Acid rain and air pollution Grennfelt, Peringe; Engleryd, Anna; Forsius, Martin ...
Ambio,
04/2020, Volume:
49, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Because of its serious large-scale effects on ecosystems and its transboundary nature, acid rain received for a few decades at the end of the last century wide scientific and public interest, leading ...to coordinated policy actions in Europe and North America. Through these actions, in particular those under the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, air emissions were substantially reduced, and ecosystem impacts decreased. Widespread scientific research, long-term monitoring, and integrated assessment modelling formed the basis for the policy agreements. In this paper, which is based on an international symposium organised to commemorate 50 years of successful integration of air pollution research and policy, we briefly describe the scientific findings that provided the foundation for the policy development. We also discuss important characteristics of the science–policy interactions, such as the critical loads concept and the large-scale ecosystem field studies. Finally, acid rain and air pollution are set in the context of future societal developments and needs, e.g. the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. We also highlight the need to maintain and develop supporting scientific infrastructures.
The Chinese government has introduced policy measures and financial incentives to promote electric vehicles (EVs) in alignment with its advanced industrial development and environmental ...sustainability. In order to stimulate market adoption and technological innovation, a dual-credits policy regime with strictly guided subsidies was first announced in 2017 and then tightened up in 2019 by relevant authorities of the central government. This study focuses on examining the latest development of EV policy in the Chinese mainland. It reviews the pertinent national-level policy measures and financial incentives for sustainable development of the EV industry in a macro scope over the past decade. Further, we develop a mathematical model to quantify the impact of the most update policy – the dual-credits policy regime. Our simulation results reveal a significant gap between the recent EV sales and the estimated future EV production needed under the new policy regime. Such significant gap implies remarkable policy pressure and inevitable execution challenges of the recently tightened dual-credits regime. In conclusion, we articulate strategic implications for EV market participants in China. Upcoming challenges including gradual phasing out of financial support and impending market competition are discussed.
•The paper focuses on the latest development of EV policy in Chinese mainland.•Supportive EV policies and financial incentives are reviewed in a macro scope.•Mathematical model is built to quantify the impact of the most update policy regime.•Simulation results reveal a significant gap between past sales and future production.•Strategic implications are articulated for the EV market participants in China.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Decades of 'feminist' sexual- and gender-based violence (SGBV) policies have produced limited change in southern African SGBV rates. Recent critiques highlight ongoing colonial legacies in such ...policymaking, arguing that these legacies limit the potential for liberatory change. Further, reflecting on such discourses can highlight reasons behind global public health intervention failure. To promote reflexivity among public health actors who create, reproduce, and implement SGBV policies, this paper presents a critical discourse analysis of how women's empowerment is constructed in foundational global and national health and development policies bearing on SGBV in Zambia. The analysis identifies neoliberal feminist discourses of empowerment: (i) the protection of women, which perpetuates a saviour complex; (ii) the promotion of equality to men, which excludes those deemed unworthy; (iii) the eradication of harmful cultural norms, which challenge the preservation of African values; and (iv) (neoliberal) empowerment through women's attained employment and capital, which empowers women within unequal economic relations rather than liberating women from those relations. The author critiques such neoliberal empowerment discourses for failing to structurally transform the conditions for women's liberation. This paper offers a first step to the dismantling of colonial structures in SGBV policies by unpacking and promoting reflexivity about such discourses.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
•We present, for the first time, a comprehensive assessment of NBS policy needs co-produced with stakeholders involved in NBS delivery across three EU cities.•We propose a conceptual framework of NBS ...policy needs that extends knowledge gaps to encompass NBS operationalisation in cities.•For implementing NBS in cities, systems thinking and solutions-oriented thinking are essential knowledge needs.•Negotiation and collaboration are paramount for bridging departmental silos and for co-designing NBS in cities.
To advance the science and practice of implementing nature-based solutions in cities, it is important to examine the obstacles and provide means to overcome them. This paper presents a conceptual framework of policy needs for analysing the science of nature-based solutions’ implementation and connect it to the practice of their implementation that advances the literature by connecting well-researched gaps to a more innovative action-oriented policy development approach that we argue is required for embedding scaled-up nature-based solutions. We conceptualise and ground the policy needs framework of skills, knowledge and partnerships theoretically in current literature of NBS policy and planning and empirically in three European case study cities: Genk in Belgium, Glasgow in UK and Poznan in Poland. The cross-case study analysis points to the knowledge needs of systems’ thinking and solutions-oriented thinking as paramount for implementing nature-based solutions. Our analysis further points to the skills’ needs of negotiation and collaboration for administrative silo bridging and for forging multi-sectoral partnerships essential for planning, and co-managing NBS. We conclude with three ways forward to addressing the policy needs for implementation: first, cities can invest in tailored and targeted capacity building programs, second, institutional spaces need to be established that allow for collaborative learning through and for partnerships and third, cities need to chart governance innovations that promote evidence-based policy for nature-based solutions’ design and implementation.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The need to formulate policies to mitigate global warming has necessitated the need to understand the drivers of carbon emissions. The current study utilises the system-generalised method of moments ...to investigate the direct and indirect effect of financial development on carbon emissions for 46 sub-Saharan Africa countries over the period 2000–2015. Using several indicators of financial development, the empirical results reveal that financial development measured using broad money, domestic credit to the private sector and domestic credit to private sector by banks increase carbon emissions while FDI, liquid liabilities and domestic credit to private sector by financial sector do not affect carbon emissions. The results show that none of the financial development indicators exerts a significant nonlinear effect on carbon emissions. The results further indicate that FDI moderates economic growth to reduce carbon emissions but does not moderate energy consumption to affect carbon emissions. Contrarily, financial development measured using broad money, domestic credit to private sector by banks, domestic credit to private sector by financial sector and domestic credit to private sector moderate energy consumption to increase carbon emissions while the first three indicators of financial development moderate economic growth to increase carbon emissions. The results do not confirm the existence of the EKC hypothesis but confirm that population size, energy consumption, trade openness, urbanisation and economic growth increase carbon emissions. There are some variations in these results across regional and income groupings. These findings do advance not only knowledge but also have several implications for sustainable development policy.
•Examines the direct and indirect effect of financial development on CO2 emissions•Financial development contributes to the rise of CO2 emissions.•Financial development moderates GDP and energy to influence CO2 emissions.•Impact of financial development on CO2 depends on the financial development indicator.•The results vary across regions and income groups.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The interactions between bottom-up initiatives and top-down structures in the implementation of regional development policies and projects are complex in theoretical and practical terms. Using ...concepts such as transformative social innovation, adaptive governance, and bridging institutions, we developed an analytical framework to enhance understanding of the processes by which local top-down and bottom-up forces enhance sustainable rural development by co-developing bottom-linked governance. Bottom-linked governance is a multi-level middle ground where actors from various political levels, geographical scales and industry sectors come together to share decision-making. Social innovation has the potential to be transformative, but to do this, it has to be able to scale-up and provoke changes in the governance system. Using a rural social innovation initiative in Costa Rica, we tested our framework and considered the enabling factors of bottom-linked governance. They comprise the various bridging roles the initiative must play: network enabler; knowledge broker; resource broker; transparency and conflict resolution agent; and shared vision champion. We also considered the critical success factors of bottom-linked governance. Bottom-linked governance and social innovation together comprise how planning practice contributes to social-ecological regional development. Sharing of power and participatory decision-making facilitate more flexible, inclusive and effective planning. Our analytical framework was helpful in understanding how a social innovation initiative fostered transformation and contributed to sustainable rural development.
•Sustainable rural development requires transformative social innovation.•Transformative social innovation requires bottom-linked governance.•The bridging roles played by social innovation are key for transformation.•Bottom-linked governance is essential for adaptive governance.•Transformative social innovation is challenging for regional planning.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Despite significant growth rates of over 4% in 2018 and 2019, the Serbian economy still lags far behind developed countries in terms of productivity, competitiveness and other business performance ...indicators. In the future, the main drivers of economic growth must be investments and exports, and consumption must grow more slowly relative to GDP. Opportunities for increasing GDP exist, and one of them is the increase of public investments that have a positive effect on the growth of the rest of the economy. Empirical research has shown that countries that have higher domestic savings have higher investments and faster economic growth. Also, the development of the country must not be based only on the growth of FDI, because, in addition to the positive ones, they also have great negative effects on the growth and long-term sustainable development of the domestic economy.
The natural resource curse hypothesis is largely discussed in the empirical literature; however, little is known regarding the financial resource curse hypothesis through the integration of business ...regulations. Also, most empirical research in the literature has used conventional estimation methods. To address these research gaps, this paper examines the financial resource curse hypothesis by scrutinizing the linkage between financial development and natural resources rent from 1984 to 2018. Empirical results validate the financial resource curse hypothesis. Business regulations encourage financial development and neutralize the negative consequences of natural resources on financial development. It implies that conducive business regulations mitigate the financial resource curse in ASEAN countries. This condition may be considered essential for the sustainability of natural resource rent-related advancements in financial development, and appropriate policy recommendations could be put forward.
•Examined financial resource curse hypothesis in ASEAN countries.•Scrutinized the linkage between financial development and natural resources.•The cross-sectional augmented ARDL model is used for analysis purposes.•Results validate the financial resource curse hypothesis.•Business regulations moderate financial development and natural resources linkage.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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