Environmental Policy Issues Research Articles

How can we accept ‘our’ decisions?: an experimental study on lottocracy, epistocracy, and electoral democracy

Abstract Lottocracy and epistocracy have received deeply insightful attention as political regimes. Herein, by conducting an experiment using an online survey, we explored the extent to which public opinion is receptive to political decisions under various regimes regarding two environmental policies: education policy and environmental tax policy. By doing so, we examined whether the presence of tax burdens affected the acceptability of political regimes, i.e., electoral democracy, lottocracy, and epistocracy. Our results revealed that decisions based on lottocracy and epistocracy were significantly less acceptable than those based on electoral democracy. Nevertheless, lottocratic and epistocratic decisions were more acceptable regarding the issue of environmental tax policy. The difference was mainly attributed to people's rejection of environmental tax policy offsetting their rejection of lottocracy and epistocracy. This suggests, first, that decisions based on electoral democracy increase policies' acceptability if they do not involve taxation, and second, that the status of whether or not a decision is electoral does not significantly affect policy acceptability if taxation is involved, whereas on the other hand, people are sensitive to differences between the regimes if the policy does not involve taxation.

The potential of the P-graph for optimizing public service processes

AbstractThe European Union set out several directives and standards for governments and local authorities on environmental policy issues in the planning and management of public services. Public service provisioning is subject to both traditional expectations (such as customer-friendliness and efficiency) and new environmental stewardship and sustainability expectations. This paper analyzes public service processes, particularly the university enrolment process. Our analysis used public service models (Service Blueprinting, Business Process Modeling, Process Chain Network) and a mathematical model (P-graph). Our research aims to analyze the university enrolment process and its efficiency, considering sustainability aspects and expectations and identifying the points that can be modified and improved to make it more efficient, sustainable, qualitatively positive, and economical. According to our research, school administrators are overburdened during the enrolment process, often resulting in overtime work and a high turnover ratio. Our results clearly show the high inefficiency of this administrative process, as administrators can only partially meet their expected labor targets during their regular working hours. We found that the university enrolment process can be improved and made more efficient and sustainable. Using the P-graph, we have found the process’s optimal path and resource requirements in a way that was not feasible with previous models. Heartened by these results, we propose introducing and applying the P-graph as a new model to study other public service processes. Graphical abstract

The European Union’s legislative process in the area of environmental protection in the context of the European environmental policy

Motives: This research paper analyzes the legislative process and the implementation of the European Union’s (EU) environmental law as one of the principal tools for achieving and maintaining global ecological safety.Aim: The study was undertaken to determine how the priorities of the EU’s foreign and internal policy are reflected in the legislative process in the area of environmental protection. The problems associated with law enforcement and the implementation of EU legislative acts in national legislation were also examined, and the current state and prospects for policy-making in the area of environmental protection were assessed. The paper considers environmental policy issues and legal regulations in Azerbaijan in the context of EU experiences. The research covers political and legal relations.Results: An analysis of the historical transformation of the EU’s environmental law from an institutional and constitutional perspective was combined with an analysis of the principal aspects and the main trends in the EU’s environmental governance and lawmaking. The EU’s contribution to the development of environmental legislation highlights its approach to the multi-layered dimension of environmental governance internally, in terms of the dynamic relationship between the EU and the Member States, as well as internationally. The EU’s policy and legal regulations in the area of environmental protection can serve as a reliable example for countries in which the environmental agenda has not yet received due attention. The above applies to both strategic planning, regulatory issues, and law enforcement practices.

Infection Control Practices – Problems and Constraints in its Implementation among Registered Nurses in Medical Wards of a Tertiary Care Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram

Infection prevention and control is a scientific approach for the prevention of Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs). The nursing fraternity have colossal role in implementation of infection control practices, but the nurses come across many challenges in its implementation. The present study is a qualitative descriptive inquiry to explore the problems and constraints in implementation of infection control practices among registered nurses in a tertiary care hospital, Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala). The data collected by in-depth interview with 12 stakeholders and focus group discussions with 13 staff nurses working in medical wards. The data were analysed by Braun & Clarke’s 6-step thematic analysis. The two main themes derived as problems in implementation of infection control practices among registered nurses were professional problems and behavioural problems. The four main themes that emerged as constraints in implementation of infection control practices among registered nurses were resource depletion, unsatisfactory work environment, socio-environmental factors and hospital policy and protocol implementation issues.

Seeing Is Believing: The Role of Place in Mitigating Partisan Attitudes Toward the Environment

Over the past decade the partisan divide over environmental issues has widened significantly. Although attitudes toward climate change and other environmental policy issues have become highly polarized, it is possible that personal geography may moderate partisan attitudes. This study considers whether residing in coastal Virginia influences attitudes on environmental issues among Virginians. To test this question, we survey Virginia registered voters on a range of coastal environmental issues and consider whether place of residence has an effect on these attitudes when accounting for other factors including partisanship. We find a significant relationship between place of residence and a wide range of environmental issue attitudes, though the impact of partisanship is moderated in only limited cases. This research builds on the policy process literature concerning individual proximity to policy problems, place-attachment, and the relationship between partisanship and state environmental policy attitudes.

Foreign experience in the application of economic mechanisms for regulating environmental externalities

In modern global conditions, the solution of issues related to the payment of environmental management is of particular relevance. In many countries, one of the main mechanisms for countering environmental pollution is the environmental tax, which in the Russian Federation takes the form of a parafiscal payment, that is, a fee for negative environmental impact. The article analyzes the foreign countries experience in the application of economic mechanisms for regulating environmental externalities (externalities), draws conclusions about the features of environmental taxation abroad, identifies classification features and types of environmental taxes, payments, and fees used in foreign practice, and offers recommendations on the application of environmental taxes in the Russian Federation. In most developed countries of the world, market mechanisms are used to regulate issues in environmental policy, which facilitate the adoption of decisions by economic entities aimed at reducing environmental harm with the lowest economic costs. At the same time, tax instruments are designed to assess the relationship between the contributions of polluting enterprises to budgets and the degree of harm these enterprises cause to the environment. The environmental tax is the main instrument for regulating issues related to the negative impact on the environment. The experience of the EU and OECD countries shows that environmental taxes, which make up a significant part of the revenue base of the budgets of these countries, are understood as taxes on environmentally hazardous economic activities.

Dialogue and collaboration for sustainable development in Japan and Taiwan: Epistemic foundation of partnership toward Sustainable Development Goals

This study utilized an online social survey of the public in Japan and Taiwan to examine their willingness to learn about various energy and environmental policy issues, their willingness to participate in random-sampling-based citizen dialogues about such policies, their attitudes toward having these dialogues with others who hold different views, their attitudes toward collaboration-based moral foundations, and the boundaries of such collaborations. We measured the attitude toward dialogues with a scale that was previously developed for research on citizen dialogues in Japan. Furthermore, we measured the boundaries of the collaboration by referring to the trust questionnaire in the World Values Survey, and morality was measured using the Morality-as-Cooperation Questionnaire (MAC-Q). Lastly, we statistically analyzed the relationships between these variables and found that Taiwanese respondents had a stronger willingness to learn about environmental issues and participate in citizen dialogue, a more positive attitude toward having dialogues, and a broader boundary of collaboration than among Japanese respondents, as measured by trust ratios. The perceptional attributes that led to significantly lower trust ratios were educational level, profession, and economic level for the Japanese respondents, but were religion, political orientation, and economic level for the Taiwanese respondents. Finally, the openness implied by the attitude toward having dialogues and the boundaries of the collaborations measured by trust was positively associated with the willingness to participate in citizen dialogues on energy and environmental policy in both Japan and Taiwan, with specific characteristics for each society, such as speaking in Japan and listening in Taiwan.

Концептуализация экологической политики:анализ российского и зарубежного научного дискурса и государственные приоритеты развития Арктики

Environmental protection and safety are at the forefront of Russia's national policies in the Arctic. This region is becoming increasingly internationalized and turning into a major point of interest for world powers and transnational companies, which makes environmental policy an important aspect of geopolitical competition. Environmental policy design should be based on current scientific approaches. This study aims to identify and compare the most important topics and theoretical concepts that underlie environmental policy in Russia and abroad. The methodological approach used was semi-systematic (narrative) bibliographic analysis, which involved selecting and analyzing one hundred most-cited Russian and international studies on environmental policy issues. The study identified the key issues discussed and theoretical as well as methodological approaches used by domestic and foreign researchers in the study of environmental policy. The results of the analysis and comparison were evaluated in the context of their relevance to the challenges associated with Russia's state policy imperatives in the Arctic.

Stubble Burning in India: Politics and Policy Responses

Stubble burning has emerged as an important environmental policy issue in India in recent times. This article contends that in addition to the apparent, practical reasons for burning stubble by farmers, there are also historical, policy-based reasons associated with the Green Revolution of India that has led to the perpetuation of the practice. It then provides an assessment of the extant policy responses toward the practice in India, and comments on their efficacies. Having done so, the article maintains that it would be more prudent to approach stubble burning by contextualising it within other environmental issues (and consequent policies) and not as an isolated issue in itself so that environmental sustainability and ecological holism are realised.

Revisiting the nexus between fiscal decentralization and CO2 emissions in South Africa: fresh policy insights

The argument over fiscal decentralization and carbon dioxide emission (CO2) reduction has received much attention. However, evidence to back this claim is limited. Economic theory predicts that fiscal decentralization affects environmental quality, but the specifics of this relationship are still up for debate. Some scholars noted that fiscal decentralization might lead to a race to the top, whereas others contended that it would result in a race to the bottom. In light of the current debates in environmental and development economics, this study aims to provide insight into how this relationship may function in South Africa from 1960 to 2020. In contrast to the existing research, the present study uses a novel dynamic autoregressive distributed lag simulation approach to assess the positive and negative changes in fiscal decentralization, scale effect, technique effect, technological innovation, foreign direct investment, energy consumption, industrial growth, and trade openness on CO2 emissions. The following are the main findings: (i) Fiscal decentralization had a CO2 emission reduction impact in the short and long run, highlighting the presence of the race to the top approach. (ii) Economic growth (as represented by the scale effect) eroded ecological integrity. However, its square (as expressed by technique effect) aided in strengthening ecological protection, validating the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis. (iii) CO2 emissions were driven by energy utilization, trade openness, industrial value-added, and foreign direct investment, whereas technological innovation boosted ecological integrity. Findings suggest that further fiscal decentralization should be undertaken through further devolution of power to local entities, particularly regarding environmental policy issues, to maintain South Africa’s ecological sustainability. South Africa should also establish policies to improve environmental sustainability by strengthening a lower layer of government and clarifying responsibilities at the national and local levels to fulfill the energy-saving functions of fiscal expenditures.

Sustainability and futures, moving beyond "The Natural" and "The Artificial"

In more than 50 years the overall hegemonic concern among futurists has been climate- and environmental policy issues. These concerns are important to follow up on, but as futurists we should move beyond the current hegemony of climate- and environmental policy issues and discuss “what could be the main topic for futurists to discuss the next 50 years?”. This paper aims at giving a brief presentation of the core ideas of Sustainability and the Anthropocene, and how they relate to the futures field, both historic, contemporary and in the futures. To understand the nature of sustainability we have to elaborate on the nature of nature. The paper starts with a presentation of different networks of futurists, their historic and contemporary roles, not least their relations to the emerging socio-political movements in the late 1960s, 1970s, and beyond. In particular, the author highlights the emergence of socio-ecological thinking and critically review three forms of reactions to the cartesian modernist dualist thinking. These demonstrate the need for philosophical reflection on these distinctions, but also indirectly force us to rethink what futures research and -competences means today. The contemporary climate- and environment policy strategies are important, but as futurists, we need to look beyond the horizon of current climate- and environmental policy issues. Further, these results point toward a need within the Futures Field to discuss possible ontologies of Futures and the creation of new diagnosis of the era concepts. This author has experimented with a term called Universal Perspectivism, but the point here is not to define a certain concept but to open up for further terminological investigations. As futurists we need other conceptual frames than those which are defined with negations and “post”-suffixes.

Памяти русского ученого (рецензия на книгу В.Н. Расторгуева «Цивилизационный путь России»)

The review is devoted to the posthumous publication of the collection of scientific works written by Valery Rastorguev (1949–2021), Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Philosophy of Politics and Law of Lomonosov Moscow State Uni­versity, in the last years of his life. This publication presents in full the multifaceted sci­entific work of the scientist. His reflections were devoted to the civilizational develop­ment of Russia and the Slavic world, issues of environmental and social policy; his con­cepts of “smart politics” and culture of forecasting. The focus is on the concept of Russia as a state-civilization, great efforts to develop and promote which were made by Valery Rastorguev.

보건교육건강증진학회지 1984~2021년 연구동향

Objectives: This study aimed to analysis the trends of published papers between 1984 and 2021 in the Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion, and draw the role of developing health promotion policies or program. Methods: 1,277 published papers were reviewed and categorized in terms of their subject, topic, research desin, data collection, and source of data and classified by publication time. Categories of subject and topic were set based on the Health Plan 2020 and Health Plan 2030. Frequencies and network centrality were analyzed for keywords of the papers published after 2000. Results: Among the topic of the papers in all published periods, the highest frequency was in the ‘Healthy lifestyles’, followed by ‘Health education’ before the 2000s, whereas in the 2000s, ‘Non-communicable disease prevention and management’, and after the 2010s, ‘Health-friendly environment and infrastructure’ followed. In the research subjects, before the 2000s and in the 2000s, papers on children/adolescents and adults accounted for the highest frequency, whereas after the 2010s, papers on adults accounted for the highest frequency. In particular, since 2010s, the proportion of papers using secondary data has increased significantly. ‘Health promotion’, ‘Health education’, and ‘Health behavior’ were most frequently presented keywords in published paper, and they also had highest centrality in their networks of keywords. Conclusion: Research papers published in the Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion have been changing in a timely manner according to environmental changes and policy issues in the field of health education and health promotion, and have played a role in leading academic discussions and the development of related policies and systems.

Markets, Politics, and Environmental Policy Issues for Public Transit

Economic deregulation of local bus services remains controversial in terms of the claimed gains and losses relative to competitive regulation in the form of competitive tendering or negotiated protected monopoly. The uncertainty over demonstrable net benefits has delayed, if not eliminated, any prospects for unleashing market forces in London where competitive tendering is claimed by its supporters to be at least as attractive as economic deregulation in terms of quantity and quality of service. While the literature has focused predominantly on the economic and social impacts of market reforms, some of the changes have brought about environmental gains and losses. These rarely have been documented, being overshadowed by the initial objectives motivating economic reform. One particular feature of economic deregulation in the United Kingdom (and to a lesser extent in Australia and New Zealand) has been the noticeable increase in minibus services. The impact that economic deregulation has on entrepreneurial innovation has been neglected in the public transport literature, yet it is a centerpiece of competitive strategy. We use the experience with minibuses in Britain to show how markets create environmentally compatible incentives. Environmental gains attributable to market reform counter in part the negative evidence that minibuses in Britain have ““failed” to stimulate an aggregate increase in ridership. Without knowing the counterfactuals, one might speculate that the outcome would have been even worse without the introduction of the minibus.

The science-policy interfaces of the European network for observing our changing planet: From Earth Observation data to policy-oriented decisions

This paper reports on major outcomes of the ERA-PLANET (The European network for observing our changing planet) project, which was funded under Horizon 2020 ERA-net co-funding scheme. ERA-PLANET strengthened the European Research Area in the domain of Earth Observation (EO) in coherence with the European participation to Group on Earth Observation and the Copernicus European Union’s Earth Observation programme. ERA-PLANET was implemented through four projects focused on smart cities and resilient societies (SMURBS), resource efficiency and environmental management (GEOEssential), global changes and environmental treaties (iGOSP) and polar areas and natural resources (iCUPE). These projects developed specific science-policy workflows and interfaces to address selected environmental policy issues and design cost-effective strategies aiming to achieve targeted objectives. Key Enabling Technologies were implemented to enhancing ‘data to knowledge’ transition for supporting environmental policy making. Data cube technologies, the Virtual Earth Laboratory, Earth Observation ontologies and Knowledge Platforms were developed and used for such applications.SMURBS brought a substantial contribution to resilient cities and human settlements topics that were adopted by GEO as its 4th engagement priority, bringing the urban resilience topic in the GEO agenda on par with climate change, sustainable development and disaster risk reduction linked to environmental policies.GEOEssential is contributing to the development of Essential Variables (EVs) concept, which is encouraging and should allow the EO community to complete the description of the Earth System with EVs in a close future. This will clearly improve our capacity to address intertwined environmental and development policies as a Nexus.iGOSP supports the implementation of the GEO Flagship on Mercury (GOS4M) and the GEO Initiative on POPs (GOS4POPs) by developing a new integrated approach for global real-time monitoring of environmental quality with respect to air, water and human matrices contamination by toxic substances, like mercury and persistent organic pollutants. iGOSP developed end-user-oriented Knowledge Hubs that provide data repository systems integrated with data management consoles and knowledge information systems.The main outcomes from iCUPE are the novel and comprehensive data sets and a modelling activity that contributed to delivering science-based insights for the Arctic region. Applications enable defining and monitoring of Arctic Essential Variables and sets up processes towards UN2030 SDGs that include health (SDG 3), clean water resources and sanitation (SDGs 6 and 14).

David Lowenthal’s archipelagic landscape of learning

This article discusses David Lowenthal's last book, Quest for the Unity of Knowledge, which was published posthumously by Routledge in 2019 (available in print from November 2018). The book is based on a series of lectures that he gave while a visiting fellow with the KTH Royal Institute of Technology’s Environmental Humanities Laboratory in Stockholm in 2012. Aimed at a general academic audience, it is an erudite and passionate overview showing how ingrained bias towards unity or diversity shapes major issues in education, religion, genetics, race relations, heritage governance, and environmental policy. Quest for the Unity of Knowledge explores the Two Cultures debate, initiated by C.P. Snow, concerning the gulf between the sciences and the humanities. It covers areas such as conservation, ecology, history of ideas, museology, landscape, and heritage studies, aligning with Lowenthal's career-long research interests, and serving as well as a meta-comment to the emerging Environmental Humanities.

Financial development, renewable energy and CO2 emission in G7 countries: New evidence from non-linear and asymmetric analysis

The G7 countries have not yet been able to make a discernible impact in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 and 7. This situation could be ascribed to the underlying financialization issue in these countries, along with the implementation issues with renewable energy generation. In the wake of these two scenarios, the G7 countries are struggling to reduce carbon emissions (CO2). Handling this issue might require a policy reorientation, which is what this study focuses on. More specifically, it analyzes the nonlinear and asymmetric effects of financial development and renewable energy generation on CO2 emissions. The study, which encompassed the 1986–2019 period, adopts non-linear Autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) and two-stage least square (2SLS) techniques. An SDG-oriented policy framework has been recommended based on these study outcomes. While this policy framework is aimed at addressing the objectives of SDG 13 and 7, the framework is generalizable to other nations. The contribution of the present study is an emphasis on the environmental policy issues of the G7 countries, and the accompanying recommendation of this SDG-oriented policy framework.

Images of controversy: Examining cognition of hydraulic fracturing among policy elites and the general public

AbstractHighly contested energy and environmental policy issues are often characterized by entrenched policy debates and inconsistent or failed policies. This study examines the cognition of polarized policy positions in an effort to explain what factors influence the mental models’ individuals use to think about hydraulic fracturing and adopted policy positions on the controversial issue of hydraulic fracturing. The study first examines the role of affect on the use of “cognitive policy images” or the individual‐level mental models used to represent policy positions on hydraulic fracturing using structural topic modeling. Next, regression analysis is used to estimate the effects of theoretically relevant factors on cognition. While previous studies have focused on public attitudes, this study takes a comparative approach to examine policy elite and public cognition around this controversial issue. A comparative approach not only points to subtle differences in how elites and members of the general public cognitively process this controversial policy issue but also provides some insight into how political sophistication factors into cognition and influences policy positions on hydraulic fracturing practices. Conclusions discuss some practical, methodological, and theoretical implications of this work.

Perception, knowledge and attitudes towards environmental issues and management among coastal users of the most important beach destination in Argentina

This study was designed to address coastal users' perception in the largest seaside summer resort in Argentina regarding beach physical features and quality assessments, including issues related to the impacts of marine pollution, particularly litter on local beaches. We also explore the dependence of answers in certain traits of coastal users' profile (i.e. users’ age, gender and residence status). There was a strong relationship of predictor variables pertaining to the respondents' profile on the users' perception about environmental related aspects as well as beach quality assessment related topics. Virtually all respondents stated acknowledging that pollution by beach litter harms marine aquatic life, with plastics being the most commonly identified litter item. Interestingly, though, the users' perception about topics related to beach litter was not affected by residence status, gender or age. Addressing the issues linked to responsible and sustainable use of the environment in coastal localities in northern Argentina like Mar del Plata should include the participation of beachgoers, as these can help to improve beach management plans and assist managers and stakeholders identifying key issues in environmental policy to be implemented by coastal jurisdictions.

Администрация Байдена и проблемы “зеленого транзита”

The article is devoted to the analysis of the J. Biden administration policy in relation to the “green transition”, i.e. the shift from the use of fossil fuels in the economy to renewable energy sources. In the context of the B. Obama and D. Trump administrations’ attitudes to the problem of climate change, the authors study achievements and failures of the current American leadership on this path. Particular attention is paid to the obstacles faced by the Biden administration. Among them are the inability to consistently finance environmental initiatives through Congress, inconsistency in the implementation of the “Green Course” within the country, the lack of readiness of key emission countries (China, India) to actively participate in achieving the Paris climate goals, etc. In addition, the contradictions within the Democratic Party on the issue of environmental policy between the “centrists” and supporters of the “Green New Deal” program are analyzed, which consist in different stances on the role of a state in the “Green Transit”, importance of social measures, main spheres for investments, the role of America in global transit, etc. It is also pointed to the fierce opposition to the administration’s climate policy from the Republican Party. Its conservative faction is convinced that the scale, pace and role of a man in the crisis are artificially inflated by the Democrats, so there is no need to rush and resort to semi-military methods of centralized resource mobilization. Market forces, which simply must not be hindered, will cope much more successfully with the problem of the impact of warming on humans. The neoconservative group believes that the resources of humanity should be directed not to the fight against greenhouse emissions, but to economic development, which will allow the country and civilization to adapt to climate changes. It is concluded that there is a potential possibility of reaching a bipartisan consensus on climate change, but at this stage, under pressure from radical groups, this possibility seems unlikely. Therefore, in the coming years, it is questionable that the Biden administration will be able to actively promote its domestic climate agenda and new model of globalization.