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China, la nación con mayor emisión de gases de efecto invernadero, camina rápidamente en dirección a un liderazgo ambiental global. Este artículo busca establecer la situación ambiental del país y algunas de las medidas que pretenden combatir la degradación ambiental y la intensificación del cambio climático. La adopción de políticas nacionales y el cumplimiento de las metas establecidas internamente convierten a China en uno de los principales países efectivamente comprometidos en la lucha a favor del ambiente, aun cuando deba intensificar la implementación de leyes ambientales, modificar su matriz energética y reducir sus emisiones. El ideal de una civilización ecológica y de una sociedad armónica es un elemento capaz de dirigir la toma de decisiones, iluminando el camino a ser recorrido hasta alcanzar el equilibrio entre el hombre y la naturaleza. Rápidamente China se ha posicionado como líder en la esfera internacional, influenciando la dirección de las políticas climáticas, expandiendo su dominio económico y tecnológico, a partir del uso del llamado soft power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays public policies are insufficiently ambitious in order to reverse the environmental damage generated by man. Most of the literature that analyses policy changes tends to explain the incentives but do not give clear explanations about the limitation factors. We develop in this paper a reflection on policy change from the notion of transaction costs. Following a review of the three main approaches --sustainable development, ecological modernization and democratization-- we expose ten theses on the role of transaction costs in the policy change from the case of the Common Fisheries Policy of the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ship ballast water is considered to be like the most important vector for the transoceanic displacement from coastal native organisms of superficial waters to new marine environments. It has been believed that annually there are transferred over 3 to 5 billion tons of ballast water on a global scale. It raises a serious environmental international risk. Nevertheless, countries have adopted different policies to attend to the problem. Consequently, this article wonders why of the states negotiating positions and for the factors that realize the results obtained concerning the construction of the international ballast water regime. By focusing on the interest-based explanation of international environmental policy proposed by Sprinz and Vaahtoranta (1994), it explains why some countries act as pushers for reducing the marine bioinvasion problem while other countries act as draggers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses the problems of environmental degradation through the phenomenon of globalization, establishing that the allocation of global environmental goods such as water systems, which are wetland ecosystems, are directly related to local environmental problems. First, it addresses all the theoretical debate on globalization from the three major schools: hyperglobalistic, skeptical and transformationalist. The latter considers the structures of global governance and the strengthening of international regimes as an alternative to solve global problems. In this sense, the wetland protection established in the Ramsar Convention allows evaluating the functionality of environmental governance, at global, national and local levels, especially in relation to the application of the rules issued in accordance with the international regime for protection of these ecosystems. In this context, it is evident that in Valle del Cauca a range of difficulties for the effective preservation of wetlands exist, leading to a systematic failure of the international regime in Colombia and, consequently, the vulnerability of these ecosystems, threatening with its disappearance, the extinction of biodiversity and increased global warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]