Environmental Agenda Research Articles

Brazilian Biodiversity as a Source of Power and Sustainable Development: A Neglected Opportunity

Six terrestrial biomes and a huge coastline make Brazil one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. However, the potential of Brazilian biodiversity as a valuable and sustainable source of wealth and development is still neglected. In order to reverse this scenario, the country needs to recognize and assume the power of its biodiversity, focusing on (I) industry, science and technology, (II) biological conservation and maintenance of ecosystem services, considering reverberations on agriculture and public health, and (III) ecotourism, conservation and sustainable development of local populations. The joint action of the Brazilian population and scientific community is needed to achieve these goals, which must be translated into the election of politicians committed to sustainable development and an increase in research and technology based on Brazilian biodiversity. Additional reasons for preserving Brazilian biodiversity (e.g., intrinsic, cultural, and ethical values) are also addressed in this article. Finally, we argue that Brazil should recover its global leadership on the environmental agenda and assume its biological diversity as a source of Soft Power, as well as develop its neglected capacity in the field of the sustainable bio-based economy (bioeconomy). In brief, Brazil needs to recognize and embrace the power of its biodiversity.

Brazil at COP26: Political and Scientific Disputes Under a Post-Truth Government

Global climate negotiations were again in the spotlight at Glasgow’s COP26 meeting in November 2021, drawing attention to the urgency of the climate crisis and to the need to find long term solutions. While Brazil has been a protagonist of such negotiations for decades, since 2019 the country has abdicated its leadership role, adopting a reactive stance to the environmental agenda. This shift is illustrative of the centrality of scientific disputes in government projects in conflict in Brazil. Since the election of Jair Bolsonaro, attacks on science have gained strength and institutionalized a position largely critical to existing scientific consensus about climate and the environment in the government. Together with the dismantling of Brazil’s environmental regulations—put in place also by the Bolsonaro government—those attacks on science have strained both its local capacities to curb deforestation (the source of most of the country’s emissions) and deepened inequalities and injustices ingrained in Brazilian society. In summary, we argue that STS can participate in finding a way out of the current political and social crisis and resisting the dismantling of a once robust environmental governance framework by unpacking the centrality of scientific production in disputes over climate and the environment.

Climate Change: Bad News for Populism? How the Rassemblement National Used COVID-19 to Promote Its Environmental Agenda

AbstractThis article uses the French Rassemblement National (RN) as a case study to examine how the populist radical right (PRR) prepares for a world after COVID-19 dominated by climate change concerns. Research suggests that certain measures introduced to contain the virus – such as the establishment of strict border and travel restrictions – may legitimize the PRR’s protectionist and anti-immigration agendas, yet few have examined whether or how PRR parties have used COVID-19 to promote their environmental agenda. If anything, the expectation has been that the pandemic would hurt the PRR precisely because its effects, unlike climate change, cannot be dismissed as a “hoax.” This view overlooks not only the “environmental turn” recently taken by several PRR parties but also the possibility that public awareness of the causal link between climate change and COVID-19 may work to their advantage. The analysis presented in this article highlights this possibility, showing that the RN used COVID-19 not only to capitalize on anti-immigrant sentiment but also to bolster its self-image as a champion of environmental protection.

Development of the ESG concept in the Russian power industry

The modern development of the energy industry, as well as other sectors of the economy, is impossible without an environmentally oriented approach. Therefore, the green energy direction has received a fairly wide development in the world in the last decade. This energy has less negative impact on the environment due to the fact that there is no need to use fossil fuels. Due to the significant reserves of these resources, the introduction of renewable sources in Russia is slower compared to the leading countries in the field of green energy generation. Attempts to close the gap in this direction appeared only in recent years. The article is devoted to the assessment of the environmental agenda in the Russian power industry. In particular, the authors consider the issues of reducing the consumption of resources for electricity generation, as well as give an overview of the distribution of renewable energy in Russia as a whole. The scientific novelty lies in the consideration of a number of technical and economic parameters of the power generating industry operation, as well as in the construction of time series based on the most important statistical indicators of the power industry. Their visual representation is based on the use of tabular and graphical methods of information processing. In addition, a review of the industry companies reporting in recent years regarding the implementation of ESG concepts was made.

Sabri Orman’s Inquiry into Social Justice Regarding al Ghazali’s Adalet-I Ijtimâ’iye Doctrine

Contemporary economics scholars are increasingly trying to understand the interplay between social justice and economics, with Adam Smith’s idea of the rational agent behaving according to the economic tides, detached from any semblance of justice, morality, or fairness being questioned. The contemporary socioeconomic complexities exacerbated by overexploitation of the Earth’s limited natural resources have exposed environmental agendas as a current priority. The Islamic Golden Age gave birth to a documented socioeconomic and sociopolitical literature spanning over 500 years, while mankind faces serious socioeconomic and environmental challenges that call for a unified effort to find tangible solutions, with socioeconomic justice being crucial for this to occur. Al Khaldun’s Muqaddimah [Prolegomenon] and al Ghazali’s Iḥyā′ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn [Revival of the Religious Sciences] shed a unique light on social justice, with both scholars being strong advocates of justice as a basic tenet of a prosperous society. However, the concept of social justice is normally attributed to contemporary Western democratic thought. Sabri Orman’s analysis of al Ghazali’s doctrine adalet-i ijtimâ’iye [on social justice] provides an alternative view with some solid scholarly arguments. This paper presents some of the key conclusions from Sabri Orman’s work on Ghazali’s doctrine adalet-i ijtimâ’iye and also examines some of the misconceptions about al Ghazali’s doctrine on social justice.

Тенденции развития мирового рынка сжиженного природного газа и перспективы реализации российских арктических проектов

The environmental agenda, as well as issues of reducing carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, are currently treated as a global trend. In such conditions, developed countries openly and actively declare their plans to switch from coal to natural gas and renewable energy sources in their energy consumption. At the same time, the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market is developing at such a pace that in 10–15 years, according to experts, it will bypass the pipeline market. Nevertheless, a significant increase in prices for “blue fuel” at the end of 2021 and the first half of 2022 called into question the reality of following the chosen course in the near future. The study identified the main LNG importers by the end of 2021 (China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and India), as well as the key exporters (Australia, Qatar, USA, Russia, Nigeria, Algeria, Malaysia, Oman and Indonesia). The analysis showed that in the medium term, Qatar, the United States and Russia will be able to significantly increase the volume of natural gas and LNG production. Australia, despite its status as the largest exporter of LNG by the end of 2021, due to the shortage of natural gas in the domestic market, will not be able to increase export volumes in the near future. The purpose of the study is to analyze the main trends in the development of the global LNG market in new geopolitical conditions and to determine the prospects for the implementation of Russian Arctic LNG projects. The scientific novelty of the work lies in determining the potential of the largest LNG suppliers in terms of increasing the LNG production and export regarding the forthcoming 5–8 years. The next stage of the work will be the assessment of the prospects for the sale of Russian and American LNG in the European Union and the Asia-Pacific region markets.

The Place of Risk Communication in the Environmental Agenda

In the study the author considers the stages of formation of environmental communication, defines the main functions, key subjects and essential characteristics. Understanding the features of environmental communication directly affects the work during crises and the decisions made. The causes of environmental crises can be different: competition for resources or natural phenomena. However, the principles of responding to them are similar; first of all, there must be crisis management in place. The study examined not only the nature of the crises, but also provided typology of environmental crisis communication. Any crisis needs to be managed, and environmental communications are a key management tool. The study analyzed the impact of access to information on the quality of environmental communication, the role of traditional and new media in shaping the environmental agenda and environmental discourse. We examined the status of communicators and their level of influence on the situation, the ability of official bodies to quickly respond to unfolding crisis events. The author analyzed crisis environmental communication on the example of an incident off the coast of Kamchatka in September 2020, resulting from an algal bloom. The study investigated the interaction between different subjects, content analyzed the typology information, various levels of communication, and tools of influence. The role of scientific discourse in crisis environmental communications was studied. The result is the construction of a new model of interaction, when all participants in the process have a single goal — the stabilization of the social situation and the identification of the circumstances and the true causes of what happened. The study provided recommendations how to improve the effectiveness of environmental crisis communication.

Global environmental agenda: Developments ahead, sustainable energy-ecological dimensions for Russia, Japan, and Southeast Asia

The study explores the contemporary situation within the global environmental agenda. This topic is vital to humanity and significant in sustainable development for years ahead. It has been already widely acknowledged that if proper measures aimed at environmental protections aren’t taken in the foreseeable future the Earth will face a huge, large-scale, and multidimensional crisis that will affect many aspects and directions of global development ahead. Thus, in 2021, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, global leaders held several events in the framework of which they made attempts to come closer to understanding and working out new environmental parameters and ecological standards under which the countries will act approximately up to the middle of the 21st century. The goal of eliminating or drastically reducing coal use, as well as focusing on the development of renewable energy sources, are regarded as critical pillars of the new environmental strategies.

Issue framing within the climate debate: An analysis of US environmental policy outcomes

AbstractThis paper argues different policy issue framings of climate change—ranging from security to energy, economics, humanitarian response, and health frames—play critical roles in altering policy outcomes. Specifically, we focus on the several windows of opportunity that altered the pathway of the US climate change debates from 1985 to 2017. Progressing from the underpinnings of issue framing literature and public policy discourse, we conduct content analysis of news articles, academic papers, policy documents and other archival evidence, to show why and when environmental framings shift, and to what effect. Our innovative models provide generalization of these trends and their implications for environmental agenda setting, complemented by a qualitative section that contextualizes impact as well as the feedback mechanisms of issue framing on environmental politics in the United States. The findings highlight the need for future case study analysis to trace the causal mechanisms between climate change framings and US policy outcomes.

The The Impact of the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism on Russian Exporters

The European Union’s commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 led EU states to develop a new legal stimulus mechanism allowing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: the ‘Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism’ (‘CBAM’). First introduced in July 2021, the CBAM anticipates an imposition of a special carbon import duty on companies that import certain goods and materials into the EU, with the amount of such duty calculated based on the amount of GHG emissions emitted into the atmosphere in relation to such products.
 CBAM constitutes a part of today’s environmental agenda of the EU, but it obviously places additional financial burden on the shoulders of exporters, including those from Russia, for many of whom the EU has been a strategic market for a long period of time.
 This article provides a summary of findings made as a result of research of available publications that addresses a potential impact of CBAM on the value and financial metrics of those Russian exporters. The authors aim to demonstrate the results of calculations of the additional burden placed on the exporters which arise from CBAM through an analysis of the structure of the export, identification of the economic sectors most affected by CBAM, calculation of a carbon export duty to be potentially paid at the border of the Eurasian Economic Union, as well as calculation of required government support for the exporters.This article further evaluates the impact of CBAM while factoring in amendments that were still not covered in comprehensive research papers at the time of publication of the particular research analysed herein. Additionally, a detailed analysis of goods exported to the EU and impacted by CBAM is conducted for the first time, including a list of significant commodity nomenclature codes which are stipulated in the relevant legislation. Finally, recommendations on potential reactions to the impositions of CBAM and their effects on the future growth of the Russian economy are also provided.
 In December 2021, the European Commission proposed a set of stringent amendments to the CBAM draft legislation, expanding the list of goods affected, broadening the emissions scope and accelerating the timeline for implementation of the CBAM. In June 2022 the European Commission agreed to compromise on less-stringent wording which goes outside the scope of this article. The details of proposed amendments assessed in this article thus represent the stricter version of language considered during the review process of the European Commission.

Hot air or new energy: Are we seeing signs of improved citizen engagement in district heating schemes?

<h2>Abstract</h2> District heating (DH) schemes linked to Energy from Waste (EfW) and Biomass facilities have been championed for their potential to decarbonise heating yet their role in energy policy is contested. These schemes are a unique intersection between two vital environmental policy agendas - waste and energy - and can offer opportunities for citizens to affect both environmental agendas and future energy infrastructures. Much has been written on the technical opportunities of DH and its policy landscape. This paper explores an important missing piece, to explore to what extent and how DH schemes support citizen engagement in local heat infrastructure decision-making. The benefits of citizen engagement are understood but there is currently no clear and consistent implementation of stakeholder engagement policy in this area. Evidence from four qualitative case studies is presented from the UK and Sweden to investigate strategies used by developers and operators to engage with stakeholders and how this influences their decision-making. However, limited examples of bottom-up, unplanned moments of citizen engagement were found as practice fails to live up to theory and policy rhetoric: ownership structures came through in our research as a key factor in this disconnect.

Living on the edge: The use of fruit‐feeding butterflies to evaluate edge effect on subtropical assemblages

AbstractThis study evaluated how the edge effect influences the structuration of fruit‐feeding butterfly assemblages in swamp forest fragments of the subtropical Atlantic Forest, Southern Brazil. Sampling was carried out twice in 10 fragments using baited traps placed in sampling units both at the forest edge and 50 m within the forest interior, with the habitats being defined by a set of environmental variables. Richness and abundance were higher for edge habitats with an effect of temperature depending on humidity and luminosity. The subfamily/tribe composition of fruit‐feeding butterflies was segregated between edge and interior and was predicted by wind speed and the interaction between humidity and luminosity. Fifty meters within the forest interior is not sufficient to cause homogenization of butterfly composition between the edge and interior of swamp forest fragments, indicating distinct assemblages in each habitat. The interior harboured forest‐loving butterfly groups while the edge harboured generalist sun‐loving and common butterflies associated with disturbed areas, suggesting resistance to the effects of habitat fragmentation. We highlight the importance of using fruit‐feeding butterfly groups, instead of species, to evaluate edge effects. We also suggest that a heterogeneous matrix with native habitats and distinct semi‐natural land‐use systems be maintained to manage subtropical areas by increasing connectivity within the landscape. Considering the impacts that the Atlantic Forest suffers, increased knowledge of modifications caused at small and regional scales is crucial for the maintenance of ecological processes and represents a tool for conservation planning and environmental agendas.

Understanding the importance of sustainable ecological innovation in reducing carbon emissions: investigating the green energy demand, financial development, natural resource management, industrialisation and urbanisation channels

Humanity is in more danger from escalating greenhouse gas (G.H.G.) emissions, making the world warmer. The study examined the relationship between China’s environmental technologies, ecological innovation, and carbon emissions using time-series data from 1975 to 2020. The N.A.R.D.L. approach is used to examine the cointegration of variables in the short and long run. In the short run, environmental technologies, industrialisation (I.N.D.), positive shocks to natural resource depletion (N.R.D.), negative shocks to renewable energy (R.E.) use, and technical advancements affect carbon emissions. On the other hand, positive shocks to environmental technologies and financial development (F.D.), negative shocks to N.R.D., R.E. consumption (E.C.), and technical innovation all have a long-term effect on carbon emissions. Granger causality was used to examine the causal link between variables. According to the findings, environmental technologies, F.D., technical innovation, N.R.D., and economic growth (E.G.) cause carbon emissions. The impulse response function revealed an inverse link between asymmetric environmental technology and carbon emissions. In contrast, F.D. and N.R.D. directly affect environmental degradation over time. The outcome of the variance decomposition revealed that negative shocks of F.D. would likely exert greater pressure on achieving sustainable environmental agenda. Investment in environmental technology, F.D., technological innovation and R.E. should be encouraged by the Chinese government to achieve sustainable prosperity.

Popular press framing of sustainable communities: vibrant, innovative, ecological, and resilient

ABSTRACT The recent diffusion of urban sustainability concepts has led new developer-driven master-planned models of sustainable neighborhoods to emerge around the world. These communities no longer aim at early adopters but seek to mainstream sustainability in the residential market. The popular press has been influential in portraying this model to the public as the future of urbanism. By analyzing popular press portrayals of master-planned neighborhoods with self-articulated sustainability goals in Japan, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States, this paper asks which values and design features are emphasized and which frames are associated with such values. Through qualitative textual analysis, we find that coverage of these developments emphasizes their convenience and economic savings while downplaying sustainability narratives related to changes in lifestyle, affordability, climate change, and inclusion. Media coverage emphasizes four framings of such communities: vibrant, innovative, ecological, and resilient. The press often represents such projects as utopian and ignores issues related to performance and management. As a consequence, the sustainable neighborhood imaginary loses aspects of its social and environmental agenda.

Bolsonaro's far‐right populist environmental and climate diplomacy

AbstractBrazilian diplomacy has historically used the environmental agenda as a soft‐power tool, particularly regarding climate change, but this situation has drastically changed under Jair Bolsonaro's administration. Imitating other far‐right populists and their antienvironmental rhetoric, especially Donald Trump's, Bolsonaro attempted to use the topic to inflame his domestic supporters against international players. On the one hand, this strategy weakened Brazilian influence in bilateral and multilateral forums; on the other, dismantling environmental policies and governance structures had substantial consequences, especially in deforestation rates and attacks on traditional communities. This article analyzes the Bolsonaro administration's stand on the environment and climate issues and the repercussions of its policies and rhetoric in Brazil's domestic and foreign scenarios. We conclude that changes in the international context, especially after Trump's electoral defeat in the United States, led to a softening of Bolsonaro's international environmental and climate discourse, with no substantial policy changes internally. Although climate denialism is a centerpiece of the discourse of far‐right populists, this empirical analysis indicates that, in the case of Brazil, this narrative did not bring significant results to Bolsonaro in terms of support or international relevance.

Challenges and problems of petrochemical companies’ use of secondary resources

The environmental agenda for the development of economic systems necessitates the formation of a market for secondary petrochemical products . A comparative analysis of the policies of sustainable development of petrochemical companies showed that the policy of sustainable development of individual budinesses is currently focused on the use of the following tools : development of the product portfolio , participation in international initiatives , partnerships and forums ; voluntary industry initiatives and private projects to implement the first steps towards the collective goals of sustainable development . Among the main solutions of the reviewed organisations are products made of renewable raw materials and recyclable products . At the same time , the implementation of the responsible production and consumption by petrochemical companies is limited by the production and technological solutions of manufacturers of consumer goods . Environmentally unsustainable use of polymers by such enterprises makes their recycling difficult and limits the implementation of the concept of circular economy in petrochemicals . The article identifies key problems in the management and use of secondary resources : underdeveloped waste market conditions ; uneven scale and geography of waste ; inconsistent and inefficient ( unsystematic ) measures of waste market regulation , difficulties in forecasting prices for key raw materials and building a pricing mechanism in key markets , which are represented by polyethylene terephthalates , high density polyethylene , low density polyethylene and polypropylene . The introduction of chemolysis into the well-established technological processes of oil and gas chemical companies to work with secondary polymers requires an assessment of the acceptable level of risk . The needs of the market on the part of customers are not fully formed , so the dynamic changes , creating difficulties for petrochemical companies . Most of the highlighted problems are typical for both Russian and global markets of secondary petrochemicals . At the same time , the features of state regulation and logistics services for secondary petrochemical products are regional in nature , therefore , they are considered in the work for the conditions of the Russian Federation.

Development Prospects of Political and Economic Aspects of the Environmental Agenda in Anti-Russian Sanctions

In recent years, the number of problems associated with the environment and the corresponding political and economic effects has been growing. The author observed this trend both in the internal Russian environment and within the framework of international relations. The current geopolitical situation and new realities associated with external sanctions pressure on the Russian Federation faces issues of the environmental agenda as a tool of political and economic impact on society and states are of particular importance. So far, they have been poorly disclosed in Russian political science. The paper considers the dominant trends and prospects for the development of some aspects of the environmental agenda in anti-Russian sanctions.

Posidaeja and Mami Wata: The online afterlives of two mermaid goddesses

This article examines two examples of fanfiction on oceanic mythologies: ‘Another day, another offering’ by sweetbydesign (2021), about Posideaja, and ‘Mami Wata’ by lucien_cramp (2021). Through both stories, age-old archetypes of mermaid goddesses are harnessed for the environmental agenda. In their fannish rewritings, the authors inverse many Romantic mermaid tropes to empower the mermaid and to confirm the connection between the mermaid and oceanic awareness. Moreover, in their latest remediations, Posideaja’s and Mami Wata’s bodies go against widespread standards for physical beauty and for fitness (i.e. functionality, such as being fit for labour). As such, these two updated mermaids open up a wide range of possibilities for identification and inspiration for their creators as well as their audiences. With their new representations of Posideaja and Mami Wata, the authors thus address two interconnected problems: the oppression of women (in terms of beauty and fitness norms) and the environmental damage done to the oceans (in terms of the acidification of oceans, increases in ocean temperatures and rising sea-levels).

A competency-based curricular framework for forestry professionals human development, and a sustainable environment

An alternative presented follows the studies derived from the Forum "Defining the profile of the forestry professional of the future" held on September 6, 2021, with the assistance of 160 experts selected by different institutions to carry out a joint analysis of the situation of Forestry Professionals in the new realities, supported by a Delphic Study where they reflected their experiences, opinions, and expectations, with this it was also possible to promote the rapprochement with its members, collect their perceptions and experiences, as well as clarify the new scenarios and collect proposals, transforming the proposal attitudes into elements of analysis with new orientations of the forestry work. The result of the study presented follows these findings and indicates six attributes required by the Curricular Framework and which are: 1. Promote Integral Human Development, 2. Self-manage Professional Development, 3. Development of Executive Functions and Higher Thinking Skills, 4. The impulse to Social Integration, 5. Fulfill the environmental agenda, and 6. Educate under the paradigm of Agrocultural Revitalization and also, norms for curriculum development.

Коммуникативный аспект формирования имиджа территории: экологическая проблематика в интернет-СМИ промышленных регионов

The article presents new results of the research on the problem of communicative formation of the image of environmentally disadvantaged territories. The relevance of the issue is supplemented by new factors in the context of environmental discourse and language images of the territory in the regional media. The ecological image of the territory acquires relevance in the concept of sustainable development. The aim of the study is to try to identify the features of environmental news coverage in the regional media of environmentally disadvantaged territories, linguistic patterns of image creation in the news content. The key toolkit was the method of content analysis and survey, contributing to the understanding of the problem. The methodology and methods of research are built on the scientific approaches of domestic and foreign scientists, who raise the problem at the methodological level. A special place in the methodology of analysis is taken by the linguistic analysis of texts. The angle of presentation and consideration of the problem is important. Informational environmental agenda of Internet media of industrial regions becomes a conditional mirror, which reflects the current reality. The results of the study showed that there is a direct link between the image of the territory and its information promotion in the information agenda of the region, which forms the communicative image of the territory in the media space. The assumption that language images influence the attractiveness of the region is confirmed. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the attempt to integrate the methods of classical content analysis of the environmental agenda of the regional media and methods of linguistic analysis in environmental communications. The practical significance of the study lies in the possibility to use the materials to translate the experience of the regional media in the practice of environmental journalism, forming the impression and representation of the attractiveness of the risk territories.