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The transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing industry is supported by smart and green manufacturing, which have great potential to empower the nation's green development. This study examines the impact of the Made in China 2025 industrial policy on urban green economic growth. This study applies the super-slacks-based measure model to measure cities' green economic growth, using the double machine learning model, which overcomes the limitations of the linear setting of traditional causal inference models and maintains estimation accuracy under high-dimensional control variables, to conduct an empirical analysis based on panel data of 281 Chinese cities from 2006 to 2021. The results reveal that the Made in China 2025 strategy significantly drives urban green economic growth, and this finding holds after a series of robustness tests. A mechanism analysis indicates that the Made in China 2025 strategy promotes green economic growth through green technology progress, optimizing energy consumption structure, upgrading industrial structure, and strengthening environmental supervision. In addition, the policy has a stronger driving effect for cities with high manufacturing concentration, industrial intelligence, and digital finance development. This study provides valuable theoretical insights and policy implications for government planning to promote high-quality development through industrial policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable development goals (SDGs) constitute an ambitious comprehensive global framework including monitoring mechanisms and indicators to evaluate progress towards precise targets of sustainable development. Most European countries have adapted their national sustainability indicator systems to conform to the UN Agenda 2030 for sustainable development, introducing new indicators and monitoring frameworks and governance processes in which these are embedded. What do we know about the political processes and struggles of implementing this important global framework? How does the politics of indicators differ in national contexts? We propose a classification of national indicator systems along dimensions of indicator selection, appraisal landscape, participatory nature, and political communication. We empirically explore these dimensions for four European national sustainability indicator systems through a comparative analysis based on national policy documents, indicator databases, and web portals as well as inputs from workshops and expert interviews. Given the considerable variation with respect to the trajectory of national sustainability indicator systems, we posit that these differences correspond to different national interpretations of sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gaps between public policy goals and the state of the environment are often significant. However, while goal failures in environmental governance are studied in a number of disciplines, the knowledge on the various causes behind delayed goal achievement is still incomplete. In this article we propose a new framework for analysis of delay mechanisms in science and policy, with the intention to provide a complementary lens for describing, analysing and counteracting delay in environmental governance. The framework is based on case-study findings from recent research focusing on goal-failures in policies for climate change, hazardous chemicals, biodiversity loss and eutrophication. It is also related to previous research on science and policy processes and their interactions. We exemplify the framework with two delay mechanisms that we consider particularly important to highlight—denial of science and decision thresholds. We call for further research in the field, for development of the framework, and not least for increased attention to delay mechanisms in environmental policy review and development on national as well as international levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porter hypothesis states that environmental regulation may lead to win-win opportunities, that is, improve the productivity and reduce the undesirable output simultaneously. Based on directional distance function, this paper proposes a novel dynamic activity analysis model to forecast the possibilities of win-win development in Chinese industry between 2011 and 2050. The consistent bootstrap estimation procedures are also developed for statistical inference of the point forecasts. The evidence reveals that the appropriate energy-saving and emission-abating regulation will significantly result in both the net growth of potential output and the increasing growth of total factor productivity for most industrial sectors in a statistical sense. This favors Porter hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the location of hazardous facilities that contribute to environmental degradation indicates an unequal distribution of such sites within low socioeconomic status communities. In this paper, we contribute to research investigating whether there are similar patterns of unequal prioritization in environmental remediation, by assessing cleanup of a broader, more diverse set of contaminated sites, all brownfields that receive federal grants, with a finer level of geographic detail than previous studies. First, we set the context by assessing the characteristics of the communities in which brownfield sites are currently located. Then, we compare the likelihood and temporal prioritization of cleaning up brownfield sites based on the composition of the neighborhoods in which they are located. We find that brownfield sites are more likely to be located in both poor and predominantly minority communities, but while sites located in poor communities tend to be cleaned up relatively quickly, sites located in communities with larger minority populations tend to be cleaned up more slowly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental governance research has paid insufficient attention to scholarship on values even though environmental values is a well-studied field. This paper begins to unpack the relationship between values and governance with a particular focus on protected areas governance and in light of ideas such as the distinction between held values and assigned values. We report on research from four case studies in Canada, Ghana and Tanzania, each of which investigated the values, interests and objectives of people in a rural community and ways in which these are reflected, or not, in governance arrangements for an adjacent protected area. Despite very diverse contexts, two held values that were encountered in each of the four case studies could be described as responsibility toward future generations and respect for and appreciation of nature. The existence of what may be universal values does not negate the importance of culture and place: similar held values are translated, through the particular circumstances of different individuals, communities and cultures, into a diversity of assigned values, interests and positions. The attention that governance processes have given to local people's fundamental held values in three of the cases, and the ignoring of such values in the fourth, have had important implications for the relationship between community members and the adjacent protected area. We argue that systems for governance would do well to explicitly engage with values by supporting local articulation of values and by facilitating dialogue and deliberation amongst diverse stakeholders around their values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with governance of long term socio-technical transitions required to orient development trajectories of advanced industrial counties along more sustainable lines. It discusses the contribution that ‘transition management’ can make to such processes, emphasizes the irreducibly political character of governance for sustainable development, and suggests that the long-term transformation of energy systems will prove to be a messy, conflictual, and highly disjointed process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition management is a new concept for long-term policy design for the reflexive governance of socio-technical systems. It has recently attracted attention beyond its original context, the Netherlands. Yet, considering the local origins of transition management, it is also valid to question whether its assumptions concerning the governance of long-term transitions ‘travel well’. This article aims to explore early experiences of transferring the transition management model into the Finnish context on the basis of two case studies in different sectors. We suggest that the policy design changes when it is moved to another country and identify factors that influence the outcome of the transfer process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conceptual paper seeks to advance neo-institutional work that has traditionally portrayed environmental and social protection policies as constraints followed by businesses. Drawing from the policy sciences literature, we propose that in the United States, businesses tend to show increasing resistance as the protective policy process moves from initiation to selection and growing cooperation thereafter. Most importantly, we also contribute to the neo-institutional theory literature by positing that this inverted U-shaped policy process–business response relationship proposed for the U.S. context may be moderated by variations in the level of democracy, system of interest representation, regulatory approach, and national income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In policy analysis, studies on policy termination are rare. This article offers such a study. It presents the story of how, despite attempts by the government to terminate it, Dutch nature policy on ecological corridors continued to be implemented by regional governments and in the field. A case analysis is presented that integrates theories and insights not only from the termination literature but also from the literature on implementation. The different factors identified in the literature that enable or constrain implementation and termination have served as a basis for developing possible explanations of the case study. They cannot, however, serve as generic theories with predictive power. Policy termination as well as policy implementation are highly contextual processes and the question which factors will enable or constrain policy termination and implementation can only be answered on a case by case basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is the world's most populous country and has one of the largest territories. As such, Chinese attitudes and behavior with regard to environmental issues are key factors in protecting the world's natural resources and environment. In this study, we surveyed a random sample of 5000 citizens from six Chinese provinces (Beijing, Shanghai, Hubei, Hunan, Henan, and Shaanxi) to understand their environmental attitudes, contrasts between the attitudes of citizens in different demographic groups, and their willingness to invest in environmental conservation. The results indicated that policymakers and the public increasingly recognize the key role that environmental restoration plays in protecting the overall health of the environment. In total, 91% of the interviewees believed that the environment had deteriorated severely during the past decade, compared with 44% in a 1999 survey. In addition, 78% of the interviewees supported their government's investment of more than 300 billion RMB (;10% of total government revenues in 2004) in the "Grain for Green Project," which discouraged unsustainable land use by compensating farmers and herders for abandoning farming and grazing on marginal land. There was a strong correlation between environmental attitudes and net income and education levels, and other differences were based on the respondents' age, gender, job, and location. Net income and education level were the key factors that affected environmental attitudes. Based on these results, we propose that successful environmental restoration projects must include both an education component and an economic development component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policymaking within and among states is under pressure for change. One feature of this change is empirically observed as an activation of different network structures in the Baltic Sea Region, especially since the collapse of the Iron Curtain, the initiation of the Rio process, and the enlargement of the European Union. The contemporary theoretical debates about governance highlight the changing conditions for policymaking and implementation on all societal levels. This process of change, especially evident concerning environmental policies, includes new types of networks crossing state borders both at the supranational and the subnational levels. This article illuminates this process of change with empirical data from the project "Governing a Common Sea" (GOVCOM) within the Baltic Sea Research Program (BIREME). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expert valuation, a process used to determine how much stakeholders value eco-system aspects, places experts as intermediaries for public-preference input into the environmental policy process. While the rise and refinement of expert valuation might capture ecosystem values more comprehensively, two dilemmas are also worth of consideration: (1) will expert valuation and benefit cost analysis supplant democratic expression; and (2) will refinement of expert valuation still leave the ecosystem under valued? This article reorients the current problem from focusing on the need to refine methods to capture more ecosystem benefits to consider how valuation can contribute to a set of more democratic processes that allow the public to contribute to and consider a broader range of policy options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the Precautionary principle of environmental policy and its implications for science. Discussion on the appreciation of precaution with the appreciation of complexity and uncertainty; Affirmation of the principle into national and international environmental policy; Complex singularities in applied science.

The article offers information on government policy regarding carbon trading and carbon emission. It says that the expansion of trading in carbon emission was not affected by the failure of the international negotiations on binding the targets for national carbon-emission. It states that carbon emission trading is considered to be one of the contributors in global market mentioning a 142 billion U.S. dollars spending in 2010. It also explores the continuous growth of carbon emission trading.

The authors discuss clean air strategy for China. They mention that the country have to overcome two major factors to meet the country's ambitious air quality policy such as the increase in fossil-fuel usage and the decentralized system of environmental enforcement. They state that China needs to promote development concerning the constrained fossil-fuel use instead of using more energy to ensure economic growth.

In this article, the author comments on a study on ecological migration (EM) in the Tibetan Plateau of China. He stresses that conservation Tibetan grasslands greatly contribute to the ecological services in the region including carbon storage, soil erosion control, and water regulation. However, he discusses that the EM government policies may affect the livelihood of Tibetan pastoralists and the community surrounding the area.

Comments on United States President George Bush's decision to allow companies to exceed their pollution permits by as much as 80,000 pounds of toxic chemicals a year without first giving public notice. Probability of a court challenge; Interpretations of the US Clean Air Act of 1990; Involvement of the President's Council on Competitiveness; Role of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); More.

The article focuses on the environmental efforts in Brazil. Carlos Nobre, climate scientist at the National Institute for Space Research, says that Brazil could cut its emissions nearly equal to 1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. Senator Marina Silva has spoken in Washington D.C, saying that wealthy nations must take the lead for environmental actions. Moreover, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has appointed a task force to investigate the consideration of carbon markets.

The article focuses on the need for the European Union (EU) to revise the directive regulating the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops. The idea was raised after EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas inappropriately overturned the recommendation of his scientific advisers and plans to reject the applications for two GM varieties of insect- and herbicide-resistant maize from Sygenta AG and Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. EU countries anticipate that the revision will limit the use of political motives in analyzing applications for GM crops.

The article presents that policy decisions on science and environment need contributions from official bodies, pressure groups, the media and scientists in all countries. The Centre for Science and Environment(CSE) based in New Delhi is concerned with environmental issues. The Indian scientists do not agree to CSE's stance on environmental issues and refrain from policymaking discussions. It is suggested that the Indian scientists must join in policy preparation on environmental regulation.

Speculates about the environmental policy of United States President-elect George W. Bush. Scientific topics that have received political attention, including global warming, air particulates, and genetically modified food; Reaction of the environmental lobby to Bush's interest in devolving federal pollution controls; Assertion that funding for research at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and agriculture departments will illustrate the administration's commitment to the environment.

Reports that regulations on the environmental release of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) were tightened in June, 1999, by the European Union (EU). Provisional marketing approvals for GMOs; Details about the agreement; Rejection of a moratorium on new approvals; Views of Paul Muys of EuropaBio.

Reports on an announcement by the Indian government that it will encourage the use of genetically modified seeds in agriculture, and give high priority to transgenic crop research. Environmental hazards associated with transgenic agriculture; Announcement by heads of agricultural research, the Department of Biotechnology and regulatory committees.

Notes that Canada has proposed a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by 2010. Proposal in line with that of United States; Shift to being environmentally cautious by Canada; Canada's past support for environmentalist causes.

Observes that China's long-term economic and environmental interests would be best served by reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. China's motives for reducing emissions; Report on Chinese climate research; Perspective of Chinese policy-makers; Impact of increased emissions on China; China conditionally committed to reducing emissions; Priority of development over environmental protection.

Notes that Australia will lead a bloc of south Pacific countries who oppose legally binding targets for greenhouse gas emissions at the United Nations climate convention, December, 1997. Australia's call for each country to set its own goals; Australia's arguments.

Reports that California's Environmental Protection Agency has decided to cease its controversial plan to destroy records of dissenting scientific opinions on environmental hazards. The suit against the agency brought by three organizations; The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC); The Environmental Law Center; The Society of Professional Journalists.

States that Swiss environment minister Flavio Cotti has introduced a government proposal for a severe carbon dioxide tax and other measures to reduce emissions by around 2.5 percent before the year 2000. Plans to set an example for Europe.