Abstract
BackgroundThis study applies the POETICs framework (population, organization, environment, technology, institutions and culture) to an analysis of industrial carbon dioxide emissions in Japanese cities. The inclusion of institutional variables in the form of International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives membership, ISO 14001 implementation, and non-profit sector activity addresses the ecological limitations of the often used IPAT (impact = population × affluence × technology) approach.ResultsResults suggest the weak existence of an environmental Kuznets curve, in which the wealthiest cities are reducing their emissions through increased efficiency. Significant institutional impacts are also found to hold in the predicted directions. Specifically, panel and cross-sectional regressions indicate that membership in the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives and non-profit organizational presence have negative effects on industrial carbon dioxide emissions.ConclusionThe presence of institutional drivers at the city level provides empirical support for the POETICs rubric, which recasts the ecological framing of the IPAT identity in a more sociological mold. The results also indicate that Japanese civil society has a role to play in carbon mitigation. More refined studies need to take into consideration an expanded set of methods, drivers, and carbon budgets, as applied to a broader range of cases outside of Japan, to more accurately assess how civil society can bridge the issue of scale that separates local level policy concerns from global level climate dynamics.
Highlights
This study applies the POETICs framework to an analysis of industrial carbon dioxide emissions in Japanese cities
It is widely accepted that anthropogenic causes have pushed the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas responsible for global warming and associated climate changes, to its highest level in 420,000 years at 380 parts per million [1]
While the developed world has passed through the demographic transition to a low fertility regime defined by an aging population, the developing world is still in the midst of a high fertility regime that is responsible for pushing global population figures upward
Summary
This study applies the POETICs framework (population, organization, environment, technology, institutions and culture) to an analysis of industrial carbon dioxide emissions in Japanese cities. It is widely accepted that anthropogenic causes have pushed the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas responsible for global warming and associated climate changes, to its highest level in 420,000 years at 380 parts per million [1]. In addition to sheer numbers, the concentration of people in urban areas is increasing rapidly, from 30% of the global population in 1955 to 50% today [32]. Most of the world's population will live in urbanized areas and the greatest urban population growth will take place in developing regions [6]
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