Support For Environmental Protection Research Articles

Wealth as an obstacle and a support for environmental protection

Wealthy populations appear prone to protecting the environment. By contrast, wealthy individuals appear prone to harming it. In other words, wealth appears to have opposing effects on the environmental protection efforts of individuals and populations. In our secondary analysis of Eurobarometer data (N = 27,998) from 28 countries, we demonstrate that wealth represents a behavioral benefit that supports populations' efforts to protect the environment (e.g., via government subsidies). Wealth also represents a behavioral benefit that supports individuals’ efforts to protect the environment (e.g., by making effective home insulation affordable), but it simultaneously represents a behavioral cost that appears to prevent individuals from protecting the environment (e.g., by making excessively large homes affordable). We conclude that when behavioral scientists recognize that wealth can be a cost and a benefit simultaneously, they will ultimately understand when and why populations and individuals engage in environmentally protective actions or fail to do so.

Religion and Ecology: Perspectives on Environment and Sustainability across Religious Traditions

Abstract This editorial introduces Religion & Development Vol. 2, Issue 3 – Special Issue on “Religion and Ecology: Perspectives on Environment and Sustainability across Religious Traditions.” The articles delve into the intricate relationship between religion and ecology from diverse perspectives. The prevailing academic discourse on religion and ecology is centered on three fundamental aspects. Firstly, it underscores the potential of religious communities to actively combat climate change by shaping worldviews and guiding community and personal activities. Secondly, it scrutinizes the practical implementation of these contributions by religious communities, exploring both obstacles and facilitators for their environmental engagement. Lastly, it emphasizes how religious communities furnish theological and spiritual arguments in support of environmental protection, thereby motivating believers to take proactive measures. This special issue contributes to these ongoing discussions by presenting insights from all three perspectives, enhancing the discourse with distinctive viewpoints from Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, African Traditional Religions, Indigenous Religious Traditions, and interfaith perspectives. The incorporation of diverse religious traditions complements recent dialogues on development and sustainability, thereby providing a more comprehensive understanding of the intersection between religion and ecology.

A world systems analysis of union membership and support for government spending on environmental protection

This article contributes to debates about trade unions and the environment by studying international variation in the association between union membership and support for government spending on environmental protection. Building on research which demonstrates a positive membership effect on support for environmental protection, the article extends the geographical scope beyond the more economically developed contexts studied previously. Using World Systems Theory as a comparative framework, distinguishing between core, semi-periphery, and periphery states, the article explores whether the positive membership effect extends beyond more affluent core states and reveals an intriguing empirical puzzle: while public support for environmental spending is substantially weaker in core states relative to non-core states, the latter being subject to more extensive environmental threats, the reverse holds for the membership effect on environmental spending support which instead tends to be more positive in core states. Union membership thus tends to have the largest positive impact on environmental spending support in countries where public support for such spending tends to be lower. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings for the global effort to address an ongoing environmental crisis are discussed by considering the notion of a solidarity effect.

Why losing Australia's biodiversity matters for human health: insights from the latest State of the Environment assessment.

Why losing Australia's biodiversity matters for human health: insights from the latest State of the Environment assessment.

Analysis of Financial Support for Forestry in the Czech Republic from the Perspective of Forest Bioeconomy

The bioeconomy, as a new phenomenon using renewable resources, significantly affects the forestry sector in many countries. Individual countries have implemented forest policies by financially supporting forestry in different ways and for different reasons. The nature and targeting of this support vary from country to country. In a simplified way, it is possible to divide them into two categories: production support and environmental protection support (e.g., to ensure sustainable development). The aim of this article is to analyse the substantive focus of forestry subsidies from national sources in the Czech Republic and, subsequently, compare them with the Czech focus of a forest bioeconomy (FBE). The objective of this analysis is to analyse the financial support provided by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic (MoA) between 2018 and 2021. As the Czech Republic’s FBE is not clearly defined, it was analysed and described with the help of the relevant national strategic and political documents. Subsequently, the obtained results were compared with each other to see if the financial subsidies were in line with the Czech FBE. The focus of the subsidies in the years under review is influenced by the situation in Czech forestry, which has faced a severe bark beetle outbreak, causing the financial sources provided to forest owners to increase significantly due to the bark beetle outbreak, which has affected the whole forest sector. The results show that some types of support are provided in accordance with FBE, while others are not. The general conclusions are that the financial support for forestry does not fully represent the Czech FBE.

FINANCIAL PROVISION MANAGEMENT FOR THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION OF THE TRANSBORDER REGION

The aim of the article is to conduct a comparative analysis of the Volyn region (Ukraine) and Lublin Voivodeship (Republic of Poland) environmental protection financing. As well as to determine the level of partnership participation in the financing of the environmental measures within the cross-border region. The system of financial support for environmental protection in the cross-border region is explored in the article. The content of the transboundary natural resources management mechanism is considered. The main sources of funding for environmental measures in the Volyn region and Lublin Voivodeship are identified. A comparative analysis of the dynamics and structure of current costs spent and capital investments for the environmental protection of the Volyn region and Lublin Voivodeship is carried out. It is determined that the structure of environmental protection expenditures within the cross-border region is dominated by costs spent on the protection of water resources, air, waste management, and biodiversity conservation. Linear trend models were built for the amount of funding in Volyn Oblast and Lublin Voivodeship using the trend forecasting methodology. The forecast of the dynamics of the environmental protection financing within the cross-border region for 2022-2023 is determined by the method of extrapolation.Determination of the degree of cooperation in the field of transboundary natural resources management and the division of responsibilities between its key players are important aspects of the financial model’s effectiveness. The degree of cooperation in the field of transboundary natural resources management, including independent control, dialogue, cooperation, coordination mechanisms and joint management is revealed in the article. It has been proved that the cross-border relations within the Volyn region and the Lublin Voivodeship are at the level of cooperation. But it is noted that efficiency will be achieved only at the level of joint cross-border management in this area. The main tools of integrated management of financial support for environmental protection are identified. The distribution of partnership participation in the financing of environmental measures is proposed depending on their location in the border areas of Volyn region and Lublin Voivodeship.

Knowledge Action Repertoires and the Outcomes of Collective Action: Local Community Action for Environmental Protection

The article uses the knowledge practice repertoire approach, combined with an integrated opportunity approach, to investigate the role that local community knowledge based on holistic worldviews plays in the formation of collective actors, action and outcomes. This is argued to be crucial given that environmental governance is shaped instead by knowledge based on a worldview of a nature/culture divide, and that local community knowledge is key to responding to the planetary crisis and subject to this potential ontological clash. Attention to local community collective action using this lens can shed light on whether and how spaces can be made for different approaches, giving a fresh view to how outcomes matter. The article presents two case studies of local community collective action through community protocols from South Africa and Argentina. Community protocols are documents, recognised in international environmental law, where local communities set out their worldviews, their traditional knowledge and practices in support of environmental protection, and link these to rights and protections in national and international law as a basis for collective action. They are thus ideal sites for investigating knowledge practices and ontological politics. Focusing on different types of knowledge practices and opportunity contexts helped to untangle the complex question of how outcomes mattered to the local communities in these cases.

ПРАВОВЕ ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ БЮДЖЕТНОГО ФІНАНСУВАННЯ ПРИРОДООХОРОННОЇ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ В УКРАЇНІ

Анотація. Проаналізовано правові акти, що регулюють особливості бюджетного фінансування природоохоронної діяльності в Україні. Обґрунтовано недоліки чинного механізму фінансового забезпечення природоохоронних заходів: низькі ставки екологічного податку; відсутність цільового використання ресурсних платежів; витрачання коштів з екологічних фондів не за цільовим призначенням; неефективний розподіл екологічного податку, внаслідок чого він втрачає цільове призначення; недосконалість критеріїв відбору природоохоронних заходів для фінансування; непослідовність і неефективність адміністративних рішень учасників бюджетного процесу; низький рівень бюджетної дисципліни в галузі охорони навколишнього середовища; відсутність юридичної відповідальності розпорядників коштів та ін. Запропоновано заходи щодо вдосконалення природоохоронного, податкового і бюджетного законодавства з метою посилення ролі державного фінансового забезпечення природоохоронної діяльності в Україні. Вони включають: побудову ефективної системи екологічних податків; цільове використання коштів від зборів за спеціальне природокористування; посилення економічних санкцій за порушення екологічного законодавства; створення незалежного від державного і місцевих бюджетів Національного ФОНПС із повним зарахуванням у нього екологічного податку та здійснення виключно цільового фінансування коротко- і довгострокових екологічних програм; забезпечення участі громадськості в розподілі коштів на пріоритетні екологічні програми та контроль за їхнім ефективним використанням; законодавче встановлення мінімальної межі бюджетного фінансування охорони довкілля як на державному, так і на місцевому рівнях; розроблення єдиного порядку використання коштів екологічних фондів, що міститиме новий деталізований перелік природоохоронних заходів та обґрунтовані критерії їхнього відбору для пріоритетного фінансування. Ключові слова: природоохоронна діяльність, фінансове забезпечення природо­охоронної діяльності, бюджетне фінансування природоохоронної діяльності, фонди охорони навколишнього природного середовища, екологічний податок. Формул: 0; рис.: 0; табл.: 0; бібл.: 20.

Structural Modelling of the Relationship between the Vulnerability of Ukrainian Regions to COVID-19, Environmental Status and Factors of Readiness of the Medical System

The division of the regions of Ukraine into “red”, “orange”, “yellow” and “green” zones are the consequences of the differentiated regional impact of the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus, but the reasons for such different vulnerabilities have not been clarified yet. The purpose of the study is to construct a system of regression equations containing implicit variables that are common characteristics of industries and help to analyse relationships in a complex system. The methodological tools of the study were: review of current scientific trends using VOSViewer 1.6.10, the main component method, which allows selecting the most significant factors and model with structural equations that reflect the relationship between the three areas of activity. 25 oblasts of Ukraine were selected as the object of the study, since they have different levels of vulnerability to the pandemic and can become a model for studying the regional differentiation of any country. The study presents the results of an empirical analysis of the structure of three areas of activity of the country. Modelling of structural equations to establish the relationship between the factors of vulnerability of the regions of Ukraine from the COVID-19 pandemic, the environmental state and the state of readiness of the medical system is carried out. It is theoretically substantiated that there is a direct connection between the studied areas: environmental, medical and epidemiological, and that deterioration in one industry leads to deterioration in another. The results obtained prove that it is possible to influence the differentiated course of the pandemic, but not after the event. A consistent increase in funding from the state budget for healthcare would have a greater effect, with sufficient financial support for environmental protection. The choice of state strategies must be approached comprehensively, because a narrow reform of the system, such as medical, will not give the maximum effect, without an innovative policy in the field of ecology

Comparative Analysis of Six Geologic Sequestration Methods

With the extensive use of fossil fuels[1] since the advent of the industrial age, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted is also increasing dramatically, which has also led to a severe greenhouse effect[2]. The method of carbon capture and carbon sequestration[3] proposed in recent years is a good way to deal with too much carbon dioxide. However, Carbon Sequestration is a new idea without enough practice and verification, and its development is not perfect yet. This paper reviews six commonly used geological Carbon dioxide storage methods and compares the advantages and disadvantages of them. It can be concluded that hydrodynamic force sequestration is the most suitable, effective and promising method of Carbon sequestration[4]. This study aims to provide scientific suggestions and theoretical basis for the future development of carbon sequestration, and it also provides effective help and support for environmental protection.

Система экологического менеджмента состояния неоген-четвертичноговерхнедевонского водоносных комплексов территории Липецкой области и

Введение: Загрязнение подземных вод нитрат-ионами является одной из ведущих проблем на территориях городских агломераций. На территории Липецкой области расположено большое количество промышленных и сельскохозяйственных предприятий, которые обслуживают не только данную область, то и близлежащие регионы. Целью данной работы является построение системы экологического менеджмента состояния подземных вод Липецкой области, подверженных нитратному загрязнению. Методика: Липецкая область располагается на стыке Среднерусской возвышенности и Окско-Донской низменности. По условиям залегания эксплуатационные водоносные комплексы Липецкой области подразделяются на порово-пластовые неоген-четвертичного водоносного комплекса и трещинно-карстовые верхнедевонского водоносного комплекса. В процессе выполнения работы было проведено эколого-гидрогеохимическое районирование территории Липецкой области по уровню экологического благополучия, основанное на степени загрязнения подземных вод неоген-четвертичного и верхнедевонского водоносных комплексов Липецкой области нитратами, с выделением трех категорий участков, отличающихся допустимым, умеренно-опасным и опасным уровнем экологического неблагополучия. На основе данного районирование была построена система экологического менеджмента нитратного загрязнения подземных вод Липецкой области с финансовым обеспечением природоохранных. В основе данной работы лежит информация по кадастру скважин подземных вод Липецкой области за 2017 г. Результаты и обсуждение: Для водоносных комплексов содержание нитратов выше предельно допустимых значений составляет от 45 мг/дм 3 до 135 мг/дм 3. Можно утверждать, что оба комплекса загрязнены в равной степени, вследствие отсутствия регионального водоупора и бурного развития техногенной деятельности вблизи крупных городских поселений. Итоговая сумма природоохранных мероприятий составила около 7 миллиардов 600 миллионов рублей, 5.5 миллиардов из которых планируется выделить из федерального бюджета Липецкой, а также 2.1 миллиарда рублей потратятся за счет средств коммерческих организаций, являющимися источниками загрязнения нитратами. Заключение: По истечению десятилетнего периода выполнения программы системы экологического менеджмента необходимо оценить процесс модернизации оборудования на предприятиях и изменения количественного состава нитратов в подземных водах. В случае отсутствия положительной тенденции в сторону уменьшения концентрации нитратов в подземных водах эксплуатационных водоносных комплексов пересмотреть систему экологического менеджмента.

The role of populist attitudes in explaining climate change skepticism and support for environmental protection

ABSTRACT Conventional wisdom holds that partisanship and political ideology, writ large, are some of the most powerful explanations of attitudes towards climate change and environmental politics. While compelling, most studies focus on a narrow definition of political ideology in the US. This study adds to the literature by assessing the relationship between populism, climate skepticism, and support for environmental protection. Populism offers an orthogonal dimension to partisanship and left-right self-placement, which broadens the scope of the concept. Assessing the UK facilitates understanding the role of political ideology beyond the strong party sorting apparent in the US. Data from the 2015 British Election Study offer strong support for the proposition that populism holds a consequential role in climate and environmental politics.

Polarization politics and hopes for a green agenda in the United States

ABSTRACTIn the past, support for environmental protection in the United States was relatively nonpartisan. That situation began to change in the late 1970s with partisanship playing an increasing role in attitudes and behavior regarding the environment. Despite the growing importance of environmental issues, Republicans, especially conservative Republicans, express greater skepticism about climate change, global warming, and environmentalism in general. We take advantage of a new method of estimation to gauge the degree of partisan and ideological variability in environmental concern across birth cohorts and time, while also testing the role of compositional and contextual causes of this variability. This contributes to our understanding of large-scale changes in environmental attitudes, and the degree to which partisan identification and political ideology is to blame for lack of environmental concern and efforts to promote a green agenda.

Public awareness and support for environmental protection-A focus on air pollution in peninsular Malaysia.

As in many nations, air pollution linked to rapid industrialization is a public health and environmental concern in Malaysia, especially in cities. Understanding awareness of air pollution and support for environmental protection from the general public is essential for informing governmental approaches to dealing with this problem. This study presents a cross-sectional survey conducted in the Klang Valley and Iskandar conurbations to examine urban Malaysians’ perception, awareness and opinions of air pollution. The survey was conducted in two languages, English and Malay, and administered through the online survey research software, Qualtrics. The survey consisted of three sections, where we collected sociodemographic information, information on the public perception of air quality and the causes of air pollution, information on public awareness of air pollution and its related impacts, and information on attitudes towards environmental protection. Of 214 respondents, over 60% were positive towards the air quality at both study sites despite the presence of harmful levels of air pollution. The air in the Klang Valley was perceived to be slightly more polluted and causing greater health issues. Overall, the majority of respondents were aware that motor vehicles represent the primary pollution source, yet private transport was still the preferred choice of transportation mode. A generally positive approach towards environmental protection emerged from the data. However, participants showed stronger agreement with protection actions that do not involve individual effort. Nonetheless, we found that certain segments of the sample (people owning more than three vehicles per household and those with relatives who suffered from respiratory diseases) were significantly more willing to personally pay for environmental protection compared to others. Implications point to the need for actions for spreading awareness of air pollution to the overall population, especially with regards to its health risks, as well as strategies for increasing the perception of behavioural control, especially with regards to motor vehicles’ usage.

Social Identity and Environmental Concern: The Importance of Contextual Effects

This study draws on social identity theory to explain differences in individual support for environmental protection, a conative component of environmental concern. It argues that an individual’s identification with higher social units—community, nation, and world—strengthens its in-group solidarity and empathy and, in consequence, its readiness to protect the environment benefiting the in-group’s welfare. The study hypothesizes that country-level manifestations of social identity (a) lift individuals’ support for environmental protection above the level that their own social identity suggests (elevator effect) and (b) reinforce the effect of individuals’ social identity on their support for environmental protection (amplifier effect). Using a sample of more than 30,000 individuals located in 38 countries around the world, the study finds strong evidence for the two contextual effects. The findings indicate that social identity plays an important role not just as an individual attribute but also as a central component of culture in fostering environmental concern.

Greening the debate: timing, locality and participation in predicting success of environmental justice campaigns

Organisations in the mainstream environmental movement are larger, stronger, better funded and more knowledgeable than at any previous time. Polls consistently show very high levels of public support for environmental protection for government, corporate and individual action to address climate change. But individual campaigns around climate justice still enjoy limited success. In fact, a survey of climate justice campaigns undertaken by the EJOLT project Environmental Justice Atlas (2017) suggests that of 40 recent EJ campaigns in the Western Hemisphere relating specifically to fossil fuels and climate justice, only 14 were a clear success. How have successful climate justice campaigns have differed from those that have enjoyed more limited success? This paper examines the characteristics of over 40 climate justice campaigns carried out in North America to determine what qualities successful climate justice campaigns share.

Support for environmental protection: an integration of ideological-consistency and information-deficit models

ABSTRACTThe divergent roles of education in predicting environmental support among liberals, conservatives, and moderates in the United States are explained by integrating ideological-consistency and information-deficit models. Increased political polarization among elites has led to divergent environmental positions advocated by liberal and conservative political and media leaders; it was predicted that education would increase public attention to these elite cues and, consistent with the ideological-consistency model, increased education would lead to attitudes in line with consensual positions endorsed by party elites. Across two nationally representative data sets, higher levels of education were associated with stronger environmental support among liberals and weaker environmental support among conservatives. Moderates were predicted to have fewer elite cues on which to base their attitudes; consistent with the information-deficit model, higher levels of education among moderates were associated with strengthened environmental support. A moderated-mediation model supported the differential application of these two theories.

Legal Support for Environmental Protection of The Agriculture in The Republic of Belarus

Legal Support for Environmental Protection of The Agriculture in The Republic of Belarus

Focusing Events and Public Opinion: Evidence from the Deepwater Horizon Disaster

Scholarly research has found a weak and inconsistent role for self-interest in public opinion, and mixed evidence for a relationship between local pollution risks and support for environmental protection. In this study, I argue that focusing events can induce self-interested responses from people living in communities whose economies are implicated by the event. I leverage a unique 12-wave panel survey administered between 2008 and 2010 to analyze public opinion toward offshore oil drilling before and after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. I find that residence in counties highly dependent upon the offshore drilling industry was predictive of pro-drilling attitudes following the spill, though not prior to the spill. In addition, there is no significant evidence that residence in a county afflicted by the spill influenced opinion. This study concludes that local support for drilling often arises only after focusing events make the issue salient.

Free Public Species Naming to Promote Proenvironmental Behavior?

To examine the impact of naming rights on support for environmental protection, we provided a high school class the opportunity to name a species of a parasitoid wasp after hearing a lecture on the extent and loss of biodiversity, with special focus on species description and climate change. Two other classes received the same presentation but were not able to name the species. Results showed a small impact on behavior, when controlling for environmental identity, with the experimental group scoring higher than the other two groups. This effect did not persist at a retest 4 months later. Other analyses showed, however, that environmental concern and concern about effects on the ecosystem had a significant effect on behavior at time 2 even when controlling for behavior at time 1. Implications for educational interventions are discussed.