Environmental Governance Efficiency Research Articles

Pricing, environmental governance efficiency, and channel coordination in a socially responsible tourism supply chain

AbstractWe investigate the pricing and environmental governance efficiency decisions and channel coordination of a dyadic tourism supply chain with corporate social responsibility. We consider two cases: only the theme park exhibits (environmental) social responsibility; and both theme park and tour operator exhibit social responsibility. For each case, we design a coordination mechanism. In the first case, we find that (a) if the environmental governance investment is relatively inexpensive, then the retail price, environmental governance efficiency, and sale quantity may simultaneously increase with the theme park's environmental responsibility (extra investment on the treatment of ungoverned environmental damage) under the centralized system; (b) it is more likely to achieve a win‐win outcome if the theme park cares more about the environment when the channel is coordinated; (c) the theme park's environmental responsibility enables itself to gain more coordination benefit when its negotiation power is relatively high. In the second case, we find that (a) the environmental governance efficiency or sale quantity increases with the tour operator's social responsibility; (b) both members’ profits may increase with the tour operator's social responsibility.

Water Policy And Governance Networks: A Pathway To Enhance Resilience Toward Climate Change

AbstractNatural resources governance is key to enhancing resilience toward climate change and strengthening socioecological systems in light of future uncertainties. Overlapping jurisdictions and lack of clarity in the lines of authority reduce the efficiency of environmental policies and governance, jeopardizing the conservation and sustainable use of resources. With the forecast of longer droughts, extreme precipitation patterns, faster runoff, and slower water table recharge over the coming years, water governance becomes an impellent issue. To understand the risks posed by water scarcity and water regulations, a case study was conducted of Oklahoma state‐level water policies and governance. A content analysis of water policies and a network analysis of water governance was used to determine how Oklahoma experiences features of fragmented and adaptive governance within its natural resource governance structure. Data analysis reveals that Oklahoma water governance experiences multiple forms of fragmentation while also showing features of an adaptive network. Such adaptive features make Oklahoma's water governance network more resilient than forecasted. Identifying gaps and understanding how a governance system experiences fragmentation can help policy makers develop strategies to enhance the adaptive features of water governance, thus preparing for risk and disasters related to water scarcity and climate variability.

Investment Efficiency DEA Analysis of Pollution Control in China

Environmental problems have been obstacles hindering the countries and regions healthy development. How to scientifically and efficiently use the relatively limited fund to control environmental pollution problem is significant. Based on the model of DEA, this paper builds the evaluation index system of environmental pollution treatment investment to analyze environment pollution control investment efficiency. Results show that the main factor leading to the poor government efficiency is not the mount of money, but the unreasonable capital utilization. Nationwide 31 provinces and cities analysis data in China shows that the total investment waste reaches 1.97342 trillion yuan and the gap of emissions of three wastes including waste gas, waste water, solid waste between actual quantity and the ideal target quantity is respectively 26.49738 billion tons, 16.17551 billion tons and 26.49738 billion tons. This paper proves that DEA model is scientific and feasible to evaluate the environmental pollution governance efficiency.

Unravelling science-policy interactions in environmental risk governance of the Baltic Sea: comparing fisheries and eutrophication

Interactions between scientific assessments and management decision-making are key determinants for the efficiency of environmental risk governance. This applies particularly to marine ecosystems like the Baltic Sea, where fisheries and eutrophication pose serious threats connected to environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainability. Using contemporary science-policy theory, this paper investigates structures, challenges and prospects of science-policy interfaces connected to fisheries and eutrophication governance in the Baltic Sea. We analyse and compare the two cases with respect to two aspects: first the design and organisational structures of the institutional frameworks and second the management of uncertainties and stakeholder disagreements in the two risk cases. The analyses reveal how conventional natural science-based policy-making is insufficient for the requirements of complex environmental governance arenas like fisheries and eutrophication. Both cases show a high, almost exclusive, dependence on science-based advice regarding the organisational and institutional structures of their science-policy interfaces. They also expose remarkable differences with respect to stakeholder disagreements about the interplay between science, other knowledge and policy decisions. In the eutrophication case, consensual science-based advice shaped policy decisions in a comparatively uncomplicated manner. In fisheries by contrast, stakeholder disagreements and different interpretations of scientific uncertainties created serious confusions about the basic role of science in policy. We identify and discuss factors contributing to the observed differences in the science-policy interplay of fisheries and eutrophication management. Our results highlight a misleading conceptual understanding of science-policy interfaces between the normative idea of objective, science-based policy-making and the political challenges of dealing with the social aspects of uncertainty and stakeholder disagreements in environmental risk governance.

Influencing factor analysis of the investment efficiency of the environmental governance

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to get hold of the main influence factors of the investment efficiency of environmental governance and control them to improve its efficiency sensitively and employ full use of the investment of environmental governance.Design/methodology/approachThe assessment index system of the investment efficiency of environmental governance is built. Its investment efficiency is assessed based on data envelopment analysis (DEA). The influence degree on the efficiency between each assessment index is calculated by the grey incidence degree analysis method to find the key influence factors. The efficiency of the investment in the environmental governance can be improved by managing and controlling the key factors.FindingsThe results prove that it is available by the data of 14 cities in Shandong Province in 2008. The key influence factors of the investment efficiency of the environmental governance are: total investment in the treatment of environmental pollution (F1); industrial soot removal (F3); industrial wastewater meeting discharge standards (F2); and the volume of garbage disposal (F9).Practical implicationsThe method exposed in the paper can be used to solve investment efficiency problem of the environmental governance of the other provinces, or other years and even other countries.Originality/valueThe paper succeeds in solving investment efficiency problem of the environmental governance by DEA and grey incidence degree analysis method.

Territorial politics and the success of collaborative environmental governance: local and regional partnerships compared

The paper explores the role local governments and territorial proximity play in the efficiency of collaborative environmental governance. It develops the hypothesis that the representatives of local authorities involved in partnerships possess resources to diminish the pitfalls of sustainable governance, facilitate coordination, and contribute to the success of shared policy-making. Four French and English partnerships are presented. They include a diversity of stakeholders such as fisheries, ports, farmers, yachting associations, environmental NGOs, or local authorities. Thereby, the paper develops whether and under which conditions local governments play a positive or negative role, as well as comparing territorial levels of implementation and the effects of geographical proximity. It is shown that collaboration at the regional level prevents the integration of decision-making in organisational networks, the inclusion of citizens, and the development of social responsibility for stakeholders – the partnership acting as a formalisation of pre-existing lobbying. Locally, governments assume inter-organisational leadership and do contribute to the institutionalisation of the new forums. Yet, local successes of partnerships answer logics of social, rather than environmental, regulation. The local attenuation of usage conflicts does not necessarily reduce the negative effects of those usages on the environment. By stressing a collaborative definition of environmental problems, the partnerships tend to sideline substantial policy changes, and possibly conflict with the goals and long-term temporality of sustainable governance.

Environmental policy integration and the architecture of global environmental governance

This article discusses environmental policy integration—a concept so far mainly applied to domestic and European politics—at the global level. The article distinguishes between integration of institutions, of organizations, and of their bureaucracies, and it addresses both internal integration (within the environmental policy domain) and external integration (between environmental policies and non-environmental policies). The overall focus is on one set of policy reform proposals that have been salient in the global environmental governance debate for the last decades: the question of whether the creation of a world environment organization would improve the effectiveness, legitimacy, and efficiency of global environmental governance. We revisit this debate and explore the options for organizational change, including clustering, upgrading, streamlining, and hierarchical steering, with a focus on whether the reform proposals can bring about environmental policy integration. We conclude that in the longer term, upgrading of the UN Environment Programme to a UN specialized agency, with additional and increasing streamlining of other institutions and bureaucracies, offers the most potential for environmental policy integration and does not appear to be unrealistic.