The impact of the unilateral EU commitment on the stability of international climate agreements

The negotiation strategy of the European Union was analysed with respect to the formation of an international climate agreement for the post-2012 era. Game theory was employed to explore the incentives for key players in the climate policy arena to join future climate agreements. A ?20% unilateral commitment strategy by the EU was compared with a multilateral ?30% emission reduction strategy for all Annex-B countries. Using a numerical integrated assessment climate—economy simulation model, we found that leakage, in the sense of strategic policy reactions on emissions, was negligible. The EU strategy to reduce emissions by 30% (compared with 1990 levels) by 2020, if other Annex-B countries follow suit, does not induce the participation of the USA with a comparable reduction commitment. However, we argue that the original EU proposal can be reshaped so as to stabilize a larger and more ambitious climate coalition than the Kyoto Protocol in its first commitment period.     

Economics of climate change: risk and responsibility by world region

The impacts of predicted climate change will not be distributed evenly around the world. As post-Kyoto negotiations unfold, relating the geographical distribution of projected impacts to responsibility for emissions among world regions is essential for achieving an equitable path forward. This article surveys the current knowledge of regional climate consequences, and delves into the regional predictions of economic assessment models to date, examining how the uncertainties, assumptions and ethical dimensions influence the portrayal of risk at this scale. The few studies that quantitatively compared regional risk and responsibility are reviewed, and the analytical framework from one such study is applied to the 2006 Stern Review's projections to give the first regional comparison to take purchasing power and welfare considerations into account. Synthesizing burden and blame in this way is informative for policy makers; the world's most vulnerable communities—in Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Latin America, and small island states—accounted for less than 33% of global greenhouse gas emissions over the period 1961–2000, but may experience more than 75% of the ensuing climate damages this century. This analysis reinforces the call for industrialized nations to lead mitigation efforts, and to do so decisively and swiftly.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: Aerial Photography and Remote Sensing Aerial photography and image interpretation for Resource Management . DAVID P. PAINE . Analytical Models and Techniques Spatial Processes Models and Applications A. D. CLIFF AND J. K. ORD Quantitative and Statistical Approaches to Geography: A Practical Manual JOHN A. MATTHEWS . Cartography and Maps Map Data Processing . HERBERT FREEMAN AND GOFFREDO G. PIERONI , eds. Computer-assisted Cartography: Principles and Prospects, 1982 . MARK S. MONMONIER . Cultural Navajo Architecture: Forms, History, Distributions . STEPHEN C. JETT AND VIRGINIA E . SPENCER . Rational Landscapes and Humanistic Geography . EDWARD RELPH . Economic The Structure and Control of a State Economy . W. L. L'ESPERANCE . Economic Geography . JAMES O. WHEELER AND PETER O. MULLER . The Myth of the Family Farm: Agribusiness Dominance of U.S. Agriculture . INGOLF VOCELER . Libya: The Experience of Oil . J. A. ALLEN . Geography of Public Finance, Welfare Under Fiscal Federalism and local Government Finance . ROBERT BENNETT . Environmental Management, Resources, and Systems Mountains and Man . LARRY W. PRICE . Environmental Geology . DONALD R. COATES . An Introduction to Environmental Systems . G. H. DURY . The Environment: Chinese and American Views . Edited by LAURENCE J. C. MA AND ALLEN G. NOBLE . Land Use in America . RICHARD H. JACKSON . Medical Conceptual and Methodological Issues in Medical Geography . MELINDA S. MEADE (ed.). Philosophy and Geographic Thought Birds in Egg/Eggs in Bird . GUNNAR OLSSON . PhysicaI Climatology: Selected Applications . J. E. OLIVER . Geomorphological Techniques . ANDREW GOUDIE (ed.). Political Politics, Geography and Behaviour . RICHARD MUIR AND RONAN PADDISON . The State of the World Atlas . MICHAEL KIDRON AND RONALD SECAL . Population The Population of the South . DUDLEY L. POSTON , JR . AND ROBERT H. WELLER , eds. Regional Latin America: Economic Development and Regional Differentiation . ARTHUR MORRIS . Developing the Amazon . EMILIO F. MORAN . Western Europe: A Systematic Human Geography . BRIAN W. ILBERY . Settlement Systems in Sparsely Settled Regions: The United States and Australia . RICHARD E. LONSDALEAND JOHN H. HOLMES , eds. African Perspectives: The Economic Geography of Nine African States . HARM DE BUJ AND ESMOND MARTIN , eds. Rural Nonmetropolitan America in Transition . AMOS H. HAWLEY AND SARA MILLS MAZIE , eds. Social Crime and Environment . R. NORMAN DAVIDSON . The Ghetto: Readings with Interpretations . JOE T. DARDEN , ed. Urban Urban Problems and Planning in the Developed World . MICHAEL PACIONE (ed.) Problems and Planning in Third World Cities . Edited by MICHAEL PACIONE . The City in West Europe . D. BURTENSHAW , M. BATEMAN , AND C. J. ASHWORTH .     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: Boundary Control and Legal Priniciples . Curtis M. Brown , Walter G. Robillard and Donald A. Wilson . Lost Initiatives: Canada's Forest Industries, Forest Policy, and Forest Conservation . R. Peter Gillis and Thomas R. Roach . The Navajo Atlas: Resources, People, and History of the Dine Bikeyah . James M. Goodman . The City and the Sign . M. Gottdiener AND Alexandros Ph . Lagopoulos , EDS. The Comfortable House: North American Suburban Architecture 1890–1930 . Alan Gowans . Arabic-Islamic Cities. Building and Planning Principles . Besim Salim Hakim . Contemporary Climatology . Ann Henderson -Sellers and Peter J. Robinson . A Trace of Desert Waters . Samuel G. Houghton . Geography, Resources and Environment. Vol. 1: Selected Writings of Gilbert F. White. Vol. 2: Themes from the Work of Gilbert F. White . Robert W. Kates AND Ian Burton , ED. Spatial Dimensions of Unemployment and Underemployment (A Case Study of Rural Punjab) . Gopal Krishan . Maps of the Holy Land: Cartobibliography of Printed Maps, 1475–1900 . Compiled by Eran Laor , assisted by Shoshana Klein . The Geography of Third World Cities . Stella Lowder . A Perspective on U.S. Farm Problems and Agricultural Policy . Lance Mc Kinzie , Timothy G. Baker AND Wallace E. Tyner . Soil Erosion and Its Control. R.P.C . Morgan , ED Geopolitics . Patrick O'Sullivan . Landscape, Meanings and Values . Edmund C. Penning -Rowsell AND David Lowenthal , EDS.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: Marine Resources of Kuwait: Their Role in the Development of Non-oil Resources . Fatimah H. Y. al -Abdul -Razzak Recollections of a Revolution: Geography as Spatial Science . Mark Billinge , Derek Gregory and Ron Martin Entre l'Eden et l'Utopie . Luc Bureau Developments in Political Geography . M. A. Busteed The Elements of Graphing Data . William S. Cleveland Rural Resource Management . Paul J. Cloke and Chris C. Park Third World Atlas . Ben Crow and Alan Thomas Exploitation, Conservation, Preservation: A Geographic Perspective on Natural Resource Use . Susan L. Cutter , Hilary Lambert Renwick, and William H. Renwick . Wine Regions of the Southern Hemisphere . Harm Jan de Blij Regional Development: Problems and Policies in Eastern and Western Europe . George Demko The Geographer at Work . Peter R. Gould Change in the Amazon Basin . John Hemming Geography Since the Second World War . R. J. Johnston and P. Claval Urbanization in China: Town and Countryside in a Developing Economy 1949–2000 A.D. , R. J. R. Kirkby Transport and Communications for Pacific Microstates: Issues in Organisation and Management . Christopher C. Kissling Fluvial Forms and Processes . David Knighton The Urban Millennium . Josef W. Konvitz Technological Transition in Cartography . Mark Stephen Monmonier Field Guide to Soils and the Environment: Applications of Soil Surveys . Gerald W. Olson Northern Australia: The Arenas of Life and Ecosystems on Half a Continent . Don Parkes A Killing Rain: The Global Threat of Acid Rain . Thomas Pawlick From the Family Farm to Agribusiness: The Irrigation Crusade in California and the West, 1850–1931 . Donald J. Pisani Hybrid Maize Diffusion in Kenya . Franz -Michael Rundquist Warning and Response to the Mount St. Helens Eruption . Thomas F. Saarinen and James L. Sell Coastal Geomorphology in Australia . B. G. Thom Tropical Rain Forests of the Far East , 2nd ed . T. C. Whitmore The Dark Side of the Earth . Robert Muir Wood Categorical Data Analysis for Geographers and Environmental Scientists , Neil Wrigley     

美、日、欧、俄空间政策调整产生的机遇与挑战

冷战结束后,以军事利用为基本特征的美苏空间争夺,已经被以科技创新和经济为中心的综合国力竞争所替代,信息技术和经济全球化的发展,导致外层空间成为具有知识创新要素和技术带动能力的竞争新领域。世界经济大国已经认识空间政策的设计是事关提升综合国力和竞争优势的重大意义。近年来,美、日、欧对空间政策进行了冷战结束后的第一次,全面重大的调整,伴随着体制转型俄罗斯空间政策调整也在展开,面对即将形成的国际空间竞争与合作新的格局和带来新发展机遇,如何清晰地鉴别、定位,对空间政策做出正确的调整,抓住历史机遇应对挑战是摆在中国面前的战略性、全局性和方向性问题。     

The importance of mineral and energy inventories

Based on the results of the Conference on Resource Assessment Techniques of IGCP Project 98 in Loen, Norway, 1976, the importance of mineral and energy inventories is demonstrated by their long-term objectives which aim at the solution of problems of quantitative and qualitative mineral and energy reserve and resource assessments, estimates of the exploration potential, supply analysis, future land-use planning, and national mineral policy. Prior to establishing a mineral and energy inventory it is essential to clearly define both the long-term and short-term objectives, because they control the scope of an inventory and determine the approach to and the method of constructing the data base. Only then can questions be answered as to the kind of data required, the advantages of regional-versus commodity-based inventories, the necessity of computer-processable data files, the availability of a user-oriented data base management system, and the usefulness of conducting a pilot project. Examples are given for simple and complex types of mineral and energy inventories. The “Mineral Deposit Inventory” of the Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, Hannover, Federal Republic of Germany, serves mainly as an information and reference system, whereas the mineral inventory of “Project Manitoba” of the Geological Survey of Canada forms the base for reserve and resource assessment as well as land-use planning of that province. For developing and industrialized countries alike, mineral and energy inventories are appropriate tools in planning new exploration activities and decisions on future national mineral policy. Used by the Regional Mineral Resources Development Centers of ESCAP and ECA, the United Nations economic commissions in Asia and Africa, these tools could be of great advantage and mutual benefit to the developing countries of those regions. This paper was presented at the International Geological Correlation Program (IGCP) Project 98: “Standards for Computer Applications in Resource Studies” held at Taita Hills, Kenya, November 8–15, 1977.     

Comparative policy analysis: Neoliberalising New Zealand

Comparative policy analysis involves systematically examining the long‐term formation of public policies across a number of societies. It focuses particularly on the sequence of policy regimes: liberalism – Keynesianism/social democracy – neoliberalism. Since 1980, neoliberalism has been widely adopted as the guiding ideological structure for economic policy making. But neoliberalism encounters resistances that vary with national contexts. New Zealand is a particularly interesting case because of its reputation as a social democratic, welfare state that went neoliberal with a vengeance (Rogernomics).     

中国城市群形成发育的政策影响过程与实施效果评价

中国城市群是中国未来经济发展格局中最具活力和潜力的核心地区,城市群的真正形成与发育始于20世纪80年代的改革开放初期,历经80年代的发育萌芽阶段、90年代快速成长阶段和21世纪前10 a的持续发展阶段,共三大阶段。城市群形成发育带有强烈的政府主导性,主要是国家及地方宏观调控政策和区域发展政策发挥作用的结果,体现在国家宏观调控政策的导向性和重点区域发展政策的倾向性两大方面。具体表现为,"六五"计划提出地区域协作和经济区政策开启了中国城市群建设的序幕,"七五"计划提出地三级经济区网络政策搭建了中国城市群建设的初步框架"八五"计划提出地横向联合与城乡统筹政策注入了中国城市群建设的一体化内容"九五"计划提出地区域协调发展政策推动了中国中西部地区城市群的形成发育"十五"计划实施地城镇化战略指明了中国城市群建设的基本方向"十一五"规划首次把城市群作为推进城镇化的主体空间形态,奠定了中国城市群建设的空间格局。与此同时,针对处在不同地区、不同类型和不同发育程度的城市群,国家相继因地制宜地实施了无数项差异化扶持政策,这些政策有力地推动着中国城市群朝着健康稳定的方向持续发展。     

Prospects of multifunctional agriculture as a facilitator of sustainable rural development: Swedish experience of Pillar 2 of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)

Agriculture remains one of the dominant activities in rural areas across the European Union (EU), not least in respect of land use and its impact on landscapes. The Agenda 2000 reform of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) introduced rural development as an integrated part of agricultural policy. The present study focuses on the second pillar of CAP. Multifunctional farming, more than any other rural activity, has a role to play in integrating the natural environment with the cultural landscape and socio-economic development. The question of how multifunctional agriculture can facilitate sustainable rural development is addressed in terms of mechanisms and inherent possibilities. Results from a case study in Östergötland in Sweden are discussed in relation to five other European case studies. Some main findings are that Pillar 2 has made it possible for rural inhabitants to continue living in rural areas and that the policies are effective in identifying and supporting new opportunities for farm diversification. The traditional agricultural landscape can be seen as a key component in various diversification activities in rural areas, contributing to economic as well as social and environmental sustainability.