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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]

Currently, the environmental approach is included in the legal regulations of countries to achieve sustainable development. The development of public policies that demand the care and preservation of the environment is an urgency for the territories. In Ecuador, social and legal transformations led to the inclusion of the environmental perspective in the Constitution of the Republic, and subsequently to the development of the Organic Code of the Environment (CODA). Environmental principles are considered in the various legislations; however, no priority is established among them. The objective of this work is to determine the priority established in the environmental principles of CODA. For this, it was necessary to consult experts and, based on their criteria, the Pareto Diagram technique was applied, the fundamental principles were selected, and a hierarchical order was determined based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process, AHP Saaty, with a neutrosophic approach, for the decision making. The most relevant principles were Comprehensive Responsibility, Best Available Technology and Best Environmental Practices, and Comprehensive Repair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alongside production and consumption, bio-waste management is central to the food systems debate. To achieve sustainable food systems—an essential component of the Sustainable Development Goals and the world they envision—public authorities must address the shortage of current bio-waste-management policies and strive towards a new paradigm of bio-waste management, where environmental justice primarily informs policy design and decision making. In order to achieve fair environmental policies, particularly in the context of food systems and bio-waste management, it is essential to understand what drives public policy in these matters. In the present review, we seek to contribute by closing a gap in the literature by proposing a set of bio-waste-management drivers in the European context. Moreover, we focus on the "policy and legislation" driver, hoping to examine its main components and understand both their limitations and the opportunities they provide. Finally, we explore the role that co-creation can play as a facilitator of a public-governance paradigm that promotes sustainable development. [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]

The growing urgency of environmental problems, such as climate change, pollution, and waste management, has highlighted the importance of eco-innovation. It includes the development of sustainable solutions for goods and services. As corporations adopt sustainability practices, governments are increasingly essential in propelling eco-innovation. Innovation and economic growth are inextricably linked since innovation helps reduce costs, increases productivity, and builds knowledge. Eco-innovation, requiring stakeholders' collaboration and knowledge sharing where public policy plays a critical role in fostering eco-innovation, is frequently catalyzed by climate change and environmental issues. This paper provides an assessment of the public policy of several countries and its part in promoting eco-innovation. It explores how policy tools such as research and development investments, regulations, incentives, and infrastructure can be used successfully. It also explores how such instruments influence small and medium enterprises due to their importance in environmental sustainability policy. This research contributes to knowledge and adds to the literature by offering a global approach to the subject, complementing previous regional/single-country studies. It demonstrates the worldwide consequences of policy actions on eco-innovation and provides recommendations for policymakers, businesses, academics, and environmental stakeholders. The results highlight how governmental support is integral to ensuring the sustainability of a green future with economic benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental assessments and sustainable finance frameworks: will the EU Taxonomy change the mindset over the contribution of EIA to sustainable development? Keywords: EIA; ESG; environmental impact assessment; sustainable finance taxonomies EN EIA ESG environmental impact assessment sustainable finance taxonomies 110 112 3 03/10/22 20220301 NES 220301 About Rufus A Howard Rufus has been studying and practicing impact assessment across the UK and internationally since 1997. [Extracted from the article]

The urgent need to revert the ecological and social equity crises of the current development model and realize the potential of sustainable development has led several disciplines to converge on the socioecosystem concept as the most appropriate theoretical framework for research and public policy. The socioecosystem approach recognizes that social systems are integrated with natural systems and seeks to adaptively comanage socioecosystem coevolution for the sustainable development of both systems. We hypothesize that incorporation of this approach into environmental policy in Mexico could help resolve many of the problems that currently undermine policy effectiveness. To find out to what extent policy professionals might concur with this hypothesis, and what the opportunities and obstacles to implementing socioecosystem-based policy might be, research was conducted to elicit the expert opinion of officials responsible for formulating and implementing environmental policy in Mexico. The principle opportunities consist in the fact that experts intuitively understand the socioecosystem approach, and that most perceive advantages in adopting it because its policy attributes can potentially help to resolve many of the factors they identify as limiting the success of current environmental policies. Obstacles to its adoption include institutional barriers and the vested interests that benefit from the status quo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine the response of managers, in the case where the government incorporates certain environmental criteria into public procurement. Some research hypotheses are statistically tested in order to identify the extent of managers' understanding regarding Green Public Procurement mainly under the severe financial conditions of the current economic crisis, during which time public expenditures should gradually be cut due to the flagship policy of the European Union for severe austerity measures. The data were taken from various pieces of research carried out in Greece and Cyprus, two countries which are suffering from an economic crisis and are operating under economic supervision with severe austerity measures. The study highlights that given the current economic climate, managers consider the Green Public Procurement a very weak tool to encourage the adoption of environmental management practices due to the austerity measures and budgetary cuts. They also claimed that the classical policy tools (e.g. environmental legislation and market-based instruments) might shape an unsustainable environment for their future operations and additional measures would force them out of market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development has become daily routine for public administration when strategic planification is to be faced. Environmental policies have traditionally pretended to aim at sustainability, but the extent to which the latter has been universally assumed by institutions, justifies talking about sustainable development policies as such. In this piece of work we will try to analyze the origins and development of such policies in the concrete case of the Basque Country, given the fact that Spanish Constitution gives autonomous communities a prominent role in the management of sustainability. Therefore, we will attempt to describe and, above all, explain how those policies were set into public agenda and which are —and why—the most important features of their scope and objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among numerous environmental challenges in the ASEAN region, the rapid growth of volumes of waste from electrical and electronic equipment (e-waste) has increasingly drawn international attention. Economies face huge demands for electrical and electronic products, while governments are confronted with difficulties dealing with mounting volumes of e-waste. Furthermore, lucrative transnational shipment of discarded electric and electronic devices calls for a regional response to the issue. While ASEAN has failed to come up with a common policy response, certain member states have pushed ahead with their own legislation in an attempt to address this urgent issue. This study sets out to identify the determining factors which have disabled ASEAN in terms of agreeing on a common policy response in the case of dealing with e-waste. Based on the assumption that states act according to expected gains, the study applies a game theoretical approach to analyse the developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Evidence on the role of information and knowledge for policy making shows that policy actors seldom use information as a direct input to their decisions. Similar patterns of (non)use have been identified in the case of indicators in the environmental and sustainable development policy domains. The objective of the paper is to elucidate the patterns of environmental indicator use and to argue for the introduction of a ‘politics of policy indicators’. With a limited set of characteristics (e.g. legitimacy, credibility and salience) of indicators, which help to apprehend the usability of indicators, we argue that the usability profile of indicators can be analysed as a matter of construction and deliberation by indicator creators and policy actors. The performance of indicators as policy tools – as rendered with their usability profile – is co-dependent of the institutional embeddedness of the indicators. Our conclusion makes the case that if environmental improvements towards more sustainability are partly relying on the quality and uptake of information into policy processes in order to steer decisions, then the ‘usability profile’ of indicators itself should be subject to collective and conscious steering. This call to ‘steer the steering’ is supported by the wider calls to initiate patterns of ‘reflexive governance’ within the sustainability policy domain. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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]

Most developing countries, particularly Indonesia, will be facing problems of sludge pressure in the next decades due to the increase in practices of legal and illegal logging as well as land and water demands. Consequently, they will also be facing the challenges of soil erosion and sludge management due to increased quantities of sludge coming from several potential sources, such as activated sludge, chemical sludge, fecal sludge and solid wastes as well as erosion and sedimentation. Although the government of Indonesia has enacted laws and policies to speed up the implementation of the programs and activities related to sludge management, the detailed practice concepts in implementing the programs need to be identified. Discussion of role-sharing amongst the related government agencies, private institutions and other stakeholders is urgent for clarifying the participation of each party in the next years to come. This paper proposes a management approach and level of responsibilities in sludge management. Implementation of zero ¿Q, zero ¿S and zero ¿P policies needs to be adopted by local and central governments. Application of sludge on the agricultural lands and other uses will promote sustainable development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper focuses on the complex relationships and some of the tensions in reconciling economic, social, and environmental goals as necessary for achieving sustainable energy infrastructure development in developing countries. It introduces the rationale of sustainable development, and uses examples to demonstrates that reconciling the three dimensions to achieve sustainable energy infrastructure engenders intricate legal relationships and interests that require a reorientation in our appreciation of law and policy beyond traditional models. It identifies an adequate legal framework through which sustainable energy infrastructure can be secured, and recommends a regulatory model that is best for achieving sustainable energy in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The management of contaminated land is now assuming greater attention in Chinese debates on environmental governance. However, the existing management system appears ineffective as it lacks a clear policy framework and technical basis. In the United Kingdom (UK), contaminated land issues are dealt with through a risk-based approach. This approach emphasizes the application of risk approaches in both technical and integrated management systems. Conceptually, this paper outlines generic issues related to transferring programmes from one place to another. We argue that too much emphasis has been placed on the barriers to effective transfer, rather than focusing on methods of abstracting lessons for application in foreign settings. We then examine the Chinese system and its problems in managing contaminated land before turning to the UK risk-based approach to see what lessons can be learned from it. Four aspects are analyzed and compared: legislative and policy framework; administrative structure and capacity; technical approaches; and incentive strategy. Based on the experience of the UK in practice, some suggestions are then proposed for China in order to improve its management of contaminated land. We suggest that this should include: a focus on the problem sites; development of a risk-based technical approach and integrated management system; the introduction of financial incentives; and the use of planning control as a management strategy. It is believed that a risk-based integrated management approach may be helpful for China to achieve sustainable solutions for contaminated land. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article briefly presents the historical evolution of land-use policies from their origins in the early 20th century to their current form, describes pertinent approaches used in policy adoption and efficacy research, and discusses some of the pitfalls encountered by researchers in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A number of different tools for analysing environmental impacts of different systems have been developed. These include procedural tools such as strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and environmental management systems (EMS) as well as analytical ones such as life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle costing (LCC), cost–benefit analysis (CBA) and the system of economic and environmental accounts (SEEA) including input–output analysis (IOA). Descriptions or scenarios of the future are typically relevant elements in these tools, since they are often used to describe impacts in the future. For futures studies a number of different approaches and techniques have been developed. In an earlier paper we have presented a typology of different types of scenarios that respond to different types of questions. These include predictive scenarios, explorative scenarios and normative scenarios. The aim of this paper is to explore connections between selected tools for environmental systems analysis and different scenario types. Although there is a clear need for futures studies in several tools for environmental systems analysis, it is interesting to note that the literature on methodologies for and case studies of combinations of futures studies and environmental systems analysis tools is rather limited. This suggests that there is a need for further research in this area including both methodology and practical case studies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

With awareness of multiple identities and controversies associated with labelling people, this article assesses how policy-oriented reports are building the case for greater recognition and participation of groups often labelled as 'the most vulnerable' to climate change. Similar to how Tanner and Mitchell (this IDS Bulletin, 'Entrenchment or Enhacement') have identified opportunities to reduce the poverty of different groupings through climate change adaptation, this article explores the contribution of emerging literature differentiated by gender, ethnicity, age and physical disability to realising concepts of 'climate justice' and 'rights to adaptation'. It considers the rights-based and instrumental approaches being taken by those documenting the experiences, responses and rights of these groups to 'participation' in climate change adaptation at different scales. This analysis is essential to identifying how marginalised groups can influence climate policy in a period of breakneck negotiations, as well as understanding how emerging policy processes can be seized as opportunities for shifting power relations, reducing vulnerabilities and preventing mal-adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of the sustainable development represents a great advance in the scene that was marking an incisive dichotomy between conservation and use of the natural resources. Though even the real possibility of concretion is criticized in many situations, the fact is that the model of economicist development has now a , interés about the preservation of the nature. It allows today to put in the agendas of government the environmental topic as an aspect interdependent and correlated with the public economic, social policies and even of national safety, whwn the focus is the improvement of the quality of life of the communities. But it is not easy to harmonize interests that have been in opposite sides therefore time, more even if the contradictions and normative emptinesses derive from the same juridical frame that tries to regulate adequately this relation. For whom must make fulfill the law the doubt arises when the legal frame generates unjust situations that turn into ethical conflicts , even generate violation of fundamental rights of the communities seated in the protected areas or in its zone of influence; the present articule describe an example of this situation, working on the supposition that to identify the failings and contradictions constituted in the first step to find solutions valid and effective that allow to support the fragile balance between the conservation and the utilization of the environmental services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the ecology of global economic power and the role of changing investment practices to promote environmental sustainability. The power of global corporate capital and the power of major cities representing destructive forces was examined and considered as sources of solutions. The seventh goal of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals is to ensure environmental sustainability. Such goal aims to integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources. It was said that markets are important institutional components in developed and developing economies. They are seen as enabling sustainable development in poorer countries, as they can mobilize forces and capital that greatly surpass foreign aid.

Explores the evolution of Korea's environmental policy from the 1960s to the early 2000s from a sustainability perspective. Enactment of the first environmental law; Failure of the government to meet the surging public demand for a clean environmental; Generation of a large disparity between the stated policy objectives and the actual achievements.

Research evidence and pleas that humans are undermining their own survival on a robust and unforgiving planet seem to be falling on deaf ears. The drive for economic and military security remains more powerful than the evidence that both of these objectives are being undermined by environmental damage, social disruption, unjust treatment and forced migration. Yet the signs are growing that environmentally and socially sound futures may be vital prerequisites for economic and military stability. So, at the heart of multi-nationalism, sustainable development is beginning to be recognized as a crucial element in reliable international agreements. The consequence of all this is that environmental science has become highly political, and geographers need to recognize and work within an expanding political process. Examples of new forms of governing via sustainability science for sustainable futures are offered in the latter part of the paper, especially at local government level. The antagonistic pressures of established power and economic hegemony are never far away. Indeed, the confirmation of these established patterns of power still pervades the politics of environmental science. But it is possible that these antagonistic political frameworks are beginning to be transcended by the more influential aspects of sustainability partnerships incorporating new arrangements between government, private capital and civil associations. These partnerships will not be easy to create, for they criss-cross boundaries of familiarity and rules of operation. But geographers can play a critical role in helping to shape them and assess the best circumstances for ensuring their success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an urban regime theory approach, the article aims to investigate the degree to which environmental policy in England is devolved to the local level of the state and integrates with local economic governance. Intensive case study research was undertaken in two local areas of the eastern region of England having divergent economic growth trajectories. Methods included analysis of local media and documentation from local and regional organizations, and 30 primary interviews with strategic local actors. The Cambridge Subregion area is experiencing pressures of economic development, creating conflict around the Green Belt and contested meanings of sustainable development. In Waveney—a declining area in search of growth—local groups have struggled to manage local economic regeneration in an environmentally sustainable manner. Both areas have witnessed new territorial-institutional developments in relation to environmental policy making, with limited evidence of policy integration at the subregional scale. Despite the emphasis on local policy integration through sustainable development, the relationship between the economy and the environment in England is a focus of conflict and new territorial-institutional developments. Urban regime theory needs to broaden its focus to include the full variety of interests in local environmental policy and the mechanisms producing new territorial scales of economic and environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the key challenges for climate policies is the identification of strategies that will effectively support the implementation of environmental goals. Environmental policies are connected with other development policies carried out by governments. In order to comprehensively shape environmental policy, it is important to understand the interactions between sustainable development goals (SDGs) as well as their impact on environmental goals. Employing econometric modeling based on the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso) method and full-factorial analysis, the authors identify a number of statistically significant relationships between the implementation of sustainable development goals and the environmental variable represented by greenhouse gas emissions. Analysis reveals that implementation of particular sustainable development goals, namely SDG4 (Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities) and SDG17 (Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development), explicitly facilitate the achievement of environmental policies. In addition, other SDGs exert an indirect influence on environmental goals through their reinforcing interactions with SDG4 and SDG17 variables. These are: SDG1 (End poverty), SDG3 (Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being), SDG8 (Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and productive employment) and SDG15 (Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests and halt biodiversity loss). These findings have important implications for proper identification of effective government policy instruments which indirectly support the achievement of environmental goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the goals of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in response to the challenges that the country faces that have major implications on the conduct and direction of natural science. The USGS proposes six integrated multiscale strategic directions that will help the U.S. address complex environmental problems. The difference of this effort from the previous ones is that the vision of integration across and among each of the science directions. The vision will be flourished by the USGS workforce of biologists, hydrologists, geologists and geographers. The six directions include understanding ecosystems and predicting changes, climate variability and change or energy and minerals for the country's future.