Living with limits: growth,resources, and climate change

Is it possible for all of humanity to enjoy the standards of living of today's high-income countries? What would happen if these limits were reached, perhaps because of climate change or a shortage of natural resources essential to production? How would society manage – or fail to manage – such limits? Notwithstanding the current financial and economic crises, these are perhaps the biggest questions confronting our species (and of a host of other species, who are the victims of our decisions). The article begins by considering the biggest economic event of our lifetimes – the ‘great convergence’ and its implications for the demand for resources. The discussion then turns to a specific limit on our development, climate change, which is different from most other limits, because it involves a global public good: the atmosphere. What such limits might mean for our civilization is discussed. One can persuade people to tackle climate change only if those concerned with the dangers persuade ordinary people that action will not come at the expense of their prosperity.     

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.     

黄土高原退耕农户生计资本对生计策略的影响——以甘肃会宁县为例

探索贫困地区退耕农户的生计资本与生计策略关系,对实现精准扶贫、乡村振兴战略具有重要意义。基于甘肃会宁县退耕农户调查数据,构建了具有区域特色的生计资本指标体系,采用熵值法测算生计资本,运用Logistic回归模型探讨了退耕农户生计策略选择问题。结果表明：（1）研究区退耕农户拥有的生计资本中人力资本指数最低,且各生计资本值存在差异;（2）金融资本中的现金收入可以显著增加退耕农户选择非农型生计策略的概率,而自然资本中的平地面积、物质资本中的耐用消费品价值和金融资本中的资金获得渠道会显著降低退耕农户选择非农型生计策略的概率;（3）对于不同退耕程度的农户,现金收入依旧可以显著增加选择非农型生计策略的概率,而抑制两类农户选择非农型生计策略的生计资本指标则存在差异。基于此,提出改善退耕农户的金融资本的多项措施,进而提高农户的非农生计意愿,更好地解决贫困问题。     

英国乡村发展政策演变及启示

诸多成功案例表明,全球化有助于加快经济发展知识与实践的国际转移,将国际知识转移至地区经济发展实践中,为地区发展战略问题提供国际上相关解决方案。英国在其乡村发展历程中也曾经历过与目前中国相类似的发展阶段并遇到相似的发展问题,涉及乡村经济的多样化转型、对新技术和市场扩张的适应和基础设施改善等方面。因此,借鉴英国解决这些问题的经验和教训有助于解决目前中国乡村发展过程中遇到的诸多问题。本文分析了英国乡村发展政策的演变及其阶段性特征,其政策变化的特点主要体现在政策制订由自上而下转向自下而上、强调政策的综合性、注重乡村发展计划的长远性和可持续性、重视运用法律和市场手段等方面,最后从政策制订、乡村发展计划的实施以及发展项目选择等方面探讨了其对我国乡村发展的政策启示。并指出,考虑到国际乡村发展政策的趋同与差异,任何国际乡村发展政策和模式的采纳均需要根据我国特殊的文化、经济、政治传统和环境予以调整。     

The European Marine Strategy: Contribution and challenges from a Portuguese perspective

The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is considered to be the environmental pillar of the EU Integrated Maritime Policy, establishing a framework within which member states must take the necessary measures to achieve, or maintain, good environmental status in their marine waters. This study presents Portugal's contributions to the Directive development, describes the Portuguese institutional framework within the MSFD and, finally, highlights the opportunities and threats to the success of the MSFD implementation in Portugal. The latter entails an analysis of the Directive's long term adequacy in its link to (1) marine spatial planning, (2) climate change and (3) the economic/financial crisis. With one of Europe's largest exclusive economic zones. Portugal's interest in the MSFD is paramount. Efforts towards the approval of the final document were assured during the Portuguese presidency of the European Council of Ministers, in 2007, while chairing a thorough discussion between the Council and the European Parliament. In the Portuguese context, the Directive implementation will rely on the Water Institute as the authoritative entity, which will be responsible for coordinating all necessary efforts at the national level. The success of such process depends on a close cooperation among the institutions involved as well as on how approved measures account for long term issues. In addition, the MSFD implementation must be built on lessons learned within the Water Framework Directive, in order to be successful. Although it poses a methodological challenge to Portugal, the MSFD implementation is expected to contribute significantly to the improvement of coastal/marine conservation and management at the national level.     

Developing geographic information infrastructures: the role of access policies

Within societies, information availability is a key issue affecting society's well‐being. For geographic information, a geographic information infrastructure (GII) facilitates availability and access to geographic information for all levels of government, the commercial sector, the non‐profit sector, academia, and ordinary citizens. Although the importance of access policies in the development of a GII is commonly understood, research that has assessed the impact of access policies on this development is scant. This article adds this perspective. Based on information acquired from case‐study and literature research, the author argues that open‐access policies do not always promote GII development and in specific instances are counter‐productive. These findings may explain why many nations still adhere to cost‐recovery policies instead of following access policies recommended by research. The article provides alternatives for changing current policies into new access policies that promote GII development.     

Options to overcome the barriers to pricing European agricultural emissions

Although agriculture could contribute substantially to European emission reductions, its mitigation potential lies untapped and dormant. Market-based instruments could be pivotal in incentivizing cost-effective abatement. However, sector specificities in transaction costs, leakage risks and distributional impacts impede its implementation. The significance of such barriers critically hinges on the dimensions of policy design. This article synthesizes the work on emissions pricing in agriculture together with the literature on the design of market-based instruments. To structure the discussion, an options space is suggested to map policy options, focusing on three key dimensions of policy design. More specifically, it examines the role of policy coverage, instruments and transfers to farmers in overcoming the barriers. First, the results show that a significant proportion of agricultural emissions and mitigation potential could be covered by a policy targeting large farms and few emission sources, thereby reducing transaction costs. Second, whether an instrument is voluntary or mandatory influences distributional outcomes and leakage. Voluntary instruments can mitigate distributional concerns and leakage risks but can lead to subsidy lock-in and carbon price distortion. Third, the impact on transfers resulting from the interaction of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) with emissions pricing will play a key role in shaping political feasibility and has so far been underappreciated.

POLICY RELEVANCE

Following the 2015 Paris Agreement, European climate policy is at a crossroads. Achieving cost-effectively the 2030 and 2050 European targets requires all sectors to reduce their emissions. Yet, the cornerstone of European climate policy, the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), covers only about half of European emissions. Major sectors have been so far largely exempted from carbon pricing, in particular transport and agriculture. While transport has been increasingly under the spotlight as a possible candidate for an EU ETS sectoral expansion, policy discussions on pricing agricultural emissions have been virtually absent. This article attempts to fill this gap by investigating options for market-based instruments to reduce agricultural emissions while taking barriers to implementation into account.     

西部大开发与中国经济发展

在对中国西部的区域划分进行界定并阐述中国西部区域特征的基础上,对中国西部的开发进行了历史回顾,并对中国西部开发的历史背景和现实基础、中国西部开发的优势和制约条件进行分析,最后提出了中国西部开发的发展战略和政策措施.     

It starts at home? Climate policies targeting household consumption and behavioral decisions are key to low-carbon futures

Through their consumption behavior, households are responsible for 72% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, they are key actors in reaching the 1.5 °C goal under the Paris Agreement. However, the possible contribution and position of households in climate policies is neither well understood, nor do households receive sufficiently high priority in current climate policy strategies. This paper investigates how behavioral change can achieve a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in European high-income countries. It uses theoretical thinking and some core results from the HOPE research project, which investigated household preferences for reducing emissions in four European cities in France, Germany, Norway and Sweden. The paper makes five major points: First, car and plane mobility, meat and dairy consumption, as well as heating are the most dominant components of household footprints. Second, household living situations (demographics, size of home) greatly influence the household potential to reduce their footprint, even more than country or city location. Third, household decisions can be sequential and temporally dynamic, shifting through different phases such as childhood, adulthood, and illness. Fourth, short term voluntary efforts will not be sufficient by themselves to reach the drastic reductions needed to achieve the 1.5 °C goal; instead, households need a regulatory framework supporting their behavioral changes. Fifth, there is a mismatch between the roles and responsibilities conveyed by current climate policies and household perceptions of responsibility. We then conclude with further recommendations for research and policy.     

中国工矿区发展形势解析及可持续发展政策研究(英文)

工矿区作为中国重要的资源能源供给基地,长期以来为全国和区域经济社会发展做出了突出贡献。但随着不可再生资源的锐减,在市场经济体制下的区域竞争中,工矿区的经济、社会、生态环境问题日益凸显。本文根据从全国各省市汇总的一手数据,甄选出128个典型工矿区,经分析发现经济发展问题重点表现为可采资源面临枯竭、产业结构失调和财政收支失衡;社会发展问题重点表现为居民生活保障缺失、公共服务水平低下和管理体制机制落后;生态环境问题重点表现为工业污染严重和地质灾害频发。针对这些问题,本文重点围绕产业结构调整、管理体制改革、民生保障服务以及生态环境整治四个方面明确了未来促进工况区改造和可持续发展的对策建议。