Long-term Environmental Policy Research Articles

PROBLEMS OF INTER-PARTY CO-OPERATION OF RUSSIAN POLITICAL PARTIES ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AND WAYS TO RESOLVE THEM ON THE EXAMPLE OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES

Analyzing international experience, the article emphasizes the importance of cross-party cooperation in effectively solving environmental problems, citing successful examples from the USA, Europe and New Zealand. By providing examples of cross-party initiatives and coalitions focused on environmental policy, the author demonstrates the importance of overcoming political differences in order to achieve the common goal of sustainable development and environmental protection.The need for Russian political parties to rethink their approach to environmental issues through the prism of inter-party dialogue and cooperation is emphasized. This approach will not only contribute to solving internal environmental problems, but will also enhance Russia’s international image. The author concludes that the joint efforts of various political forces can become a key factor in the formation of an effective and long-term environmental policy for the country.

Role of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption in environmental quality and their subsequent effects on average temperature: an assessment of sustainable development goals in South Korea.

Environmental quality is a global concern, and an accurate assessment of environmental progress has emerged as a key element in achieving sustainable development goals. The study offers a two-pronged contribution by analyzing the interplay between renewable energy consumption, traditional energy consumption, and urbanization on environmental quality while simultaneously testing the impact of environmental quality on average temperature. Distinguishing itself from prior research, the study employs both carbon emissions and ecological footprint to ensure an intricate and reliable analysis. Current study analyzes data from 1970 to 2022 from South Korea to indicate that energy-environment association is influenced by energy consumption, urbanization, and economic growth, while renewable energy consumption is key in long-term environmental sustainability. Our extensive econometric analysis allows us to suggest that South Korea need to prioritize renewable energy, and green growth is prioritized so that economic growth and green agenda are synchronized to overcome environmental challenges. Addictingly, there is need to devise long-term environmental policies to strengthen the role of environmental innovation in energy productivity and boost renewable energy consumption.

Long-term versus short-term environmental tax policy under asymmetric information

We examine the interaction between a firm that uses either a dirty or a clean technology to produce a product over two periods, 1 and 2, and an environmentally conscious regulator that chooses the environmental tax/subsidy policy. The regulator ignores with which technology the firm manufactures the product and only has a prior belief about it. In this context, if the regulator can credibly commit to the policy for both periods, social welfare is generally higher than if it cannot commit, because distortions in firm's production at period 1 for signalling purposes strongly reduces the optimality of an environmental policy of short duration. A period-by-period policy in which the regulator does not commit to the policy terms for period 2 (which will be contingent to information provided by the firm in period 1) is only optimal when clean technology is very expensive to produce with it and the regulator's environmental concern is not very high. The results highlight the importance of taking into account the time horizon in policymaking, as well as the limitations of regulatory policies that seek to elicit information about the type of technology used by firms.

Testing the Short, Medium, and Long-Term Effects of Shocks on Ecological Balance.

Ecological balance is an indicator of environmental degradation, which is computed as the difference between biocapacity and ecological footprint. In this study, we examine whether the effect of shocks on the ecological balance is permanent or temporary in the EU-15 countries, considering the period from 1961 to 2018. The application of unit root tests, with and without a Fourier function, indicates that the effects of shocks are temporary in only four countries. To reveal the persistence of shocks at different frequencies, that is, the short-, medium-, and long-run, we decomposed the ecological balance series by using the Discrete Wavelet Transform method. The unit root test results show that the effects of shocks are temporary in all countries in the short-run. However, the results also show that the shocks are temporary in nine countries in the medium-run and ten countries in the long-run. Thus, the implemented policies to balance ecology are not effective in the short-run but are effective in only six countries in the medium-term and in only five countries in the long-term. These findings demonstrate the importance of considering different frequencies when testing the effectiveness of empirically implemented policies. Regarding policy implications, this study suggests focusing on medium- and long-term environmental policies rather than short-term ones.

Refugees, traditional energy consumption, environmental pollution, and deforestation: Fourier BARDL method

After 2010, refugees through the World peaked at the highest level since WW II. Most of this increment was realized between 2011 and 2015 years in the effect of the Syrian conflict and the Arabic spring, and refugee problem that is an important problem for the world emerged. This problem was analyzed in the macroeconomic dimension, in the health dimension by different studies. However, the energy and environmental economy dimensions of this problem has not been adequately analyzed.This paper explored the cointegration and Granger causality between the refugee population, traditional energy consumption(firewood, charcoal, and coal), economic growth, environmental pollution, and deforestation by the tests of Fourier Bootstrapping ARDL (FBARDL) and Granger causality with the Fourier method in the period 1985–2020 in Ethiopia, Sudan, and Uganda. Firstly, whether the series is stationary was investigated by using Fourier unit root tests. Then, the FBARDL test determined the evidence of cointegration among the variables. Finally, by applying Granger causality with the Fourier method, the evidence of unidirectional causality running from the refugee population and traditional energy consumption to deforestation and evidence of unidirectional causality running from the refugee population and traditional energy consumption to environmental pollution were determined. The analysis results draw attention to the impacts of the increasing refugee population on deforestation, and environmental pollution. Governments must develop their long-term environmental policies in the context of the effects of refguee population on sustainability.

Interrelationships Among Environmental Regulations, Technological Innovations, and Productivity in South Korea

Because environmental policies have increasingly become stricter in response to relevant challenges, policymakers are now paying more attention to regulations that affect productivity. Focusing on conditions in Korea, this study used the Granger causality test to investigate causal relationships between environmental regulations, technological innovation, and productivity. The main results indicate that productivity is influenced by (1) technological innovation and (2) the innovation results from strengthened environmental regulations in separate sectors (i.e., manufacturing and non-manufacturing). These findings highlight some policy implications. As the environmental protection expenditure increases due to environmental regulations, the government and companies increase the number of R&D workers and spend more on technological innovation. Meanwhile, a suitable circumstance must be established to generate product and process innovations. The government and companies should make investments to construct this circumstance in response to environmental regulations. Finally, because regulations and innovations change productivity slowly, it is important to engage in long-term environmental policy projects.

Testing the impact of external sovereign debt on Turkey’s ecological footprint: New evidence from the bootstrap ARDL approach

As is glaringly apparent, the world is now bedeviled with environmental challenges and ecological complications. This may not be unconnected with the persistent ecological challenges emanating from fossil fuel consumption and changing lifestyles. This is why various attempts are ongoing to advance the course of renewable energy and economic growth as a response to environmental change. Therefore, this study seeks to investigate the dynamic effect of external debt, energy usage, and real income on the ecological footprint in Turkey, covering the period 1985–2017. To achieve the stated objective, the study used the newly developed Bootstrap Autoregressive Distributed Lag (BARDL) test and the Granger causality test to unravel the co-movement as well as the direction of causality among the variables. The results revealed that external debt influences environmental quality in both the short and the long run. However, energy consumption and real income have been found to have retarded environmental quality in both the short and the long run. The Granger causality test results revealed that the causal flow direction runs from external debt, economic growth, and energy usage to environmental quality. Therefore, the study argues that for the Turkish government to achieve a long-term plan of environmental sustainability, there is a need for the government to venture into debt consolidation programs such as implementing tax increases and cutting public spending in order to increase fiscal space that would finance long-term environmental protection policies.

Konstytucyjny obowiązek prowadzenia polityki zapewniającej bezpieczeństwo ekologiczne współczesnemu i przyszłym pokoleniom

The subject of the analysis in the publication is Art. 74 sec. 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. According to this article, public authorities are obliged to pursue a long-term environmental policy that not only meets current needs, but also recognizes the right of future generations to live in a healthy environment. The publication contains a general discussion of constitutional regulations relating to the environment, and then presents the views of doctrine and jurisprudence within the scope of understanding the term “ecological security” used in Art. 74 sec. 1. The consequences of the obligation to conduct a policy ensuring ecological security for present and future generations were discussed. Finally, reference was made to current problems and challenges resulting from concern for the condition of the environment in Poland.

Global relationships between time preference and environmental policy performance

How our governments deal with environmental crises can depend on national culture, including time preference (i.e., short- vs. long-term orientation). Here, we follow up on the hypothesis that long-term orientation increases environmental policy performance. To this end, we use three time preference indices (including a newly constructed index with a wide spatial coverage based on Google search data). Our results show that countries with higher long-term orientation have higher environmental policy performance. This relationship is in most cases because of the positive association of long-term orientation and environmental policy performance with economic development and other factors. Only the analysis with increased spatial coverage (especially to African and Asian countries) using Google long-term orientation shows some results indicating positive relationships when considering economic development and other factors. Still, also in this analysis, the positive relationships are largely because of economic development and other factors. Expanding the spatial coverage when measuring time preference might add insights into the time preference-environmental policy performance relationship. Moreover, the results show that researchers need to control for important factors, especially economic development, when analyzing time preference and environmental policy performance or related questions, such as environmental behavior and culture, as these factors can completely, or at least largely, drive the results.

Long-term social welfare and environmental policy in Quang Nam

Quang Nam has been entering the stage of economic restructuring for the sake of effectively exploiting and utilizing the province's potential and strengths toward rapid and sustainable socio-economic development. Ensuring social welfare is one of the core goals in building a fair, progressive, and civilized society associated with improving local people’s material and spiritual life in the new period. The article focuses on assessing the current situation of the province's social welfare policies in 2015-2019 with the aim of identifing major challenges in the economic restructuring up to 2030. Accordingly, the paper proposes various solutions to improving those social protection policies in Quang Nam up to 2030, with a vision to 2045.

Governing through strategies: How does Finland sustain a future-oriented environmental policy for the long term?

Finland has performed consistently well in international comparisons of successful, future-oriented environmental policy. This success seems to emanate from strategies, which penetrate the country’s governance structure. We examine the factors underlying the success of progressive environmental policy in Finland. We describe the evolution of long-term environmental policy in Finland, and then, focusing on 24 indepth interviews, we explain why the long-term policy persists, even when subjected to the pressures of traditional drivers associated with short-term politics, such as elections, political parties and interest groups. The interviewees are high-ranking makers of environmental policy who represent varying interests, including politicians, public officials, policy scientists, representatives for key interest groups and large companies. We find that the main enablers of future-oriented environmental policy are international commitments, semi-autonomous public administration and preparatory processes that include all relevant stakeholders. While our findings suggest that a successful long-term environmental policy endures primarily because of strategic forces that operate outside the immediate control of the institutions of representative democracy, the system relies on the support of governing majorities, which may also affect implementation. This study enhances our understanding of the factors that facilitate long-term policy-making and offers pragmatic evidence of how future-oriented environmental policy can be implemented.

Identifying major policy challenges and policy interventions via expert methods

Abstract This paper presents the application of expert decision methods for the formulation and prioritization of the long-term economic, social and environmental policies in the Slovak Republic. The Partnership Agreement for the Slovak Republic (PA) is an underlying strategy for investments from the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) in the period 2021-2027. Policies implemented under the PA will allocate €13.4b on four policy objectives. This paper concentrates on the policy objective 4 ‘Social development’. The authors co-operated with the Deputy Prime Minister Office and assembled panels of top Slovak experts on social and economic issues. The Delphi and Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) methods were combined for analyzing major development challenges and eliciting policy priorities. The methods combined the bottom-up and top-down approaches to policy making. Nine potential policy measures in three policy areas emerged from the Delphi exercise. The AHP exercise applied three criteria (relevance, urgency and feasibility) to rank the abovementioned measures within three policy areas. As for the Policy Area 1 (Labour market, employment, training and institutions) the measure 4.1.1 ‘Improving access to employment and modernizing institutions and services on labour market’ clearly dominated over the measure 4.1.2 ‘Supporting a better work-life balance’. The measure 4.2.2 ‘Equal access to quality and inclusive education’ emerged substantially more important than measures 4.2.1 ‘Improving the quality and effectiveness of education and training systems’ and 4.2.3 ‘Support to life-long learning’ in the Policy Area 2 ‘Education and skills’. Finally, measures 4.3.2 ‘Supporting social and economic integration of marginalized Roma communities’ and 4.3.3 ‘Ensuring equal access to healthcare including primary care’ received the highest ranks in the Policy Area 3 ‘Health and social services’.

Struktura użytkowania terenu zlewni w obszarze miejskim i wiejskim, a utrzymanie dobrego stanu cieków wód powierzchniowych

Jakość wody powierzchniowej zależy od rodzaju sposobu zagospodarowania gleb oraz warunków meteorologicznych, które zmieniają procesy glebowe. Niestety nie da się odseparować poszczególnych części i jednoznacznie określić, które z nich wykazują niekorzystny wpływ na jakość wody. Przykładowo, badania dotyczące wymywania składników pokarmowych z gleb do wód gruntowych, wymagają wizyt terenowych podczas pracy monitorującej zarządzanie gospodarką wodną. Ponadto, trudno jest ocenić ich bezpośrednie oddziaływanie na jakość wód powierzchniowych. Dlatego istnieje wiele zagrożeń w zarządzaniu zasobami wodnymi odnośnie ludzkiego zdrowia. W krajach Unii Europejskiej, pierwszorzędnie ocenia się walory ekologiczne w zlewni, a następnie fizykochemiczne w cieku i hydromorfologiczne cechy koryta, które stanowią elementy wspierające. W ocenie stanu sanitarności, najczęściej ukazuje sie wpływ antropopresji. Ze względu na to, ze dostępność wody i jej jakość ma kluczowe znaczenie w długoterminowej polityce środowiskowej i prawidłowym rozwoju społeczeństw, należy nadal drążyć i poszerzać badania w tym temacie.

Examining the impacts of economic and demographic aspects on the ecological footprint in South and Southeast Asian countries.

The re-examination of the existing economic and environmental policies in the South and Southeast Asian countries seems to be necessary, as these countries are struggling to achieve the goals of sustainable development. For designing a long-term environmental policy, we intended to examine whether the selected economic and demographic indicators have influenced the ecological footprint in the eight developing countries of Asia from 1990 to 2015. The use of pooled mean group (PMG) approach allowed driving the long-run common coefficients, which may facilitate us to develop a common policy framework for fortifying the environmental quality. The computed results confirmed that the selected variables are cointegrated in the long run, and the variables, i.e., per capita income, nonrenewable energy usage, urbanization, fertility rate, and population density are observed as the significant drivers of the environmental pollution. Moreover, the consumption of renewable energy restored the environmental quality in these countries. Based on the results, we recommended the need for the diversification of the energy-basket for enhancement of the use of renewable energy resources. Further, through sensitization of the necessity of environmental conservation, the governments should promote less carbon-intense economic and demographic practices across the industries and sectors.

The post-normal politics and science of wind power planning: Evidence from a Danish near-shore wind farm tender

Post-normal science (PNS) has long advocated the inclusion of stakeholders in scientific processes where there is uncertainty, urgency and high stakes. Increasingly, however, such conditions have become recognised as the norm. Using the theoretical perspective of PNS, we examine the interactions between public objection, unstable coalition politics and uncertain environmental assessment knowledge to understand the case study of a Danish near-shore wind farm tender. In this case the original distinction made by PNS between facts, judgements, politics and science are confirmed as difficult to separate in what has been described as a condition of post-normal politics. The case, taking place within Denmark’s relatively transparent and inclusive wind power governance system, offers insights into the challenges of managing long-term environmental and energy policy objectives. However the case also demonstrates the challenges to the policy prescriptions of PNS, specifically regarding the notion of extended peer review communities (EPCs). Here we propose that the de facto condition for energy siting controversies is one of multiple, often self-organised EPCs.

Network model-based analysis of the goals, targets and indicators of sustainable development for strategic environmental assessment

Strategic environmental assessment is a decision support technique that evaluates policies, plans and programs in addition to identifying the most appropriate interventions in different scenarios. This work develops a network-based model to study interlinked ecological, economic, environmental and social problems to highlight the synergies between policies, plans, and programs in environmental strategic planning. Our primary goal is to propose a methodology for the data-driven verification and extension of expert knowledge concerning the interconnectedness of the sustainable development goals and their related targets. A multilayer network model based on the time-series indicators of the World Bank open data over the last 55 years was assembled. The results illustrate that by providing an objective and data-driven view of the correlated variables of the World Bank, the proposed layered multipartite network model highlights the previously not discussed interconnections, node centrality measures evaluate the importance of the targets, and network community detection algorithms reveal their strongly connected groups. The results confirm that the proposed methodology can serve as a data-driven decision support tool for the preparation and monitoring of long-term environmental policies. The developed new data-driven network model enables multi-level analysis of the sustainability (goals, targets, indicators) and will make it possible to plan long-term environmental strategic planning. Through relationships among indicators, relationships among targets and goals can be modelled. The results show that sustainable development goals are strongly interconnected, while the 5th goal (gender equality) is linked mostly to 17th (partnerships for the goals) goal. The analysis has also highlighted the importance of the 4th (quality education).

РОЛЬ ПІДПРИЄМСТВА В ЕКОЛОГІЧНІЙ МОДЕРНІЗАЦІЇ НАЦІОНАЛЬНОЇ ЕКОНОМІЧНОЇ СИСТЕМИ

It is substantiated that social and economic development of the country has not only positive aspects but also generates environmental problems. Analysis of the peculiarities of implementation of environmental safety is needed further research. It is considered that the purpose of the article is to study the implementation details of the environmental security of an enterprise. It will solve the problems of ecological-economic interaction and will allow building a sustainable development economy, that is, an environmentally and socially balanced economy. Solving global environmental problems is the most important task in the era of globalization. Therefore, the reform of the national economy must necessarily begin with an innovative modernization of the environmental safety of the enterprise. The article analyzes the role of the enterprise in the formation and further development of the ecological modernization of the national economic system in the innovative approach to the environmental safety of the enterprise and the state in international environmental security. It is stipulated that each enterprise of the country is obliged to ensure the environmental safety of its production, goods and services through the implementation of competent and long-term environmental policy. To this end, a mechanism has been proposed for modernizing the national economic system through environmental auditing at all levels: environmental audit of the territories, environmental auditing for the population and audit at the enterprise level. Reforming the economy in the sphere of environmental safety is carried out in accordance with international requirements and for the successful implementation of the concept of sustainable development in Ukraine.

ECONOMIC IMPACTS RESULTING FROM THE PROBLEMS OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT IN POLLUTING INDUSTRIES - AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

The relationship between foreign direct investment and the environment is one of the most important contemporary economic issues because of its dangerous environmental effects. Despite the positive aspects of this relationship, it is not without the negative impact that causes serious damage at the national level. Although many thinkers consider FDI to be an important factor in economic development, we see it as a phenomenon with negative environmental impacts, sometimes making it a negative factor in the development process. The problem of the study is the contradiction between the process of attracting foreign direct investment and long-term environmental protection policies, because foreign direct investment flows may lead to the depletion of natural resources, the disruption of their balance and the pollution of the environment. The protection of the environment is to rationalize the use of natural resources without pollution and preserve them for future generations This means that there may be a conflict between foreign direct investment flows in terms of the use and conservation of natural resources, on one hand, and higher production costs in the case of environmental conditions, on the other hand. In light of the foregoing, this study examines the problem of the extent of the conflict between the process of attracting foreign direct investment and long-term environmental protection policies, especially in the petroleum sector as the most economic sector in relation to environmental policies. This study examines the impact of environmental pollution on the oil sector within the Arab Republic of Egypt, expressed by the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) on foreign direct investment flows during the study period (1980/2015). The carbon dioxide emissions variable was used as an indicator of environmental policy and some other independent variables. The linear regression model was used to measure environmental impact. The results of the study showed a positive and significant relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and foreign direct investment. When the CO2 emissions increase by 1%, foreign direct investment increases by 3.39% at a significant level of 10%. The research uses the extrapolation method through the study of previous studies, scientific books and scientific periodicals, in order to identify the problem in question; and analytical method to analyze the data that prove the validity or lack of validity of research hypotheses based on the research. (1980-2015). The tools used are descriptive analysis tools through the theoretical framework of research and quantitative tools through the use of the linear regression model. One of the most important recommendations of the research is that the Egyptian government should work to attract more foreign direct investment instead of relying on loans and aid to fill the deficit in the budget by providing more incentives and facilities that attract investments on scientific bases, To implement them, and in a manner not inconsistent with the national interest. Supporting political and security stability is also an important and vital requirement for establishing a safe environment for investment in political influences that plays an important role in shaping the economic climate in general and investment in particular.

Heat pumps with district heating for the UK’s domestic heating: individual versus district level

The UK has set ambitious targets to reduce carbon emissions, improve energy efficiency and affordability, encourage renewable energy generation, and reduce dependency on imported fossil fuels. Heating is the most essential component of the UK’s current residential energy consumption, and it is mostly supplied through the direct burning of natural gas. With constantly changing market conditions and political regulatory frameworks, technology assessments and cost-effective planning strategies are critical for long-term energy and environmental policy designing. Electric heat pumps with decarbonised electricity are proposed as promising technologies that could replace gas heating and contribute to the UK’s future low-carbon heat mix. District heating has been transforming over generations in order to better utilise renewables or resources that otherwise would be wasted. Both technologies have been well developed, with abundant scientific research and industrial experiences in some European countries over the past few decades. However, the market shares of heat pumps and district heating networks are low in the UK. This paper explores empirical heat consumption from smart meter data in different types of dwellings in the UK and the role of heat pumps and district heating for different types of dwellings on different scales. This study investigates heat pumps in individual households versus district heating networks through a levelised cost model, to present their comparative environmental and economic advantages. This study shows that economies of scale arise in the UK’s district heating networks with large heat pumps, but the costs of heat are significantly higher than individual gas boilers.

“长计远虑”的助推效应：怀孕与环境跨期决策 <sup>*</sup>

<p id="C2">Environmental issues are currently of particular concern in the world. Thus, it is important to understand the processes that contribute to prudent long-term choices regarding the environment. To this end, it is important to study environmental intertemporal choice, especially the improvement of foresight in environmental time discounting. <p id="C2-189">The present research combined questionnaire-based, lab-based and field studies to investigate whether “Foresight for the Future of Our Children” decreased time discounting in environmental intertemporal choice. Study 1 probed the link between pregnancy and environmental intertemporal choice. Study 2 aimed to replicate the results from Study 1 by controlling for the confounding variables of the physiological state of pregnancy in a lab experiment. In Study 3, a priming paradigm was developed to test this hypothesis. Participants were instructed to indicate their degree of support for specific environmental policies after the benefits of the policy were described. The test materials were the same in the experimental and control groups with the exception that an additional phrase was included in the experimental condition: “To leave our children with blue sky, green earth, clear water, and a beautiful home”. Building on Study 3, Study 4 employed a similar nudge-like intervention to investigate the effects of “Foresight for the Future of Our Children” on the extent to which participants support a federal environmental policy and donation incentive for charitable organizations. <p id="C2-231">Study 1 indicated that pregnancy increased long-term thought in environmental intertemporal choice and decreased the temporal discounting rate through comparisons between pregnant and non-pregnant participants. Moreover, long-term thinking mediated the effect of pregnancy on the discounting rate in environmental intertemporal choice. Study 2 replicated the results of Study 1 regarding the links between the psychological priming of pregnancy and the discount rate in environmental intertemporal choice. The first two studies investigated whether natural pregnancy influenced the time discounting rate in environmental intertemporal choice. Based on these results, Study 3 tested the intervention hypothesis, which suggests that the subtle priming associated with the characteristics of pregnancy would influence the degree of support for long-term environmental policies. The results demonstrated that a simple prime that referred to “Foresight for the Future of Our Children” increased long-term thinking in intertemporal choice. Importantly, we produced similar nudging effects in Study 4 and showed that “Foresight for the Future of Our Children” increased the donation incentive towards a charity that aimed to improve the environment of China. <p id="C2-671">The results from our four studies provide consistent evidence that “Foresight for the Future of Our Children” decreased myopic behaviour in environmental intertemporal choice. These results are crucial for the design of nudge interventions that improve the long-term interests of both individuals and collectives while persevering the freedom of individual choice. Furthermore, this research also sheds light on the theoretical attributions to underlying intertemporal models and the effects of the physiological state of pregnancy on choice.