Environmental Policy Objectives Research Articles

Management System for Safety, Health and Environmental Risks at Jasa Contratistas S.A.C.

The investigation focused on establishing a comprehensive regulatory framework for Safety, Health and Environment at JASA Contratistas S.A.C., based on Peruvian legislation, including Law No. 29783 and Supreme Decree No. 023-2021-MINAM. The methodology covered the initial characterization, the definition of environmental policy objectives and the evaluation of occupational risks through IPERC matrices. 122 regulatory items were identified, with 56% meeting the criteria of the Occupational Health and Safety Management System (SGSST). In the environmental field, a 3.38% reduction in deforestation was evident, a 7% increase in solid waste recycling and a 5% improvement in environmental management. After the implementation of the SGSST, occupational risks decreased from 25% to 10.71%, while in the environmental aspect, deforestation reached 2.10%, solid waste treatment increased to 17.5%, and the pro-environmental attitude of employees improved by 20.8%. This system not only improved risk control and reduced accidents, but also increased productivity, ensured regulatory compliance, strengthened competitiveness and encouraged improved environmental behavior among staff.

Конкурентоспособност на българския зеленчуков сектор на световния пазар

Depending on the scope of the concept of competitiveness, it is used in a variety of contexts in economic research, although there is a lack of a precise and generally accepted definition of what exactly it entails. In this study, competitiveness is considered from the point of view of market performance, using the developed theoretical framework for measuring the performance of an individual country or sector of the national economy, based on the definition of the Canadian Competitiveness Group: “The ability to sustainably win and maintain market share”. Two concepts are laid down in it – about the dynamics of market share and profit formation in order to achieve sustainable development over time. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the competitiveness of the Bulgarian vegetable production sector on the world market, to clearly note its change in a dynamic aspect. The research specifically adopted the methodology developed by B. Ivanov for calculating a composite index of competitiveness, containing two main components - production and value. The analysis shows the place of Bulgarian vegetable production in the national agriculture and in the world vegetable market, the dynamics and changes that reflect in the competitiveness of the sector during the years of EU membership – 2007 – 2021. The comprehensive assessment of the competitiveness of the vegetable crop sector in Bulgaria on world markets defines it as relatively low. The results obtained from the research confirm and complement the assessment of the competitiveness of the “Vegetable production” sector in Bulgaria, made by other Bulgarian researchers. Despite the favorable climate and natural features in our country, as well as our traditions in the production of vegetables, the sector is deteriorating its market position and the dynamics of competitiveness are rather negative. The research clearly shows that Bulgaria is losing positions in the production of vegetables, while at the same time its dependence on imports and foreign prices is increasing. The sector of vegetable production is among the vulnerable sectors of the Bulgarian agriculture, as the permanent negative trends of reduction of areas and production are projected in the inability to meet consumer needs in our country from high-quality domestic production. The future development of the sector and the increase of its competitiveness will depend on many factors, some of the most important of which are the extent to which vegetable producers will be able to be flexible and adapt to achieve the new environmental policy objectives; to what extent they will be able to respond to modern trends in agricultural production – digitalization, ecological/biological agriculture, new technological solutions.

Some critical thinking on the integrative assessment of ecosystem service supply and demand relationships.

In the past decade, research on the relationships between the supply and demand of ecosystem services has been flourishing. To address issues such as the misuse of supply and demand concepts, methods, and results in current research, we proposed five key aspects that need to be considered to enhance the scientific rigor and practical value in assessing relationships between ecosystem service supply and demand. Firstly, it is essential to clarify the distinctions and connections between the concepts related to ecosystem service supply and demand, which are crucial prerequisites and starting points for assessing their relationships. Secondly, it is necessary to integrate relevant environmental standards or policy objectives to develop reliable methods for assessing the demand for ecosystem regulating services. Furthermore, it is important to properly address the modifiable areal unit problem by determining the most appropriate spatial scale and unit for evaluating relationships between ecosystem service supply and demand. Additionally, it is crucial to differentiate between quantitative and qualitative methods for characterizing (im)balances or (mis)matches between ecosystem service supply and demand, particularly avoiding the use of qualitative methods to represent quantitative relationships between supply and demand. Lastly, it is imperative to integrate ecosystem service flows into the assessment of supply and demand relationships, and evaluate the dynamic supply and demand relationships of regional ecosystem services from a coupled "supply-flow-demand" perspective.

A valuation study to identify the determinants of the demand for time spent outdoors among users of hospital facilities, their willingness-to-pay for green infrastructure improvements, and the implications for planning

ABSTRACT Green infrastructure has been promoted as an urban planning tool for the achievement of health and environmental policy objectives. The capacity of economic valuation methods to estimate monetary benefit values for intangible goods, such as mental health and wellbeing, renders them useful in justifying green infrastructure interventions and guiding their implementation. In this case study we used stated preference methods to elicit cross-sectional data on the preferences of staff (n=118), visitors (n=88), and inpatients (n=35) of Musgrave Park Hospital in Northern Ireland, for improvements in the hospital’s outdoor grounds. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to use the contingent behavior method to examine the demand for time spent on the improved outdoor grounds of a hospital and the first to use the contingent valuation method to obtain the respective willingness-to-pay values. The results show that the three hospital user groups differed in their preferred types of green infrastructure and their motivations for using the outdoor grounds, an important input for planning the transformation of the outdoors. Other findings suggest that to maximize health and well-being benefits, complementary measures to address the issues of sedentary lifestyles and inadequate use of the outdoors as a stress-coping mechanism are needed.

Farming System Choice Is Key to Preserving Surface Water Quality in Agricultural Watersheds

Despite numerous published literature on the impacts of agriculture on water quality, knowledge gaps persist regarding which farming systems are of most concern for their impact on water quality, which would allow water resource planners to better target water management efforts. Seeking to understand how these relationships vary across different farming systems, we used data on water quality status in watersheds of an agricultural region in southern Portugal and overlaid it with a map of farming systems for the same region provided by a previous study. By intersecting both data layers, we characterized the areal shares of the farming systems in each watershed and inspected how these shares relate to water quality status using logistic regression. The results show that the impact of agriculture on water quality is primarily related to specific farming systems. We believe this type of information can be of significant interest to agricultural planners and policymakers interested in meeting water quality standards, and we conclude this study by suggesting innovative policy options based on payments to farmers operating selected farming systems as a cost-effective way to reconcile agricultural and environmental policy objectives.

The property evaluation of recycled asphalt binder composed of an epoxy resin polymer and aged asphalt binder

The reutilization of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) is gaining importance in meeting the objectives of green and sustainable environmental policies. Meanwhile, epoxy asphalt (EA) is not widely used due to its high price. To facilitate the utilization of EA in RAP recycling, this study adopted an epoxy polymer (EP) to prepare the recycled asphalt binder and investigate the effects of different EP content on the properties of aged asphalt binder. Evaluation encompassed mechanical, microstructural, and chemical characteristics of EP-recycled asphalt (ERA) binders, which were compared against virgin EA binders. The addition of EP can significantly enhance the tensile strength, high-temperature properties, low-temperature properties, and fatigue resistance of the aged asphalt binder. However, the elongation of the aged asphalt binder became worse. As the EP content increased from 30% to 50%, the tensile strength, high-temperature properties, fatigue resistance, and construction allowance time of ERA consistently improved, while the elongation of ERA steadily decreased. A phase transition occurred between asphalt binder and EP phase as EP increased from 40% to 50%, resulting in a rapid increase in tensile strength, high-temperature properties, and fatigue resistance of ERA, as well as a significant reduction in elongation and low-temperature properties of ERA. The concentration of sulfoxide decreased as the EP content increased. The performance gap between EA and ERA was not significant under the same EP content. The EP content had a greater impact than the aging degree of asphalt binder on the properties of the ERA. A recommended EP content of 40% was suggested.

Targeted Response from China's New Energy Vehicle Enterprises Analysis Based on Article 6 of FSR

The EU expects to reduce the carbon emissions of all new cars sold to zero by 2035, and new cars that need traditional energy will be banned from the market. This provides policy prospects for China's new energy vehicle enterprises to enter Europe, but the introduction of the Foreign Subsidy Regulation has become a new restriction. Article 6 of the FSR stipulates that the European Commission needs to balance various factors when dealing with subsidies. China's new energy vehicle enterprises can start with this article and mitigate relevant legal risks through interpretation based on the interests of the EU. China's new energy vehicle enterprises can reduce legal risks by using exception clauses, stating the rationality of prices and promoting the realization of environmental protection policy objectives of the EU based on technology.

Legal Regulation of Civil Liability for Environmental Damage: How Appropriate are Civil Liability Provisions with the Privacy of Environmental Damage?

The study analyzes the nature of civil liability resulting from environmental damage, because the risk of environmental pollution is one of the dangers that cannot be counted or predicted. Therefore, it is difficult to determine the legal basis on which it is based in the field of pollution. Traditional wrong-based liability rules do not respond to the tort-based environmental policy objectives in order to avoid environmental damage and ensure effective protection for those affected. This made the provisions of civil liability in the Jordanian Civil Law no longer commensurate with the specificity of environmental damage, especially since the situation requires compensation for damage to the environment itself and to the health and property of individuals. In addition, it is not hidden that there are shortcomings in the provisions of the Jordanian Environment Protection Law No. (6) of 2017. Its provisions included preventive and remedial measures for environmental pollution without considering the issue of compensation for environmental damage in a manner consistent with the nature and specificity of this damage. This requires the development of these rules in a way that commensurate with the nature of environmental damage.

Article XX of the Gatt 1994 and WTO Members: Sufficient Freedom to Define And Pursue Environmental Policy Objectives

Abstract Providing free trade conditions to all WTO Members, the GATT 1994 includes general exceptions to Article XX, which allows members to adopt trade and legislative restrictions and measures to promote values and interests and the protection of the environment. Driven by the aim of protecting the environment, various countries have been adopting a considerable number of measures to protect the environment and all human, animal and plant life and health under their jurisdiction. However, such restrictions are likely to influence the free trade regime through a clash of interests and relationships between WTO Members, which are challenged through WTO dispute settlement mechanisms. Although the WTO provides exceptions under Article XX of its free trade conditions to protect the environment via the national environmental measures of WTO Members, the justifications for such measures are challenged in meeting the requirements of Article XX.

Is geopolitics a new risk to environmental policy in the European union?

Geopolitical risks and environmental policy have become increasingly important in the European Union (EU), which is committed to tackling climate change and protecting the environment. However, geopolitical risks can undermine its environmental policy objectives. Thus, the study evaluates the relationship between geopolitical risks and environmental policy in nineteen EU countries from 1994 to 2020 through panel bootstrap Granger causality. The results show that geopolitical risks significantly influence environmental policy in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and Romania. On the other hand, the findings reveal that environmental policy causes geopolitical risks only in Latvia, while there is no relationship in the remaining countries. Therefore, policymakers must develop resilience to geopolitical risks, promote renewable energy, strengthen environmental regulations, and address social and economic implications to reduce environmental policy vulnerability to geopolitical risks.

Considerations on pollution at European level

Human activity has caused profound changes to the environment, and not infrequently the resulting effects have proven to be irreversible. Man becomes the main responsible and the most dangerous actor on the scene of pollution to the environment. Today, nature is exploited and polluted more than at any time in history. Any source of pollution becomes a disturbing factor for the smooth running of phenomena encountered at the level of natural ecosystems. Even if each ecosystem has the capacity for self-regulation, this function may be outdated in the face of dosage and the force of polluting elements. Contemporary European society feels most strongly the need for anti-pollution policies, but especially for the immediate implementation of measures to stop various phenomena and actions harmful to the environment and human life. Although the problem is real and topical, various economic and social interests reduce the number of participants with an active role in greening. This raises the need to raise broad awareness of environmental issues and encourage civil initiatives, a task that is shared between various environmental non-governmental organisations and the European Union. It currently has a broad set of rules on environmental issues, including: air quality, chemical safety, climate action, nature protection, waste management and water quality. When it comes to climate, nature and chemicals, the EU has been a pioneer in environmental and health protection, inspiring others around the world to follow suit. However, the European Union's achievements are not just a thing of the past, but its attitude towards environmental protection is future-oriented. The preservation, protection and improvement of the quality of the environment, the protection of human health and the prudent and balanced utilisation of natural resources are objectives of the European Union's environmental policy. This policy is based on the precautionary principle, as well as on the principles that preventive action should be taken, that environmental damage should, as a priority, be rectified at source and, last but not least, that the polluter pays.

The EU’s New Energy and Climate Policy: Energy Security and the Moderation of Environmental Standards

The article analyzes the evolution of the EU's energy and climate policy to explain that since Russia invaded Ukraine, a reformulation has occurred, characterized by the reconciliation of climate objectives with energy security and the flexibility of the environmental dimension. This rearrangement of the objectives of environmental policies has begun to take shape with the REPowerUE Plan, an energy package with which the EU intends to respond to the two dimensions of Europe's energy crisis: the need to deepen the transition towards climate neutrality and the duty to abandon dependence on Russian hydrocarbons. The review is based on two specific measures: Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1214 and Council Regulation EU 2022/2577, key regulations for the massive deployment of renewable energies.

Will farmers go electric? How Dutch environmental regulation affects tractor purchase motivations and preferences

Farm machinery management can contribute to European agricultural, energy and environmental policy objectives of climate change mitigation and fossil fuel independence by investing in tractor electrification. However, many farmers in the Netherlands (and beyond) have expressed concerns about the future profitability and ability to produce at reasonable costs. The Netherlands is also in a so-called ‘nitrogen crisis’, which further causes policy uncertainty about the introduction of more environmental regulations for nitrogen abatement. We conducted a best-worst scaling survey experiment to elicit preferences for electric tractor attributes and measured attitudes towards environmental regulation using motivational posture theory. The ranking of and correlations across estimated preferences and the purchase intention show that the 156 dairy and arable farmers surveyed evaluated an investment in an electric tractor as not feasible. Another conclusion is that the breakthrough of electric tractors is affected by negative anticipated emotions and feelings concerning the current environmental policy and regulatory context.

Invasive alien species of policy concerns show widespread patterns of invasion and potential pressure across European ecosystems

Animals, plants, and other organisms unintentionally or deliberately brought into a natural environment where they are not normally found, and where they cause harmful effects on that environment, are known also as invasive alien species (IAS). They represent a major threat to native biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, and can affect negatively human health and the economy. We assessed the presence and potential pressure by IAS on terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems across 27 European countries, for 66 IAS of policy concern. We computed a spatial indicator that accounts for the number of IAS present in an area and the extent of the ecosystems affected; for each ecosystem, we also looked at the pattern of invasions in the different biogeographical regions. We found disproportionally greater invasion in the Atlantic region, followed by Continental and Mediterranean regions, possibly related to historical patterns of first introductions. Urban and freshwater ecosystems were the most invaded (nearly 68% and ca. 52% of their extent respectively), followed by forest and woodland (nearly 44%). The average potential pressure of IAS was greater across cropland and forests, where we also found the lowest coefficient of variation. This assessment can be repeated over time to derive trends and monitor progress towards environmental policy objectives.

Economic Implications for Farmers in Adopting Climate Adaptation Measures in Italian Agriculture

The purpose of this paper is to provide an assessment of the economic convenience of adopting adaptation measures to climate change at farm level. Concerns raised about climate risks on agriculture indicate that adaptation of the agricultural sector to climate change is necessary to mitigate the negative consequences of climate change. Despite many opportunities to implement climate adaptation measures at farm level, there are several obstacles to their adoption. Farmers’ decision to implement adaptation measures lies in the difficulty of accessing knowledge about adaptation practices and in the lack of resources for upfront investments required by adaptation. The need to investigate economic convenience in terms of costs and benefits of adopting adaptation measures to prevent or reduce damage from adverse climatic events by farmers arises from this consideration. More importantly, climate protection and management of climate change are European environmental policy objectives. However, adaptation to climate change remains complex, and literature on the costs and benefit of agricultural adaptation is limited. Based on these considerations, this paper provides an analysis of the economic convenience of adopting adaptation measures in Italian farms. The economic convenience to implement adaptation measures is calculated on the reduction of the impact of climate damage. Our results show the economic convenience of adaptation measures. These findings help to improve the still too limited access to information on adaptation policies at farm level as well as the benefits that adaptation produces in economic and environmental terms, on human and ecosystem health. This study supports farmers’ decisions in adopting climate adaptation measures and provides information for policy makers to identify specific financial instruments for adaptation measures.

Agency and constraint in environmental policy coherence

Whether pursuing the breadth of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals or delivering joined-up approaches within a single environmental domain, policy objectives, policy design and policy implementation should cohere vertically and horizontally. However, policy coherence remains a challenge to implement. The limited empirical scholarship on policy coherence tends to focus on policy documentation and/or the outcomes, with little attention to individual agency or social processes involved. Furthermore, there is little discussion of the normative dimensions of policy coherence and the political aspects of individual agency, indicating the need for political ecology. We conducted an empirical study within four UK catchment (watershed) partnerships, using critical interpretive policy analysis to enrich the interface between political ecology and environmental policy. We explored who practices policy coherence and how; what motivates those investing their energy into these practices; their constraints and the contradictions arising. We found that the appetite and ability to support policy coherence depends on individual agency as much as partnership structures, which are themselves situated in technocratic regimes of policy implementation. Within these regimes, agents presented as apolitical and enabling, making it challenging to research the political and social processes of policy coherence. A political ecology lens highlights how power is involved in these voluntary initiatives, potentially shoring up existing privilege inscribed into riparian habitats and their resources. Our contribution therefore responds to and amplifies the critique of traditional presentations of integrated water resource management devoid of politics.

A conceptual model for enabling sustainable management of soil-sediment-water ecosystems in support of European policy

Abstract The health of soil-sediment-water ecosystems is under pressure from economic activities and a changing climate. This decreases health and hampers the service provision capacity of these ecosystems and thus impacts human well-being. Protecting and where feasible restoring of ecosystem health has currently become the key European environmental policy objective and for this it is needed to take an entire system approach and engage stakeholders. ‘Entire’ means that soil, sediment and water are regarded as closely interlinked environmental matrices that need to be managed by taking a ‘river (or mountain) to sea’ perspective, crossing spatial, discipline, political and cultural boundaries. This paper presents a conceptual model to support that purpose. Essentially, the conceptual model presents an approach for ecosystem-based management aimed to achieve healthy ecosystems, i.e. soil-sediment-water ecosystems that have the continued capacity to support ecosystem services to the benefit of their users. The model proposes a cyclic (iterative, learning-by-doing) approach and integrates soil-sediment-water, ecosystems, ecosystem services, users (stakeholders), pressures, information, management strategy and program of measures as building blocks. To successfully apply the model, it is above all needed to take an entrepreneurial approach, i.e. leave comfort zones, take an adventurous road, learn together to manage together, be adaptive and consider other than only command-and-control solutions. Furthermore, authorities should become facilitative leaders to engage users in co-creation of an ecosystem-based management strategy. Real live and place-based experimenting with multiple stakeholders, such as in the Living Labs and Lighthouses that are proposed in the EU soil mission, may provide an ideal instrument for such application, i.e. where the conceptual model can be used and support the achievement of European environmental policy objectives.

An investigation on China's environmental rights protection from the standpoint of foreign investment

For China, the increase in foreign investment brings both benefits and difficulties. The fundamental focus of these challenges is the defense of human rights, notably environmental rights. The main topic of this essay is China's protection of environmental rights in light of foreign investment. These issues are mostly seen in the light punishments, particularly administrative fines, the challenge of reconciling the amount of fines with real losses, and the rigorous examination of plaintiffs' eligibility for environmental public interest lawsuits. The inadequate environmental regulatory systems and policy objectives, as well as the lack of coherence between statutory requirements and enforcement procedures, are further factors contributing to the recurring violations of environmental rights. As a result, steps including modernizing domestic substantive and procedural legislation, introducing and establishing home country responsibility mechanisms gradually, and attempting to create a smooth transition between domestic and international law should be taken and put into action.

Cross-sector challenges in Ethiopian forest and landscape restoration governance

The federal government of Ethiopia set a national target to restore 15 million hectares of degraded and deforested lands by 2030. While forest and landscape restoration governance is intended to be a multi-actor process through which various land uses are coordinated, in practice it turns out to be difficult to bring specialised government agencies together to achieve restoration targets. We conducted a policy document review, 56 semi-structured interviews and 14 focus group discussions to understand the different challenges that exist in the governance of forest and landscape restoration in Ethiopia. We found three cross-sector challenges that influence the way in which national restoration targets are implemented at the local level in Ethiopia: 1) food security dominates the restoration policy frame and budgetary allocation at the expense of alternative restoration pathways that foster forestry livelihoods and biodiversity benefits, 2) agricultural and environmental policy objectives and targets, and restoration mandates at the sub-national level are incoherent, and 3) a siloed land use planning instrument makes it difficult to negotiate trade-offs and find synergies between sectoral policy objectives. Our results point out the need for an integrated land use planning instrument to achieve a wider range of restoration benefits. Given existing power imbalances between land-based sectors, we posit that an independent integrated land use planning authority that can draw on hierarchical authority is required to better balance different sector interests and different forms of conservation and restoration.

From theory to practice: determining emissions in traded goods under a border carbon adjustment

Abstract As part of its Green Deal, the European Union has advanced a ‘Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism’ (CBAM). Reflective of a trend towards greater use of coercive trade measures to advance environmental and other policy objectives, the CBAM would extend carbon pricing to imported goods with the aim of limiting carbon leakage. Theoretical enquiry into this type of policy approach—known as border carbon adjustments (BCAs)—suggests economic and environmental benefits, but typically discounts the role of legal and practical constraints on BCA design and implementation. In this paper, we show why the BCA design commonly featured in past research—basing the adjustment level on default carbon intensities—runs counter to the economic logic of carbon pricing by distorting the incentives for emissions abatement. Requiring producers to demonstrate their actual carbon intensity captures additional economic benefits of carbon pricing and improves the overall legal prospects of a BCA, but adds to its administrative complexity and creates risk of avoidance practices such as ‘resource shuffling’. What emerges is a more nuanced understanding of BCAs that highlights the challenges when transitioning from theory to practice.