The relationship between democracy and environment is subject to controversy. Some scientists find that democracy has a positive impact in reducing environmental disruption. Other scholars claim that ...democracy tends to accelerate environmental degradation. By using deforestation rates as a proxy for environmental disruption, we suggest that both sides might be right. Our quantitative analysis has three important outcomes. First, there is evidence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between deforestation and democracy. Second, countries in democratic transition experience the highest deforestation rates, compared to non-democracies and mature democracies. Third, in explaining deforestation rates democracy has larger explanatory power than income. This last result implies that in reducing deforestation rates the emphasis should not only be on economic development but even more on democratization.
As the information revolution continues to accelerate, the environment remains high on public and political agendas around the world. These two topics are rarely connected, but information - its ...collection, processing, accessibility and verification - is crucial in dealing with environmental challenges such as climate change, unsustainable consumption, biodiversity conservation and waste management. The information society (encompassing entities such as the internet, satellites, interactive television and surveillance cameras) changes the conditions and resources which are involved in environmental governance: old modes and concepts are increasingly being replaced by new, informational ones. Arthur P. J. Mol explores how the information revolution is changing the way we deal with environmental issues; to what extent and where these transformations have (and have not) taken place; and what the consequences are for democracy and power relations. This book will appeal to scholars and students of environmental studies and politics, political sociology, geography and communications studies.
Reducing the climate impact of rural household energy consumption in China is complicated since it is bound up with deeply routinized daily practices and dependent from existing infrastructural ...systems of energy supply. To assess the potential for low carbon development we first estimate the overall CO2 emissions of rural households, followed by a more in depth description and characterization of the different energy use practices within the households. Space heating turns out to be the largest emission source among domestic energy practices in north China. We present lifestyle and context related factors that help to explain existing differences in domestic energy use practices of households. The potential for low carbon development is discussed both at the demand side and the supply side. At the demand side, the use of more efficient technologies and cleaner energy sources for space heating seems to be a high potential measure for achieving low carbon households. At the supply side the reduction of rural domestic CO2 emissions could be effectively supported by making available to householders renewable and cleaner energy sources and technologies. In order to be effective, such low carbon energy options should take into account the (income) characteristics and lifestyles of rural householders.
► Rural household energy use and CO2 emissions in China are investigated via a field survey. ► Energy use and CO2 emissions are related to separate practices within households. ► Improvements in CO2 emission reduction are possible at demand side and supply side. ► Income and education are proven to be positively correlated with household emissions.
Over the last decade Brazil has implemented a new and ambitious biofuel program: the National Program of Production and Use of Biodiesel (PNPB). When launching this program in 2004 the government ...stated that it wanted to avoid the same kind of geographical concentration, single crop focus, dominance of agribusiness, and exclusion of family farmers that have occurred with bioethanol production through the ProÁlcool policy since 1975. This paper compares the life histories of the bioethanol and the biodiesel policies of Brazil by analyzing their substantive policy content; the power and politics of actors that struggle for the design and implementation of the policies; and the polity in terms the organization and institutionalization of the policies. The paper concludes that both policies have become submerged by and dependent on the polity and politics of primarily the energy and agricultural sectors that operate as the two semi-autonomous governance fields. This submerging has shaped the substantive contents of biofuels policies, and explains why the 2004 biodiesel policy PNPB, in spite of its objectives for social inclusion and rural development, faces similar problems in implementation as its predecessor, the 1975 bioethanol policy ProÁlcool.
•We compare governance fields of bioethanol and biodiesel policies in Brazil.•Biodiesel policy wants to learn from the mistakes made with bioethanol.•Governance fields stress dynamics between policy, polity, and politics.•Like ethanol, biodiesel became submerged by domains of energy and agriculture.
Pesticide use is a common practice to control pests and diseases in vegetable cultivation, but often at the expense of the environment and human health. This article studies pesticide-buying and use ...practices among smallholder vegetable farmers in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia, using a practice perspective. Through in-depth interviews and observations, data were collected from a sample of farmers, suppliers and key governmental actors. The results reveal that farmers apply pesticides in violation of the recommendations: they use unsafe storage facilities, ignore risks and safety instructions, do not use protective devices when applying pesticides, and dispose containers unsafely. By applying a social practice approach, we show that these pesticide-handling practices are steered by the combination of the
system of provision
, the farmers
’ lifestyle
and the everyday context in which pesticides are being bought and used. Bringing in new actors such as environmental authorities, suppliers, NGOs and private actors, as well as social and technological innovations, may contribute to changes in the actual performance of these pesticides buying and using practices. This article argues that a practice approach represents a promising perspective to analyse pesticide handling and use and to systematically identify ways to change these.
Solar thermal utilization, especially the application of solar water heater technology, has developed rapidly in China in recent decades. Manufacturing and marketing developments have been especially ...strong in provinces such as Zhejiang, Shandong and Jiangsu. This paper takes Zhejiang, a relatively affluent province, as a case study area to assess the performance of solar water heater utilization in China. The study will focus on institutional setting, economic and technological performance, energy performance, and environmental and social impact. Results show that China has greatly increased solar water heater utilization, which has brought China great economic, environmental and social benefits. However, China is confronted with malfeasant market competition, technical flaws in solar water heater products and social conflict concerning solar water heater installation. For further development of the solar water heater, China should clarify the compulsory installation policy and include solar water heaters into the current “Home Appliances Going to the Countryside” project; most of the widely used vacuum tube products should be replaced by flat plate products, and the technology improvement should focus on anti-freezing and water saving; the resources of solar water heater market should be consolidated and most of the OEM manufacturers should evolve to ODM and OBM enterprises.
Rapid expansion of nuclear power in China requires not only increasing institutional capacity to prevent and adequately cope with nuclear risks, but also increasing public trust in governmental ...agencies and nuclear enterprises managing nuclear risks. Using a case study on Haiyang nuclear power plant in Shandong province, public participation, communication, information disclosure and trust regarding nuclear policy and industry are investigated among Chinese citizens living close to nuclear facilities. The results show that development and decision-making on nuclear power are dominated by an ‘iron nuclear triangle’ of national governmental agencies, nuclear industries, and research organizations. The public, media and NGOs are neither informed nor involved. In contrast to low levels of public trust in governmental authorities advocating nuclear energy in western countries after Fukushima (Japan), Chinese respondents have still high levels of trust in governmental authorities (but not in state-owned nuclear power companies) regarding nuclear information provision, emergency response to nuclear accidents, and decision making on the country's nuclear future. A proven record in risk management and lack of alternative information sources explains this trust. As overall trust and credibility in China's governmental authorities is waning, and absence of transparency and public scrutiny proved fatal in Fukushima, the Chinese government has to develop a strategy for public involvement and information disclosure in nuclear power development in the post-Fukushima era.
This paper introduces the Special Volume on sustainable and responsible supply chain governance. As globalized supply chains cross multiple regulatory borders, the firms involved in these chains come ...under increasing pressure from consumers, NGOs and governments to accept responsibility for social and environmental matters beyond their immediate organizational boundaries. Governance arrangements for global supply chains are therefore increasingly faced with sustainability requirements of production and consumption. Our primary objectives for this introductory paper are to explore the governance challenges that globalized supply chains and networks face in becoming sustainable and responsible, and thence to identify opportunities for promoting sustainable and responsible governance. In doing so, we draw on 16 articles published in this Special Volume of the Journal of Cleaner Production as well as upon the broader sustainable supply chain governance literature. We argue that the border-crossing nature of global supply chains comes with six major challenges (or gaps) in sustainability governance and that firms and others attempt to address these using a range of tools including eco-labels, codes of conduct, auditing procedures, product information systems, procurement guidelines, and eco-branding. However, these tools are not sufficient, by themselves, to bridge the geographical, informational, communication, compliance, power and legitimacy gaps that challenge sustainable global chains. What else is required? The articles in this Special Volume suggest that coalition and institution building on a broader scale is essential through, for example, the development of inclusive multi-stakeholder coalitions; flexibility to adapt global governance arrangements to local social and ecological contexts of production and consumption; supplementing effective monitoring and enforcement mechanisms with education and other programs to build compliance capacity; and integration of reflexive learning to improve governance arrangements over time.
•Global supply chains and networks face substantial sustainability challenges.•Six gaps hinder sustainability governance of chains and networks.•Responsibility requires moving beyond narrow national and organizational borders.•Multi-actor and multi-level collaboration are essential.•Global sustainability standards must develop recognition of local contexts.
Chemical industries, from their very inception, have been controversial due to the high risks they impose on safety of human beings and the environment. Recent decades have witnessed increasing ...impacts of the accelerating expansion of chemical industries and chemical accidents have become a major contributor to environmental and health risks in China. This calls for the establishment of an effective chemical risk management system, which requires reliable, accurate and comprehensive data in the first place. However, the current chemical accident-related data system is highly fragmented and incomplete, as different responsible authorities adopt different data collection standards and procedures for different purposes. In building a more comprehensive, integrated and effective information system, this article: (i) reviews and assesses the existing data sources and data management, (ii) analyzes data on 976 recorded major hazardous chemical accidents in China over the last 40 years, and (iii) identifies the improvements required for developing integrated risk management in China.
Pesticide packages that are discarded on agricultural land can contaminate water bodies and pose a threat to the environment and human health. Little is known about how developing countries deal with ...this kind of land pollution. While in developed countries, packages are collected by professional organizations, the smallholder context in developing countries makes the collection of this waste much more difficult. This paper introduces and analyses a successful Pesticide Package Collection Scheme in one of the poorest regions in China, i.e. Guangxi Province. The purpose of the paper is to analyze and discuss how such a scheme can be established by multiple actors. The paper finds that the underlying success factors for establishing such a scheme are 1.) that a scheme piggy-bags on existing economic structures that reach out to farmers (e.g. associations); 2.) that the scheme itself facilitates actors' exchange of resources to establish a temporary resource equilibrium; 3.) that all stakeholders obtain returns on their investment, even if the quality and time scale of these returns may differ. The initiation of the scheme by a pesticide company however increased both its political and market influence. Caution hence has to be paid to whether the short-term improvement in land pollution happens at the expense of a dependency on and increased use of certain kinds of pesticides.
Interactions among actors in Guangxi PPCS. Display omitted
•Pesticide package collection schemes are feasible in low income countries.•Private collection schemes' environmental benefits remain ambiguous.•Private collection schemes can shape future political economic structures.•Governmental support is still of importance for the success of a scheme.•Institutional arrangements with mutual resource dependency need monitoring.
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