Environmental Governance Initiatives Research Articles

Study on the impact of central environmental protection inspection on the health of the older adult population-A quasi-natural experiment in China.

In 2015, the central government of China established the Central Environmental Protection Inspection (CEPI) system for oversight of local governments. It enhanced local government enforcement of environmental regulations, which had a considerable influence on the health of the local older adult population. This study quantifies the effects of local government regulation brought about by CEPI on the health of the older adult. It examines the impact mechanism using the DID model and panel data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). The results show that (1) local governments' environmental protection regulations implemented by CEPI have a positive impact on the general health of the older adult. The results of the study passed the parallel trend test, PSM test, replacement variable test, and placebo test and remained significant; (2) in terms of the impact mechanism, CEPI has promoted local governments' environmental governance initiatives, which has reduced industrial wastewater emissions, industrial sulfur dioxide emissions, and industrial fumes emissions. This has improved air quality, thereby creating a good living environment for the older adult and improving their overall health; (3) according to heterogeneity research, the health of older adult living in the Yangtze River Basin, urban older adult, and older adult without chronic diseases is more significantly affected by the environmental protection regulations of the local governments brought about by CEPI.

Dynamic evolution of China's government environmental regulation capability and its impact on the coupling coordinated development of the economy-environment

Effective environmental governance in China is crucial for promoting global environmental governance initiatives. The government's environmental regulatory capacity (GERC) is a core metric reflecting the effectiveness of China's environmental governance. This paper aims to investigate the strength of China's GERC and empirically verify its impact on the coupling coordinated development of the economy-environment (CEE). We use a multiple indicators and multiple causes model (MIMIC) to measure the governmental environmental regulation capabilities of 30 provinces in China, from 2007 to 2018. Then, the econometric model is used to test the impact of the GERC on CEE. The results show that, although the GERC exhibits an overall upward trend, it is still at a low level for most regions. The GERC in different regions of China exhibits a certain gradient effect, with a weak polarization trend. The increase in the GERC of regions with high levels of economic development is significantly faster than that in regions with low levels of economic development. Moreover, the improvement in the GERC has not promoted coordinated development between the economy and the environment, which means that there is still a mutual “crowding out effect” between economic development and environmental protection in China.

A political ecology of jurisdictional REDD+: investigating social-environmentalism, climate change mitigation, and environmental (in)justice in the Brazilian Amazon

This article contributes to political ecologies of forest-based climate change mitigation strategies by assessing Brazil's first sub-national jurisdictional REDD+ program. Proponents of jurisdictional REDD+ argue that the approach brings more social and environmental benefits than small-scale REDD+ projects and addresses negative socio-economic impacts of deforestation pressures on forest-dependent communities. Our analysis tells a different story. We assess Acre's sub-national jurisdictional (SNJ) program to show that reworking the scale of REDD+ is not only key to its persistence and stabilization, but also that implementation politics often further environmental injustice. We draw qualitative field research in the state of Acre into conversation with a critical analysis of SISA and the ISA Carbono program implementation. Our findings illustrate two interwoven points vital to political ecologies of REDD+. First, the social-environmental ambitions of Acre's SNJ REDD+ program were strongly influenced by the political ecologies of popular movements and a history of state-led environmental governance initiatives. Second, Acre's SNJ REDD+ has not met several of its social-environmental goals like bolstering forest-dependent peoples' rights or equitably distributing program benefits across sectors, despite operating most extensively on the lands of forest-dependent communities. Consequently, we argue that Acre's SNJ REDD+ track record has reinforced rather than alleviated injustice against Indigenous peoples and traditional forest extractivist communities.

Public participation in environmental governance initiatives of chemical industrial parks

A chemical industrial park is a socioeconomic and ecological composite system formed by the interaction of multiple stakeholders, such as chemical companies, the government, and the public. The environmental governance of chemical industrial parks requires the participation of multiple parties. However, when considering the environmental problems of chemical industrial parks, researchers mainly investigate such problems based on the parks or the government, and there is a lack of research from the perspective of multiple subjects. In this paper, we take public participation in China’s chemical industrial parks as an example and, based on semi-structured interviews and questionnaires, analyse the current situation of public participation in the environmental governance of chemical industrial parks. We find that public participation is characterized by a situation of “helplessness”. This helplessness has three causes: (1) a weak foundation for public participation, (2) limited public participation channels and (3) ineffective CIP management committees. We also discuss changes required at the government level, fostering public participation in environmental governance of chemical industrial parks and implications for theory and practice on cleaner production.

Assessment of environmental governance in disaster vulnerability context of rural Bangladesh

AbstractBangladesh faces many climate‐driven hazards due to its geophysical position and is more vulnerable than most developing countries. The natural resources‐based livelihood of the riverine island (char) dwellers is frequently hampered by the adverse effect of environmental changes. This study intends to assess the status of environmental governance for protecting disaster‐prone communities in Bangladesh. Geographically isolated disaster‐prone riverine island areas of northern Bangladesh have been purposively selected for this study. A qualitative method has been applied to explore the extent of governmental intervention. The intervention of environmental governance has been measured by assessing the role of government in disaster management by engaging with a state, market, and community for char community. In addition, secondary data were used to substantiate the argument. This study reveals that environmental governance initiatives are not enough to protect char dwellers from frequent hazards and fail to ensure livelihood resilience. The status of environmental governance in char areas is very poor, weak, inactive, and unable to address the present problem and future challenges. The article suggests that a comprehensive disaster management strategy should be implemented in the char areas through strengthening local government capacity.

A faultline in neoliberal environmental governance scholarship? Or, why accumulation-by-alienation matters

This article identifies an emerging faultline in critical geography and political ecology scholarship by reviewing recent debates on three neoliberal environmental governance initiatives: Payments for Ecosystem Services, the United Nations programme for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries and carbon-biodiversity offsetting. These three approaches, we argue, are characterized by varying degrees of contextual and procedural – or superficial – difference, meanwhile exhibiting significant structural similarities that invite critique, perhaps even rejection. Specifically, we identify three largely neglected ‘social engineering’ outcomes as more foundational to Payments for Ecosystem Services, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries and carbon-biodiversity offsetting than often acknowledged, suggesting that neoliberal environmental governance approaches warrant greater critical attention for their contributions to advancing processes of colonization, state territorialization and security policy. Examining the structural accumulation strategies accompanying neoliberal environmental governance approaches, we offer the term ‘accumulation-by-alienation’ to highlight both the objective appropriations accompanying Payments for Ecosystem Services, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries and offsetting and the relational deficiencies accompanying the various commodifying instrumentalizations at the heart of these initiatives. We concur with David Harvey’s recent work proposing that understanding the iterative and consequential connections between objective/material and subjective/psychological dimensions of alienation offers ‘one vital key to unlock the door of a progressive politics for the future’. We conclude (with others) by urging critical geography and political ecology scholars to cultivate research directions that affirm more radical alternatives, rather than reinforcing a narrowing focus on how to improve Payments for Ecosystem Services, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries and offsetting in practice.

Private Governance Response to Climate Change: The Case of Refrigerants

Refrigerants are promising targets for private environmental governance initiatives. An unintended consequence of the 1987 Montreal Protocol was to increase demand for hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which are potent greenhouse gases. Global demand for air conditioning units and other refrigerant-using equipment is expected to increase steeply over the next several decades. HFC use is projected to increase as much as 20-fold by 2050, adding up to .1 degree Celsius of global average temperature rise. Government initiatives have targeted refrigerants at the international, national, and subnational levels, but given the limited prospects for major new government action in the near term, this article focuses on how private governance initiatives can fill the gap. Private initiatives are a promising option because refrigerant loss is often costly to corporations, universities, hospitals, and households, and private initiatives can harness a range of motivations to reduce refrigerant emissions even without the coercive force and resources of government.

A Crisis of Confidence: Stakeholder Experiences of REDD+ in Indonesia

Identifying challenges and opportunities for REDD+ will help to inform future policy and implementation of the program in Indonesia and other countries. The aim of this research is to identify and elucidate challenges and opportunities for REDD+ and other environmental governance initiatives. We present the perceptions of stakeholders and practitioners involved in REDD+ in Indonesia at multiple scales varying from global to local. Our research demonstrates stakeholders are struggling with problems of bureaucracy and a lack of confidence in REDD+, in addition to problems surrounding funding, logistics of implementation, corruption, stakeholder engagement and buy-in. Ultimately, our respondents and supporting documents reflect the particularly complex cultural and governance contexts in Indonesia. Despite challenges, REDD+ may have increased attention to these issues and acted as a catalyst for change. Effective implementation of REDD+ projects in Indonesia will require both nuanced understanding of the local and cultural context as well as long-term perspectives.

How REDD+ Is Performing Communities

Community based approaches are becoming the norm in environmental governance initiatives. One prominent example of this is Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+), a climate change mitigation strategy that aims at reducing carbon emissions caused by deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries. REDD+ policies generally evoke communities as both potential beneficiaries of REDD+ and as agents for its implementation. However, it is unclear what REDD+ policies are really referring to when they talk about communities. Drawing on critical social science literature about the idea of community, this article advances a performative perspective to analyze how communities are articulated in international and national REDD+ policy, and reflects on the potential implications of these articulations. Results reveal that international policy documents, including those of the major non-governmental organizations (NGOs) engaged in REDD+, tend to present an interpretation that corresponds to Agrawal and Gibson’s myth of communities as small, localized, and homogenous social units that share social norms. On the other hand, national policy documents reveal enormous variety in the communities that are actually targeted in national REDD+ policies in terms of resources, governance structure, and social cohesion. One conclusion that could be drawn from this is that the dominant uniform interpretation of communities in REDD+ policy, and in much academic and NGO literature, is clearly unrealistic. However, this does not mean that it is inconsequential. We conclude our article by discussing the performative effects of the identified articulations of community.

An Estoppel-Based Approach to Enforcing Corporate Environmental Responsibilities

Within the regulatory space that exists at the intersection of UK company law and environmental regulation, the business community has generated its own environmental governance initiatives to address growing anxiety about companies’ externalised risk. Yet, there is currently nothing in law to prevent companies from frequently acting inconsistently with these voluntary unilateral assurances, which has led to widespread concern that environmental values are treated as merely instrumental to the dominant idea of achieving economic benefits for the company. This article examines a specific case for the legal facilitation of binding obligations owed to the environment, which require a company to make good on its previous commitments about environmental responsibility. It seeks to demonstrate that this is possible through the common law doctrine of estoppel, which can be opened up to prevent a company from acting inconsistently with its previous statements or actions about the governance of environmental risk.

The Analytic Utility (and Practical Pitfalls) of Accountability

This forum provides commentary on five accountability articles in this issue. In response to those pieces, it advances the argument that the study of accountability through the framework proposed by Kramarz and Park (and demonstrated by the empirical articles) can uncover key political dynamics that drive the design of global environmental governance initiatives. The utility of the practical application of accountability measures to ensure good design, rather than proper implementation, is less clear. Using the framework to study accountability does, however, provide an opening for debates over initiative design that may lead to improvements in global environmental governance outcomes.

ARMENIA AND THE EASTERN PARTNERSHIP INITIATIVE

On 7 May 2009 the Eastern Partnership program was launched in Prague, intended to strengthen cooperation between the EU and six former Soviet Republics, including Armenia. It was planned as a combination of the following flagship initiatives: Integrated Border Management Programme, Support for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Regional Energy Markets and Renewable Energy Sources, Environmental Governance and Natural Disaster Management. Within the frame of the first initiative, Armenia implemented projects concerning the election process, cooperation between Armenian judicial bodies and EU courts, promotion of the European model of justice and human rights, prevention of corruption in public administration, introduction of e-administration, support of women's entrepreneurship, support of migration management services and got acquainted with best practices in customs control and tax execution. The second initiative was implemented by organization of trainings for SMEs and active promotion of foreign investments in Armenia. Within the third initiative, the Armenian government laid the basis for energy passports for buildings, revised electricity and natural gas tariffs, and prepared a plan for better use of energy sources and energy generation from renewable sources. As part of the environmental governance initiative, Armenia intensified environmental protection activities. Within the fifth initiative, it developed the Electronic Regional Atlas of areas at risk of natural disasters. In terms of system transformation, in 2009–2013, Armenia was rated by a team of international experts as next to last. It received a poor rating with regard to management and approximation of regulations to EU requirements. Nevertheless, the European Parliament extended funds to Armenia for further transformations in 2014–2020.

Green governmentality and swidden decline on Palawan Island

Environmental governance initiatives increasingly extend to the rural Philippines as ‘devolved’ programmes that progress livelihood change, differentiation and market‐based investments. This paper examines how the origins, rise and consequences of environmental governance initiatives in Palawan Island, the Philippines, facilitate forms of governmentality that intersect with, and rearticulate through, the local political economy to influence swidden‐based livelihoods, social relations and landscape composition. Drawing on recent scholarship, I describe how the rise and substance of this governance agenda manifests spatially as a form of discursive green governmentality. I argue that this scaled, discursive process involves diverse institutions that decentre and deploy technical knowledge, values and rules in local spaces, influencing how farmers self‐govern their behaviour and use of nature toward ‘sustainability’ (Goldman 2001). I draw on a case study to show how Tagbanua swidden farmers negotiate such green governmentality by adopting new landscape ideals through anti‐swidden narratives inflected by local politics, economy and environmental change in villages around the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park. I focus on how green governmentality has become systemic across scales to converge with local politics and economy, where governmental discourse is pliable, flexibly interpreted, though followed to affect the shift from long fallow to permanent cultivation. I conclude by showing that the ways government, non‐governmental and local actors communicate and invest in such discourse facilitates convergence with the local political economy, reinforcing swidden decline, livelihood risk and marginalisation.

Of laws and limits: An ecological economic perspective on redressing the failure of contemporary global environmental governance

The persistent failures of international environmental governance initiatives to halt the degradation of the global commons are directly linked to the implicit worldview and assumptions fueling the proliferation of industrial society. These include an instrumental conception on non-human nature, rampant materialism, technological optimism, and an expansionary economics premised on the axiomatic necessity of unconstrained growth. Permeating contemporary environmental governance regimes, it is argued that these premises are fundamentally incompatible with the requirements of environmental sustainability. Proceeding from the perspective of ecological economics, it is further argued that achieving environmental sustainability in industrial society requires foremost that we restructure and constrain the scale of economic activities relative to global biocapacity. It is concluded that a scale-based approach to governing the environmental commons, operationalized by a strong world environment organization, offers at least a partial solution to this conundrum.

Transparency Under Scrutiny: Information Disclosure in Global Environmental Governance

Although transparency is a key concept of our times, it remains a relatively understudied phenomenon in global environmental politics. The link between transparency and accountable, legitimate and effective governance is assumed, yet the nature and workings of this link require further scrutiny. Transparency via information disclosure is increasingly at the heart of a number of global environmental governance initiatives, termed “governance-by-disclosure” here. The article identifies two assumptions that underpin such governance-by-disclosure initiatives, and calls for comparative analysis of the workings of such assumptions in practice, as a way to illuminate the nature and implications of a transparency turn in global environmental governance and its link to accountable, legitimate and effective governance.