An Review of International Climate Change Conference and Analysis on Recent Hot Issues

The international climate change negotiation has been carried out over 20 years. The issue of climate change has shifted from a scientific question into a complex political matter which is related to the sustainable development of mankind. Based on the overview of major processes and stages of international climate conferences, this paper analyzed the key measures that major countries have taken to address climate change, as well as the primary tasks of Paris climate conference and recent international actions. The recent international climate policy issues were also analyzed in order to provide suggestions for China’s activel participation in the development of a new round of international climate change system.     

Exploring land use policy scenarios with the use of a cellular automata-based model: urban sprawl containment and sustainable development in Thessaloniki

This study addresses the issue of urban sprawl through the application of a cellular automata (CA)-based model in the area of Thessaloniki, Greece. The model integrates a multiple regression model at the regional level with a CA model at the local level. New urban land is allocated in a disaggregated field of land units (cells) taking into account a wide range of data. Particular emphasis is placed on the way zoning regulations and land availability data are inserted into the model, so that alternative land use policy scenarios could be examined. Thessaloniki, a typical Mediterranean city, is used as a case study. The model is used to compare two scenarios of urban growth up to year 2030; the first one assuming a continuation of existing trends, whereas the second one assuming the enactment of various land use zoning regulations in order to contain urban sprawl.     

Preserving coastal natural character: Court interpretations of a long‐standing New Zealand policy goal

New Zealand's policy goal to preserve coastal natural character was first incorporated into planning legislation in 1973 and protected area legislation in 1977. An evaluation of 100 relevant Resource Management Act Court decisions determined the Courts' interpretations of this policy goal. The Courts have repeatedly found that natural character is of nature (not culture), including natural elements, patterns, and processes. There is a continuum of naturalness from pristine indigenous ecosystems to the urban environment. A 2014 Supreme Court decision has upheld the use of environmental bottom lines for natural character and the importance of protection as part of sustainable management.     

中西部地区承接产业转移的影响因素研究

将中西部地区划分为东北、中部、西北、西南4个区域,采用1995—2013年的相关数据,分析各区域在承接东部发达地区产业转移过程中的主要影响因素。选取的影响因素包括资本存量、经济规模、劳动力成本、人力资源和路径效应。结果发现:4个区域的路径效应、资本存量与产业转移承接地均存在显著正相关关系;人力资源与产业转移承接地存在正相关关系,但东北、西北地区不显著;劳动力成本与产业转移承接地存在负相关关系,但对东北地区不显著;除中部地区外,经济规模与产业转移承接地并不存在显著相关关系。中西部区域地方政府和企业家在促进产业转移进程中应充分发挥比较优势,根据不同影响要素制定宏观政策与微观引资策略。     

政府规划约束下的城市空间增长多智能体模拟模型

构建政府规划约束下的包含多种类型智能体和环境因素的城市空间增长多智能体模拟模型,通过居民、开发商和政府三类智能体之间以及智能体与环境之间的相互作用模拟了城市空间增长情况。模型将城市建设用地规划区纳入政府的土地利用政策,探讨了政府规划因素对城市建设用地增长的影响,并根据土地集约利用的原则对模拟结果进行了优化。在Repast和ArcGIS的实验环境下,以南京市中心城区(长江以南)为研究区设置了四组土地利用情景,模拟了2001-2007年研究区的城市建设用地增长情况,对比不同情景下模型的模拟精度,说明正确合理的政府规划引导对城市空间增长的重要作用以及对模拟结果进行优化的必要性。该模型有助于揭示城市空间增长机制,为政府宏观调控政策和规划制定提供参考。     

The fisherly imagination: The promise of geographical approaches to marine management

The management of the sea has increased exponentially in the last half-century, and different academic disciplines have been vital in shaping this management. Human geography, despite its explicit focus on the human–environment nexus, has so far had little impact on human relations with the sea. Based on empirical research conducted in England and Scotland, we argue that human geography is uniquely placed to offer effective solutions to marine resource management problems, and that geographers have the potential to offer key insights into how human populations can best interact with the living seas. Three of the most important current scholarly ‘imaginations’ of the sea, and the policies they inform (economics and market-based management, conservation biology and area based protection, and anthropology and community management), are outlined. A potential ‘geographical imagination’ of the sea, drawing on key themes in contemporary scholarship is then presented, and grounded in empirical research. It is argued that human–ocean relations should be a key feature of geographical research agendas.     

Protected geographical indications: Institutional roles in food systems governance and rural development

This paper examines the importance of national-level institutional arrangements for promoting the EU’s Protected Geographic Indication scheme (PGI). Taking the example of Ireland, for which PGI designations remain comparatively low, it explores whether the approach to providing institutional supports to the PGI scheme is influenced by top-down technocratic governance structures that pertain to food safety and quality certification that encompass the broader operating environment for food production in Ireland. Although the regulation of food safety and quality certification are distinct remits to the administration of the PGI scheme, in the Irish context the same institutional bodies are involved in governance of both. Using a discourse analysis interpretative framework, this paper draws on interviews with Irish producer group members and institutional representatives to examine how governance of the PGI scheme reflects management perspectives and practices more in keeping with a regulatory environment for food safety and quality than with development of place-based food product links. It suggests that incentives to avail of the PGI scheme as a means of realising value-added for producers are not well established because they require the development of more subjective, context-dependent processes and practices linked to geographical place and place identity. These are not easily accommodated under current institutional arrangements that also incorporate food safety and quality remits because these are in turn strongly established through nationally and internationally recognised systems of regulation and benchmarking. The findings point to the benefits to be gained from a more layered governance structure for PGI; devolving operation of the scheme to relevant regional and local development organisations that possess the expertise and relevant local knowledge to (a) incentivise the formation of producer groups, and (b) prioritise mentoring and support for PGI concept development as a clearer reflection of bottom-up rural sustainability policy.     

Climate change,income and happiness: An empirical study for Barcelona

The present article builds upon the results of an empirical study exploring key factors which determine life satisfaction in Barcelona. Based on a sample of 840 individuals we first look at the way changes in income, notably income reductions, associated with the current economic situation in Spain, affect subjective well-being. Income decreases which occur with respect to one year ago have a negative effect on happiness when specified in logarithmic terms, and a positive one when specified as a dummy variable (and percentage change). The divergence in results is discussed and various explanations are put forward. Both effects are however temporary and do not hold for a period longer than a year, probably for reasons of adaptation and a downward adjustment of reference consumption and income levels. Next, we examine the implications of experiencing forest fires and find a lasting negative effect on life satisfaction. Our results suggest that climate policy need not reduce happiness in the long run, even when it reduces income and carbon-intensive consumption. Climate policy may even raise life well-being, if accompanied by compensatory measures that decrease formal working hours and reference consumption standards, while maintaining employment security.     

From Kyoto via Moscow to nowhere?

Abstract

Since the World Climate Change Conference held in the autumn of 2003 in Moscow, Russian Federation, the fate of international climate policy architecture designed around the Kyoto Protocol hangs in the balance. After the withdrawal of the USA from the Kyoto Protocol, the condition of its ratification cannot be met without the Russian Federation. There has been a considerable uncertainty as to Russia's intentions regarding ratification of Kyoto. In this contribution, an attempt is made to identify the Russian motives and concerns, and explain their attitudes regarding the Kyoto Protocol. Pressures against and for ratification are discussed. Finally, a few comments are made about the future of the efforts to solve the global environmental problem of protecting the Earth's climate.