bias. The results suggest that only ISO 14001 adopters that monitor an extensive set of negative environmental impacts are associated with real improvements in both environmental performance and business performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficient use of the water resource requires internalization of all costs in the price of water, including environmental and resource costs. However, water resource management tends to be highly political and increasing water prices are a sensitive and complicated policy matter. Hence, there is a need for increased understanding of the implementation process and the attitudes towards implementation among the general public. This paper explores the spatial heterogeneity in the public attitude towards internalizing environmental and resource costs in the price of water across the EU regions. Within an extensive spatial dataset constructed for the purpose, we estimate the effect of individual information levels and affordability concerns on the attitude towards environmental water pricing. Information about water problems is found to have a significant and positive effect on attitudes as is affordability concern, which may be explained by expectations of inequity measures to come in place in parallel with increasing water prices. Overall these results support the hypothesis that lack of information and affordability concern could lead to resistance towards efficient water pricing among the general public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land degradation is a global environmental problem that jeopardizes human safety and socioeconomic development. To alleviate severe soil erosion and desertification due to deforestation and overgrazing, China has implemented historically unprecedented large-scale afforestation. However, few studies have accounted for the resulting imbalance between water supply (primarily precipitation) and water consumption (evapotranspiration), which will affect ecosystem health and socioeconomic development. We compared the water balance results between restoration by means of afforestation and restoration using the potential natural vegetation to guide future ecological restoration planning and environmental policy development. Based on estimates of water consumption from seven evapotranspiration models, we discuss the consequences for water security using data obtained since 1952 under China's large-scale afforestation program. The models estimated that afforestation will increase water consumption by 559–2354 m 3 /ha annually compared with natural vegetation. Although afforestation is a potentially important approach for environmental restoration, China's current policy has not been tailored to local precipitation conditions, and will have therefore exacerbated water shortages and decrease the ability to achieve environmental policy goals. Our analysis shows how, both in China and around the world, future ecological restoration planning must account for the water balance to ensure effective and sustainable environmental restoration policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK 2007 floods resulted in damages estimated to exceed over £4 billion. This triggered a national review of strategic flood risk management (Pitt, 2008) with its recommendations informing and implemented by the Flood and Water Management, Act (FWMA, 2010). Estimating that up to two-thirds of properties flooded in the 2007 event as a direct result of overloaded sewer systems, the FWMA set out an ambitious overhaul of flood risk management approaches including identifying bodies responsible for the management of local flood risk (local municipalities) and the development of over-arching Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFAs) at a regional level. LLFAs duties include developing local flood risk management strategies and, aligned with this, many LLFAs and local municipalities produced sustainable drainage system (SUDS) guidance notes. In parallel, changes to the national planning policy framework (NPPF) in England give priority to the use of SUDS in new major developments, as does the related Town and Country Planning Order (2015). However, whilst all three pieces of legislation refer to the preferential use of SUDs, these requirements remain “economically proportionate” and thus the inclusion of SUDS within development controls remain desirable - but not mandatory - obligations. Within this dynamic policy context, reignited most recently by the December 2015 floods, this paper examines some of the challenges to the implementation of SUDS in England and Wales posed by the new regulatory frameworks. In particular, it examines how emerging organisational procedures and processes are likely to impact on future SUDS implementation, and highlights the need for further cross-sectoral working to ensure opportunities for cross-sectoral benefits– such as that accrued by reducing stormwater flows within combined sewer systems for water companies, property developers and environmental protection – are not lost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using adaptive management to manage desired flows of ecosystem services may seem on the surface to be a good fit, but many social, economic, environmental, legal, and political factors influence how good a fit. One strongly influential factor is the land use regime within which the profile of ecosystem services is being managed. Shaped largely by legal mandates, market forces, and social and cultural practices, different land use regimes present different opportunities for and constraints on goals for ecosystem services and pose different decision making environments. Even where all other conditions appear amenable to using adaptive management, therefore, it is essential to consider the constraining (or liberating) effects of different land use regimes when deciding whether to adopt adaptive management to achieve those goals and, if so, how to implement it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive management (AM) is being employed in a number of programs in the United States to guide actions to restore aquatic ecosystems because these programs are both expensive and are faced with significant uncertainties. Many of these uncertainties are associated with prioritizing when, where, and what kind of actions are needed to meet the objectives of enhancing ecosystem services and recovering threatened and endangered species. We interviewed nine large-scale aquatic ecosystem restoration programs across the United States to document the lessons learned from implementing AM. In addition, we recorded information on ecological drivers (e.g., endangered fish species) for the program, and inferred how these drivers reflected more generic ecosystem services. Ecosystem services (e.g., genetic diversity, cultural heritage), albeit not explicit drivers, were either important to the recovery or enhancement of the drivers, or were additional benefits associated with actions to recover or enhance the program drivers. Implementing programs using AM lessons learned has apparently helped achieve better results regarding enhancing ecosystem services and restoring target species populations. The interviews yielded several recommendations. The science and AM program must be integrated into how the overall restoration program operates in order to gain understanding and support, and effectively inform management decision-making. Governance and decision-making varied based on its particular circumstances. Open communication within and among agency and stakeholder groups and extensive vetting lead up to decisions. It was important to have an internal agency staff member to implement the AM plan, and a clear designation of roles and responsibilities, and long-term commitment of other involved parties. The most important management questions and information needs must be identified up front. It was imperative to clearly identify, link and continually reinforce the essential components of an AM plan, including objectives, constraints, uncertainties, hypotheses, management actions, decision criteria and triggers, monitoring, and research. Some employed predictive models and the results of research on uncertainties to vet options for actions. Many relied on best available science and professional judgment to decide if adjustments to actions were needed. All programs emphasized the need to be nimble enough to be responsive to new information and make necessary adjustments to management action implementation. We recommend that ecosystem services be explicit drivers of restoration programs to facilitate needed funding and communicate to the general public and with the global efforts on restoring and conserving ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary processes of environmental policymaking in general span over several territorial tiers. This also holds for the EU Water Framework Directive system of environmental quality standards (EQS), which are part of a complex multi-level institutional landscape, embracing both EU, national and sub-national level. Recent evaluations show that many EU member states, including Sweden, have not reached the ecological goals for water in 2015. Departing from theories on policy coherence and multi-level governance, this paper therefore analyses Swedish water governance as a case to further our understanding of policy implementation in complex governance structures: how does policy coherence (or the lack thereof) affect policy implementation in complex governance structures? To answer this question, the paper maps out the formal structure of the water governance system, focusing on power directions within the system, analyses policy coherence in Swedish water governance through mapping out policy conflicts between the EQS for water and other goals/regulations and explore how they are handled by national and sub-national water bureaucrats. The study concludes that without clear central guidance, ‘good ecological status’ for Swedish water will be difficult to achieve since incoherent policies makes policy implementation inefficient due to constant power struggles between different authorities, and since environmental goals are often overridden by economic and other societal goals. Further research is needed in order to explore if similar policy conflicts between water quality and other objectives occur in other EU member states and how bureaucrats handle such conflicts in different institutional settings. This study of the Swedish case indicates that the role of the state as a navigator and rudder-holder is important in order to improve policy implementation in complex governance structures – otherwise; bureaucrats risk being lost in an incoherent archipelago of ecological, social and economic goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the marine sciences an increasing number of studies on environmental changes, their causes, and environmental assessments emerged in recent years. Often authors use non-uniform and inconsistent definitions of key terms like driver, threats, pressures etc. Although all of these studies clearly define causal dependencies between the interacting socio-economic and environmental systems in an understandable way, still an overall imprecise wording could induce misunderstanding at higher policy levels when it comes to integrated ecosystems assessments. Therefore we recommend using unified definitions for a better communication between science and management within national, regional and international environmental policies, for example the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). With this article we provide definitions compatible with the driver-pressure-state-impact-response (DPSIR) approach. Although most examples are MSFD related and thus have a marine focus the definitions are intended to be equally applicable for other systems and are usable world-wide. We suggest sticking to these definitions for an easy and simplified knowledge transfer from science to management, since DPSIR model is already accepted as a helpful tool for structuring and communicating ecosystem analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Targeting agri-environmental measures (AEM) improves their effectiveness in the delivery of public goods, provided the necessary coordination with other incentives. In less favoured areas (LFA) measures focusing on the conservation of extensive farming contribute to sustainable land management in these areas. In this paper we investigate the implementation of a possible AEM supporting the improvement of permanent pastures coordinated with the extensive livestock and single farm payments actually in place. Through applying a spatially-explicit mixed integer optimisation model we simulate future land use scenarios for two less favoured areas in Portugal (Centro and Alentejo) considering two policy scenarios: a ‘targeted AEM’, and a ‘non-targeted AEM’. We then compare the results with a ‘basic policy’ option (reflecting a situation without AEM). This is done with regard to landscape-scale effects on the reduction of fire hazard and erosion risk, as well as effects on farm income. The results show that an AEM for permanent pastures would be more cost-effective for erosion and fire hazard mitigation if implemented within a spatially targeted framework. However when cost-effectiveness is assessed with other indicators (e.g. net farm income and share of grazing livestock) ‘non-targeted AEM’ implementation delivers the best outcome in Alentejo. In Centro the implementation of an AEM involves important losses of income compared to the ‘basic policy’. ‘Targeted AEM’ tends to favour farms in very marginal conditions, i.e. targeting is demonstrated to perform best in landscapes where spatial heterogeneity is higher. The results also show the risk of farm abandonment in the two studied less favoured areas: in all three scenarios more than 30% of arable land is deemed to be abandoned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex policy-making situations around bioenergy production and use require examination of the operational environment of the society and a participatory approach. This paper presents and demonstrates a three-phase decision-making framework for analysing the operational environment of strategies related to increased forest bioenergy targets. The framework is based on SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis and the Simple Multi-Attribute Rating Technique (SMART). Stakeholders of four case countries (Finland, Germany, Norway and Slovenia) defined the factors that affect the operational environments, classified in four pre-set categories (Forest Characteristics and Management, Policy Framework, Technology and Science, and Consumers and Society). The stakeholders participated in weighting of SWOT items for two future scenarios with SMART technique. The first scenario reflected the current 2020 targets (the Business-as-Usual scenario), and the second scenario contained a further increase in the targets (the Increase scenario). This framework can be applied to various problems of environmental management and also to other fields where public decision-making is combined with stakeholders’ engagement. The case results show that the greatest differences between the scenarios appear in Germany, indicating a notably negative outlook for the Increase scenario, while the smallest differences were found in Finland. Policy Framework was a highly rated category across the countries, mainly with respect to weaknesses and threats. Intensified forest bioenergy harvesting and utilization has potentially wide country-specific impacts which need to be anticipated and considered in national policies and public dialogue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persistent gaps in the evidence base regarding the performance of conservation policies has put pressure on the conservation policy field to adopt ‘best practice’ programme evaluation methods. These are methods that account for the counterfactual and are able to attribute causality between a conservation policy and specific observable environmental and social impacts. Despite this pressure, use of such methods continues to be rare. This paper uses the Delphi technique to provide the first systematic assessment of the reasons behind the apparent hesitation of conservation practitioners to adopt rigorous policy impact evaluation methods. The Delphi study consisted of two online questionnaires conducted on conservation policy experts. The results presented confirm that the use of rigorous impact evaluation methods in conservation is still very limited but this, crucially, is not because conservationists are ignorant of these methods or their advantages. In fact, considerable effort is being made to develop and improve evidence standards but these efforts have largely been thwarted by large financial and time related constraints that mean even elementary evaluations are hard to achieve. The results from this Delphi study allow us to provide more realistic recommendations on how impact evaluation studies can be more widely embraced and implemented in conservation practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is generally acknowledged that willingness-to-pay (WTP) estimates for environmental goods exhibit some degree of spatial variation. In a policy context, spatial variation in threatened and endangered species values is important to understand, as the benefit stream from policies affecting threatened and endangered species may vary locally, regionally, or among certain population segments. In this paper we present WTP estimates for eight different threatened and endangered marine species estimated from a stated preference choice experiment. WTP is estimated at two different spatial scales: (a) a random sample of over 5000 U.S. households and (b) geographically embedded samples (relative to the U.S. household sample) of nine U.S. Census regions. We conduct region-to-region and region-to-nation statistical comparisons to determine whether species values differ among regions and between each region and the entire U.S. Our results show limited spatial variation between national values and values estimated from regionally embedded samples, and differences are only found for three of the eight species. More variation exists between regions, and for all species there is a significant difference in at least one region-to-region comparison. Given that policy analyses involving threatened and endangered marine species can often be regional in scope (e.g., ecosystem management) or may disparately affect different regions, our results should be of high interest to the marine management community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting the downscaling and integration of zonal management and control of various environmental pollution sources is an effective way to systematically deal with the current high-intensity and complex environmental problems. Through single-factor and comprehensive pollutant emission intensity evaluation and cluster analysis, we built a full-coverage and cross-scale environmental spatial management and control system for pollution sources, then proposed environmental zoning patterns and pollution control strategies at three scales in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), China. At the grid scale, the reclassified 7 types of pollution source spaces can be divided into 5 levels based on pollution emission intensity, and the most urgent environmental control subjects can be determined accordingly. Up to the county scale, combined with emission intensity and regional functions, 305 counties can be divided into 5 control intensity zones, which directly correspond to different environmental control intensity, requirements and policies. Finally, at the city scale, 41 cities can be clustered into 7 pollution control zones, which are classified and named as the three-level form of geographic location, development orientation and pollution source characteristics. Fully using the zoning units at different scales of cities, counties and grids can break the limitation of inherent administrative boundaries and allow environmental integration policies to be implemented across departments and regions, also let differentiated policies be more accurately implemented to different administrative levels and pollution source, and then truly improve the efficiency of environmental management. • Geographical spatial structure affects environmental function benefit. • Downscale control system improves environmental management efficiency. • Controlling pollution source spaces through multi-scale zoning. • Inter-city integration zoning breaks the limitation of administrative powers. • Differentiated zoning within county improves the matching of environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resolving the negative externality of environmental pollution has always been a concern in both the theoretical and practical space. To stimulate enterprises to participate in environmental governance actively, China has implemented a series of environmental regulation policies. The Emission Trading Pilot Scheme (ETPS) is an example of such policies implemented to ensure the gradual transition toward marketization. From a micro-enterprise perspective, the study examines how this policy achieves the dual effects of reducing emissions and promoting energy efficiency. We further explore potential channels through which this policy influences the dual effects. We empirically find ETPS to reduce the pollution emissions of enterprises significantly. However, the pollution reduction effect is mainly achieved by encouraging enterprises to strengthen cleaner production rather than through end governance. In addition to bringing environmental dividends, we observe ETPS to improve fossil energy efficiency by about 7.5% indirectly. We conclude by urging policy makers and participants to optimize energy structures and adjust intermediate input as they serve as significant pathways through which ETPS can affect fossil energy efficiency. The ETPS can encourage enterprises to actively step out of their "comfort zone" of environmental governance to be viewed as an effective environmental regulation policy. • The micro impact of Emission Trading Pilot Scheme (ETPS) is assessed. • The ETPS achieves environmental dividends by promoting cleaner production. • The ETPS significantly improves fossil energy efficiency by about 7.5%. • Energy structure and intermediate input are channels to boost energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to choose environmental policy instruments within a clearly defined scope of the market mechanism and government intervention will profoundly affect the policy effectiveness. Through a systematic review of 111 representative literature, this paper traces the theoretical development of environmental policy instruments, empirical analyses based on the CGE (Computable General Equilibrium) model, and globally practical experience. We find that the reflections on environmental policy instruments have shifted from command-based to market-based, from trade-offs between quantity-based and price-based instruments within the scope of market-based instruments to combining both, and finally a reasonable allocation of both command-based and market-based instruments. The CGE model promotes the shift, deepens the theory, and accelerates the transformation from theoretical thinking to practical application. By providing approaches to recognize and measure the overall economic costs of environmental policies, the CGE model plays an important role in validating efficiency theories, identifying efficiency losses, and amending policy instruments. It also promotes the implementation of environmental tools through region-pertinent settings and simulations. Based on reflections and discussions upon existing literature, we propose that the market should play a dominant role in allocating resources to obtain long-term environmental goals with corresponding environmental regulations as supplementary; under the circumstances with market efficiency losses, command-based instruments should be employed to cope with market failures. The results in this paper can facilitate the expansion of the environmental policy theory and also assist governments with better selection and formulation of environmental policy instruments relying on a solid theoretical basis and rational practical approaches. • Theoretical development of environmental policy instruments and empirical analyses based on the CGE model are systematically explored. • The preference for policy tools shifts to market-based instruments and evolves into a combination of quantity- and price-based instruments. • The CGE model promotes theoretical verification, and facilitates policy formulation and implementation. • The market should play a dominant role in allocating resources to obtain long-term environmental goals. • Command-based instruments should be employed to complement market tools when the market efficiency loss is substantial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive understanding of the effect of environmental regulation policy synergy on carbon emissions is essential for the design and decision-making of the other policy combinations. In this paper, the panel data from 30 provinces in China during 2000–2019 are used as samples to investigate the heterogeneity of different policy combinations and compare the differences using a Bayesian non-parametric generalized additive quantile method. The research results imply that the environmental regulation policy synergy has a significant heterogeneous effect on carbon emissions on different levels. Specifically, the effect of environmental regulation policy synergy on carbon emissions has an inverted U-shape trend at the low quintiles, i.e., before the turning point, it shows a "green paradox" effect, and after the turning point, it shows an "emission reduction" effect. However, the effect of environmental regulation policy synergy on carbon emissions shows a significant N-shape trend at the high quintiles, i.e., before the second turning point, it shows an "emission reduction" effect, and after the second turning point, it shows a "green paradox" effect. Moreover, the effect of environmental regulation policy combinations on carbon emissions reduction has been found to vary significantly across regions. • Effect of environmental regulation policy synergy on carbon emissions is explored. • The mediating role of industrial structure is considered. • The effect of ERPS on CE has an inverted U-shape trend at the low quintiles, which shows a significant N-shape trend at the high quintiles. • Significant difference in the efficiency for implementation of ERPS in regions with different levels of CE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how cross-country differences in environmental regulatory stringency among member states of the world's largest multinational cap-and-trade system, the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS), influenced the FDI location choice of listed multinationals (MNEs) regulated by the environmental policy. After controlling for other country characteristics driving FDI location choice, we find that the likelihood of EU ETS-covered MNEs locating new FDI projects in less environmentally stringent member states strongly depends on firm- and industry-specific environmental characteristics during the system's first two phases. Our results are robust to different measures of environmental stringency and provide evidence for the existence of an intra-regional pollution haven effect (PHE). This investment behavior by MNEs is, moreover, only found in the industries least compensated for the environmental costs induced by the policy. This suggests that the EU inadvertently promoted an intra-regional PHE not only by allowing cross-country variation in environmental stringency but also by overly focusing on and compensating for external carbon leakage risk. Our conclusions have major implications for countries and regions currently establishing or implementing an emissions trading system. • We examine the largest multinational cap-and-trade scheme in the world, the EU ETS. • Current research on the pollution haven effect focuses on FDI outside the EU ETS. • We explore intra-EU ETS differences in environmental stringency among member states. • Using a conditional logit model, we find evidence of an intra-regional PHE. • PHE driven by most polluting firms in industries with limited strategic flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The staggering rise in global temperature and abrupt change of climate are the responses of nature alerting humanity to limit the emissions of hazardous gases and adopt environmentally-benign life style. The present study explores empirically whether any changes in environmental policy stringency (EPSI), political risk (PR), and the interaction term of EPSI*PR result in any alteration of consumption-based carbon emissions (CBCE) of the 24 advanced OECD economies over the period of 1990–2020. Prior to the empirical estimations, various diagnostic tests are employed. The empirical techniques include, panel cointegration check, Cross-sectional Augmented Autoregressive Distributed Lags (CS-ARDL), and Dumitrescu & Hurlin panel causality test. The findings confirm that imports, gross domestic product, and stringency of environment policies activate CBCE in short-run. Whereas, a unit improvement in political risk and its interaction with environmental policy stringency give rise to 0.231 MtCO 2 of CBCE in long run. Interestingly, the squared term of environmental policy stringency effectively tackles such emissions. Based on the findings, we conclude that the present environment related policies of OECD member states does not effectively limit CBCE. In order to achieve genuine emissions reduction goals, the selected nations should restructure their environment related policies by prioritizing increments in environmental policy stringency along with minimizing the risks involved in the political system. • The present environmental policies of OECD nations are not targeting consumption-based emissions. • The Lower the political risk, the minor the consumption-based carbon emissions. • Lower political risk along with efficient environmental policies curb such emissions. • Interestingly, augmenting the current environmental policies tackles the emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil has become an antagonist in natural resource conservation policies in recent years. The Brazilian Cerrado is one of the biomes most affected by this setback due to the occupation of areas of economic interest in agriculture. Interestingly, there are projects throughout the biome that aim to encourage the preservation of natural resources, but there is uncertainty about whether these incentives have provided conservation. That is the case of the Feio River hydrographic basin, located in the Cerrado, near the city of Patrocínio, state of Minas Gerais. Indeed, the Feio River watershed has projects incentivizing the Cerrado's conservation. Thus, in this article, we aimed to explain how the advance of agriculture in fragile areas of the Feio river watershed occurs, their causes and whether protection strategies have produced satisfactory results. We used an old Environmental Fragility proposal methodwith our contributions to estimate the variations regarding nature conservation in the basin. Our findings show considerable heterogeneity in the potential fragility of the Feio's river basin. We observe that less fragile sites are used for coffee cultivation (74 and 72% of the two places), while more fragile sites are occupied by reserves (around 50% of the area) and high-impact activities such as traditional monoculture and cattle ranching (25 and 44% for the two sites). Temporally, we observed little change in use and occupation, with a slight increase in no-till farming to replace coffee and conventional cultivation. The permanent preservation areas in the basin have improved vegetation quality, while the reserve areas composed of fields show a degradation process. Considering the importance of the Feio's river basin, different incentives and inspection strategies are needed to guarantee the site's preservation and environmental restoration. • Environmental protection policies adopted do not seem to have short prize effect for the conservation of areas. • Areas close to rivers show low agricultural potential and are occupied by small farms, with activities of high impact. • Less fragile areas are widely occupied by agriculture, mainly coffee, which causes greater deforestation in denser cerrado. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European Union environmental policy has created a unique regulatory framework to favour aquatic ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation across European countries. Identifying the spatial structure of freshwater fish population dynamics is crucial to define region-specific management and conservation planning. To implement evidence-driven management and conservation decisions at a regional scale we assessed spatial heterogeneity in common freshwater fish population dynamics in France with a focus on trends in River Basin Districts (RBDs). The abundance and biomass growth rates of 18 common European freshwater fish species were estimated with state-space models on 546 sites distributed across the 5 main RBDs sampled in France between 1990 and 2011. Anguilla anguilla , Rutilus rutilus , Salmo trutta fario and Esox spp. exhibited large scale decline in abundance and/or biomass in several RBDs. The other species showed spatial heterogeneity in population growth rates. The main declines were observed in the Adour-Garonne and Loire-Bretagne RBDs, where management and conservation measures are urgently needed to halt the erosion of freshwater fish populations. In each of the 5 investigated RBDs, our results highlight areas where most of the common species we studied exhibited negative population growth rates. Freshwater fish surveys provide the fundamental information necessary to inform the European environmental policies and local environmental management needed to restore freshwater biodiversity. The next steps are to identify the main drivers of freshwater biodiversity erosion in the areas where we demonstrated major declines and to define the most cost-effective restoration measures. • Population dynamic analyses at the regional scale provide crucial information. • Two main River Basin Districts in France exhibit major fish decline. • Four common European freshwater fish species decline at a large scale. • Intra-River Basin District variability in fish population dynamics request local management. • Population dynamic analyses provide complementary information to ecological indexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agri-environmental policies in Europe are failing to sufficiently address ongoing environmental degradation, biodiversity decline, climate impacts, and societal demands for sustainability. To reverse this, policymakers, practitioners, and farmers need better guidance on which specific agricultural practice/s should be promoted and how to adapt current practices to reach the desired objectives. Here we use social valuation tools to elucidate the relationship between agricultural practices and the provision of key ecosystem services in mountains, including maintenance of scenery from agricultural landscapes, conservation of biodiversity, regulation of climate change through carbon sequestration, production of local quality products, maintenance of soil fertility, and prevention of forest wildfires. We use as case studies two contrasting but representative mountain agroecosystems in the Mediterranean and Nordic regions of Europe. We analyze the best agricultural practices in both agroecosystems to reach the targeted environmental outcomes under three plausible policy scenarios. We find significant differences in the average contribution of agricultural practices to ecosystem services provision, which suggest the need for regionalizing the research efforts and, consequently, the design of agri-environmental policies. However, we also identify practices for ecosystem service delivery across policy scenarios and agroecosystems. Among these, grazing and silviculture practices such as extending the grazing period, grazing in semi-natural habitats, grazing in remote and abandoned areas, adapting stocking rate to the carrying capacity, and moving flocks seasonally, stand out for their relevance in all policy scenarios. These results highlight the potential of adequate grazing and silviculture practices to deliver bundles of ecosystem services. Our study provides guidance to design agri-environmental policies in Europe that focus on rewarding farmers for their sustainable management of natural resources, climate change mitigation and adaption and biodiversity conservation. • We elucidate the effects of agricultural practices on the provision of key ecosystem services. • We test three policy scenarios in two contrasting mountain agroecosystems in Europe. • Contribution of practices to ecosystem services differ significantly between agroecosystems. • Several practices are relevant across policy scenarios and agroecosystems. • We provide guidance for management-based payments in European agrienvironmental policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental cost-benefit analysis has traditionally assumed that the value of benefits is sensitive to their timing and that outcomes are valued higher, the sooner in time they occur following implementation of a project or policy. Though, this assumption might have important implications especially for the social desirability of interventions aiming at counteracting time-persistent environmental problems, whose impacts occur in the long- and very long-term, respectively involving the present and future generations. This study analyzes the time sensitivity of social preferences for preservation policies of adaptation to climate change stresses. Results show that stated preferences are time insensitive, due to sustainability issues: individuals show insignificant differences in benefits they can experience within their own lifetimes compared to those which occur in the longer term, and which will instead be enjoyed by future generations. Whilst these results may be specific to the experimental design employed here, they do raise interesting questions regarding choices over time-persistent environmental problems, particularly in terms of the desirability of interventions which produce longer-term benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]