Sustainable Environmental Governance Research Articles

Visual analysis of contaminated site studies in recent 30 years based on bibliometrics and knowledge graph

AbstractThe problem of contaminated sites is a hot and difficult issue in global environmental sustainable development. Because the contaminated site carries a large number of harmful substances (heavy metal ions, organic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, toxic gases, etc.), it brings great security risks to the environmental ecological security and people's health. Effective identification of the characteristics of contaminated sites and understanding of the research status and development trend of contaminated sites are of great significance to environmental sustainable development and environmental governance and restoration. Based on Web of Science database, this study systematically, quantitatively and visually analyzes the research status of contaminated sites by bibliometrics and knowledge graph technology. The results show that bibliometrics and knowledge graph are effective in information retrieval and visualization. It can display the information of different scales and different times in the study of contaminated sites, and find the distribution characteristics of popular keywords. The cluster cases of this study show that the problems of contaminated site research mainly focus on suspended particulate matter pollution, water pollution, heavy metal pollution, organic pollution, pollution reduction and bioremediation technology research. In the future, the hot issues of contaminated site remediation and environmental sustainable development will focus on strengthening the research of microbial remediation technology, nanomaterial technology, composite material adsorption technology and so on.

Emerging attributes of adaptive governance in the global south

Adaptive governance is widely considered an effective approach to address the complexities and uncertainties of socio-ecological systems. The application of adaptive governance to sustainable environmental governance in the global south has not been sufficiently explored. There is a gap in the literature in the global south, especially given its conceptual roots in the global north. A number of reviews identified some key conceptual and practical gaps related to adaptive governance principles and the challenges to implementing them. To address this gap, this paper presents a systematic literature review of adaptive governance scholarship focused on the global south published between 2003 and 2022. The review discusses adaptive governance’s key principles and framings, as well as the challenges of implementing it in the global south. This paper examines the factors that influence the emergence of adaptive governance and how this framing has been used to understand effective environmental governance within the global south’s diverse socio-political and institutional settings. The review specifically focuses on Africa and South Asia, which are densely populated with limited financial and institutional capacity. Sustainable environmental governance is crucial in these regions not only for the wellbeing of the population, but also for the health of the planet. A review of adaptive governance scholarship identified emerging attributes that improve government structures and processes, as well as proposed attributes that would minimize challenges and improve adaptive capacity. The key emerging attributes are formal and informal networks, social learning, community engagement and proposed attributes are flexible, integrated and participatory institutional governance, inclusive decision making, context-specific strategies, accountability, and capacity development. These attributes provide a framework for adaptive governance scholarship for examining different governance structures and processes in different socio-ecological systems. This paper concludes with a framework for future research that can facilitate adaptive governance in the context of sustainable environmental management in the global south.

Extract or conserve? The Hartwick-rule and sustainable environmental governance

The legal safeguards for sustainable environmental governance are often inadequate, inefficient, and amenable to political maneuverings. Australia recently approved the Carmichael coal mine, rail, and expansion of the Abbot Port projects. These projects, along with many others in the region, have dire consequences for the groundwater system (Currell et al., 2017) [5], the Great Barrier Reef (Kroon et al., 2016; Grech et al., 2016) [6,7], and climate change (Taylor and Meinshausen, 2014) [8]. Here we show that incorporating the Hartwick-rule in economic analysis renders many of these projects unviable with or without the opportunity and externality costs. The Hartwick-rule dictates that exhaustible resource extraction can ensure weak sustainability if resource rents can be invested in such a way that the produced capital outweighs the consumed natural capital (Hartwick, 1977) [9]. We put forward two main arguments; one, resource rents belong to the society and many projects are only viable when these rents are invested with a certain growth rate; second, economic analysis shall incorporate the Hartwick-rule and shall be applied prior to recourse to the legal safeguards. Our analysis can be applied to any non-renewable natural resource extraction decision making.

Environmental Rights are a Human Right to a Healthy Environment: A Brief Review

Environmental Rights is a branch of law that deals with the protection and safeguarding of the environment; and, is a set of legal rules that regulate people's relationships with nature, and it can be said that it is an interdisciplinary right, based on rules of private law, public law, administrative law, and criminal law. Therefore, it regulates the creation, modification, and fulfillment of legal relationships that condition the enjoyment, conservation, and improvement of the environment, inducing actions and abstentions in favor of the environment and the common good. As such, it is a fundamental human right to a safe, clean and healthy environment; and sustainable environmental governance cannot exist without the establishment of and respect for human rights.

Preface

The world now is facing a potential future risk which is climate change due to the increasing global temperature compared to the pre-industrial era in the late 18th century. Greenhouse gas emission released from un-clean industries, land use change, fuel-based transportation, energy, and urban waste has been considered as the main contributor to this problem. To tackle this issue, the international community has been offered various schemes including providing incentives for countries or entities that proved to be successfully reduced greenhouse gas emissions.This year, the Faculty of Forestry Mulawarman University, Samarinda, East Kalimantan, Indonesia hosted The 3rd International Symposium on Tropical Forestry and Environmental Sciences (3rd ISTFES) on August 29-31, 2023 in Balikpapan. The symposium was co-organized with Kreativa Organizer Samarinda, Indonesia. In line with the climate change issue as described above, the symposium took “Forest & Environment Future Challenges and Opportunities on Climate Policies and Benefits” as the main theme. A total of 139 participants attended this symposium which came from various institutions and universities including four keynote speakers, three invited speakers, oral presenters, and participants.The 3rd ISTFES committee wishes to express gratitude to all authors and co-authors who have contributed to this event by submitting their valuable and recent works. The 3rd ISTFES proceeding, comprising 59 selected reviewed papers that published in the this IOP conference series: Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES).As the chairman of the symposium, I would like to convey our appreciation to all keynote speakers and invited speakers: Ir. Ujang Rachmat, M.Si (Assistant for Economic and Development Administration, East Kalimantan Province); Dr. Tetra Yanuardi (Project Manager, Division of Trade and Industry, International Tropical Timber Organization, Japan); Dr. Robert Nasi (Director General of CIFOR-ICRAF); Prof. Dr. Phua Mui How (Universiti Malaysia Sabah); Mirna Asnawi Safitri, S.H., M.Si., Ph.D (Deputy for Environmental and Natural Resources, Authority Bureau of Nusantara Capital City (OIKN)); Tunggul Butar Butar (Project Leader for Peatland Management and Rehabilitation Project (PROPEAT–GIZ)); and Dr. Josi Khatarina (USAID Sustainable Environmental Governance Across Region (SEGAR)). Our sincere gratitude also goes to the sponsors: the Governor of East Kalimantan Government, East Kalimantan Regional Council of Climate Change, GIZ PROPEAT, USAID SEGAR, and PT Multi Harapan Utama (MHU), for their invaluable contribution to making this conference highly meaningful and rewarding. We expect that forthcoming ISTFES conferences will be equally exciting, given the encouraging evidence of contribution demonstrated in these proceedings.Warm regards,Chairman of Organizing Committee Ali Suhardiman, Ph.D List of symposium committees are available in this Pdf.

The tapestry of green economics: mapping the nexus of CO2 emissions, economic growth, and renewable energy

ABSTRACT This study examines the relationships between CO2 emissions, GDP, renewable energy consumption, and trade openness across 37 OECD countries from 1995–2020. Using a Panel Vector Autoregressive (PVAR) model and Granger Causality tests, the research probes the causality among these factors. Key findings show a notable causality from GDP, renewable energy, and trade openness to CO2 emissions. Specifically, lags in renewable energy consumption and trade openness significantly decrease CO2 emissions. Surprisingly, GDP's influence on CO2 emissions is found to be negligible, challenging the typical belief linking economic growth to environmental degradation. These insights hold great value for policymakers in environmental governance and climate finance. The data underscores the importance of promoting renewable energy and trade openness for effective CO2 reduction. The study advocates a sustainable environmental governance model, emphasizing strong legal structures and clarity in execution. Since GDP doesn't significantly impact CO2 emissions, there's potential to pivot towards sustainable economic growth models. The research offers a foundational empirical groundwork, suggesting that expanding future studies to include diverse variables might yield a more comprehensive understanding of the relationships in question.

Greening the flow: Harnessing foreign remittances for sustainable development and environmental governance: Evidence from 2SLS testing approach

AbstractForeign remittances have significantly impacted recipient countries' economic growth and financial development over the past few decades. However, eco‐friendly climate change mitigation techniques must be implemented immediately due to the environmental implications of foreign remittances. Recipient nations' industrial and agricultural sectors are bolstered by remittances, ultimately contributing to carbon dioxide emissions. This paper examines the effects of remittances on economic growth by incorporating CO2 emissions, financial development, industry, and agriculture‐added value. This study examines panel data spanning 32 years (1990–2021) for eight countries: China, the Philippines, Egypt, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. The relationship among selected variables and their impact on CO2 emission is examined using the two‐stage least squares (2SLS) and Granger causality approach. The empirical results show that increased financial development and economic growth decrease environmental quality through toxic CO2 emissions. The remittances and agricultural sector help to mitigate CO2 emission by their negative contribution toward environmentally destructive activities in top remittances‐based countries. Except for agriculture, CO2 emission is bidirectionally related to all variables. Incorporating industrialization (as an instrumental variable) to improve the financial system leads to an upward trend in CO2 emissions reduction. As a result, the study makes important suggestions to economists and policymakers on reducing CO2 emissions in Asian countries.

The perspective of multi-parties to the implementation of Forestry and Other Land Use (FoLU) net sink in Central Sulawesi

Climate change will determine how long people can survive on our planet. Several countries, including Indonesia, have stalled debates, policies, and concrete steps. In response to the Glasgow Fact, the Indonesian government implemented the Forestry and other land use (FoLU) Net Sink 2030, whose essential pillars are sustainable forest management, environmental governance, and carbon governance. FoLU program plan will be implemented in Central Sulawesi. This study explores the perspectives of the persons involved using the Delphi and the G-O-L-A-R methods. According to the study’s findings, The cornerstones to the successful implementation of FoLU Net Sink 2030 in Central Sulawesi are legal certainty and regulatory regulations, budget efficiency for programs, community awareness and motivation to preserve and care for the environment, and solid and participative institutional capacities.

Business strategy and environmental information disclosure from a Confucian cultural perspective: Evidence from China

AbstractBased on social contract theory, this study investigates the impact of business strategy on environmental information disclosure from an informal institutional perspective. Using empirical data from a panel of Chinese listed A‐share firms in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2010 to 2020, we demonstrate that firms following prospector strategies have higher levels of environmental information disclosure compared to those following defender strategies. Our findings also reveal that Confucian culture positively moderates the relationship between business strategy and environmental information disclosure. Specifically, we find that when environmental uncertainty increases, the moderating effect of Confucian culture weakens, while effective legal supervision strengthens the positive moderating effect of Confucian culture. Additionally, our results show that business strategy affects environmental information disclosure through the dual channels of economic benefits contract and social recognition contract. Overall, this research provides valuable insights for corporate sustainable development and effective government environmental governance.

The impact of public environmental concern on environmental pollution: The moderating effect of government environmental regulation.

As environmental problems continue to intensify, public environmental awareness and participation have become key forces in a modernized environmental governance system. Recognizing the importance of public participation in environmental governance, this study explores the influence of public pressure on environmental pollution and its implications for China's long-term environmental management efforts. Using statistical and internet search data from 284 prefecture-level cities between 2011 and 2020, the study finds that a 1% increase in public environmental concern leads to a 0.009% reduction in pollution. The study also highlights the strengthening effect of government environmental regulation on the impact of public environmental concern. Moreover, regional heterogeneity analysis reveals a stronger effect of public environmental concern in cities facing low economic pressure. The findings of the study provide a reference for the construction of a coordinated and sustainable environmental governance model in China as well as in developing countries.

Collaborative governance in forestry issues: A bibliometric analysis with VOS viewer software using Scopus database

This study aims to analyse scientific literature on collaborative governance in forestry issues published from 2001 to 2022. To ensure paper quality, the study will use VOSviewer software to visualise the bibliometric analysis from Scopus Database. Bibliometric analysis was used to analyse 72 papers about collaborative governance in forestry issues. VOSviewer software visualised publishing trends, country/institution/author contributions, journal distribution, highly cited articles, bibliographic coupling analysis, and keyword analysis. According to the study, collaborative governance in forestry publications has increased considerably in the last decade. Most research on this issue comes from the US, Canada, and Australia. Colorado State campus was the study's most affiliated campus, followed by Saskatchewan and Oregon. This study was published in Land Use Policy, Society and Natural Resources, and Ecology and Society. The combination of bibliographies and keyword concurrency networks showed that collaborative governance in forestry issues is closely linked to sustainable development, environmental governance, and forest governance. The study finds that collaborative governance in forestry issues needs more research, especially with collaborative governance as a framework. The bibliometric analysis provides a complete overview of publishing trends, country/institution/author contributions, journal distribution and highly cited articles, bibliographic coupling analysis, and keyword analysis in this field. Researchers, policymakers, and practitioners interested in collaborative governance in forestry may profit from the study. The results may identify key contributors, influential journals, and critical study areas linked to this topic.

Sustainable Forest Management from Hydrology and Climate Change Mitigation Perspectives

The increasing number of hydrometeorological disasters induced by unsustainable landscape management has led to significant fatalities and economic loss. Forest ecosystem landscapes are strategic national capital that could contribute to climate change mitigation. The government had formulated policies on Folu Net Sink ~2030 through sustainable forest management, environmental and carbon governance, and a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) strategic approach using its natural infrastructure in the form of forest ecosystem landscapes. The government could establish attractive and integrated incentive and disincentive systems and mechanisms with sustainable forest management to achieve the targets.

How does ESG performance affect stock returns? Empirical evidence from listed companies in China

With the increasing attention to sustainable development, environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) investment has become an important vehicle for achieving carbon neutrality worldwide. In this paper, the impact of ESG performance on stock returns and the transmission mechanism are explored. A fixed effect model based on a panel unbalanced data of listed companies in China from 2011 to 2020 is selected for the empirical analysis. The results show that ESG performance of listed companies in China positively impacts stock returns. However, by distinguishing the ownership nature and region to which listed companies belong, this study finds that the relationship between ESG performance and stock returns is particularly significant for non-state-owned companies and those in the eastern region. Further, based on stakeholder theory, financial performance and corporate innovation ability are embedded into the relationship between ESG performance and stock returns. Both financial performance and corporate innovation ability play partial mediating roles in the correlation between ESG performance and stock returns. In addition, the relationship between ESG performance and corporate innovation ability is non-linear. This paper provides insight for emerging markets into cultivating the value investment concept of investors and improving the ESG information disclosure system.

Environmental collaborative governance of urban agglomeration in China: influencing factors and drivers.

This study attempts to examine how urban agglomerations establish sustainable environmental collaborative governance. To achieve this goal, the qualitative comparative analysis method is used to explore the conditions and models for urban agglomerations to establish environmental collaborative governance, with 12 urban agglomerations approved by the Chinese authorities as examples. Based on the collaborative governance framework, this paper proposes six starting conditions that affect the establishment of urban agglomeration collaboration: vertical intervention, horizontal cooperation, leadership attention, governance capacity, initial pollution, and economic governance. The interaction of these conditions was tested in the practice of environmental cooperation in urban agglomerations. The results show that horizontal cooperation, leadership attention, and economic governance are necessary conditions for the establishment of urban agglomeration cooperation. The authority-driven mode, capability-driven mode, and pressure-driven mode can promote cooperation. Vertical intervention, governance capacity, and initial pollution constitute the external and internal driving forces of urban agglomeration cooperation. These findings supplement the literature on urban agglomeration collaboration and provide policy makers with insight into sustainable urban agglomeration collaborative environmental governance.

Identifying Ecosystem Services Bundles for Ecosystem Services Trade-Off/Synergy Governance in an Urbanizing Region

Ecosystem services (ES) are the contribution of ecosystem structure and function to human well-being, connecting natural and socio-economic systems. ES trade-off/synergy has been one of the critical issues in sustainable environmental governance for guiding and formulating environmental policies. However, science-to-practice framework for ecosystem services trade-off/synergy governance are still rare. This study presents a comprehensive framework for identifying and managing trade-off and synergy of ESs in an urbanizing region. Using Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA)—one of the fastest urbanizing regions in China—as a case, this study identified major ecosystem service bundles (ESBs) and applied the comprehensive framework to inform ES trade-off/synergy governance. The results showed that there were three stable ESBs in the GBA, and that ESB 1 (high grain production) and ESB 2 (high carbon sequestration) should be increased, and ESB 3 (all ES provision are low) should be increased. Moreover, there was large spatial–temporal change in ESBs in the central area of the GBA during 2000–2015 due to population and land urbanization. This study provides valuable information for sustainable land management and environmental governance in an urbanizing region.

Climate Change and Human Response to Sustainable Environmental Governance Policy: Tax or Emissions Trading?

With climate change, humans are looking for effective ways to improve the ecological environment and provide comfortable survival space for sustainable development. There are two main economic methods for controlling environmental pollution: emissions fees (Pigouvian taxes) and emissions standards (emissions trading). However, the two policies have their applicable conditions in dealing with different sources of pollution and dynamic ecosystems, and many problems will arise if they are misused. This paper theoretically proves that significant (minor) pollution sources could satisfy the condition that the benefit function’s curvature is greater (less) than that of the cost function. When the speed of ecological absorption is constant, a price policy controlling significant pollution sources will generate uncertainty; the quantity policy will generate a higher total social cost of managing the minor pollution source. When the speed of ecological absorption is not constant, adjusting the number of part pollution permits will lead to two kinds of pollutant leakage. If the pollution permits can be freely circulated, it will lead to the pollution of regional b (less regulated areas) inflow into the region a (more regulated areas); if permits are not freely circulated, otherwise not.

How Has China Structured Its Ecological Governance Policy System?-A Case from Fujian Province.

Ecological civilization (EC) has been seen as the final goal of social and environmental reform within a given society. Much attention has been paid to the national governmental level in previous studies, and district- and local-level government actions have been a lower priority, which may have led to overlooking key details of management institutions and policy systems in relation to EC. In this research, we aimed to make a significant contribution to the literature by tracing the EC trajectory and policy transitions. Through bibliometric analysis of policy documents, we reviewed the EC construction system for Fujian Province from 2004 to 2020. The policy priorities, organization-functional network, and contributing factors to policy changes in each of the three phases are discussed in depth. Target setting, actors’ functions, and institutional guarantees are the core elements of EC construction. This research provides a quantitative foundation for understanding policy reform and transition with regards to Chinese local governments’ EC actions. The experience of Fujian Province shows trends toward legalization, multi-actor linkage, and issue refinement that may serve as a basis for other countries and regions in order to explore the promotion of sustainable development and environmental governance as pathways to EC.

IoT for Environmental Management and Security Governance: An Integrated Project in Taiwan

Taiwan is in a hazard-exposed area where people often suffer through typhoons, earthquakes, and landslides, and must face the challenges of environmental and climate changes in ongoing and future developments. Taiwan has implemented an integrated and interdisciplinary project, which is titled Civil IoT Taiwan, for better disaster risk management and risk communication with all stakeholders by cooperating closely with authorities, scientists, and industry. The purposes of this project are to raise public risk awareness to reduce disaster damage and loss and sustainably increase the social, economic, and environmental impacts. For measuring the social impacts of the Civil IoT Taiwan, the social return on investment (SROI) is an evaluation tool to demonstrate the outcomes and impacts of Civil IoT Taiwan to measure its social effects. The SROI ratio of this project is 1.12. Civil IoT Taiwan has just implemented the first development stage in establishing infrastructure for monitoring and sensing; thus, the significant changes and impacts on society, economics, and the environment will be evaluated in the next phase. This ongoing project will also involve more stakeholders for more sustainable and resilient environmental governance in future development.

Evaluation of urban land resource value based on sustainable environment space governance

For any cities, the optimal objective of development is to fully tap the value of land resources, while pursuing the progress of economy, society, and eco-environment. Currently, there is not yet a unified evaluation standard for sustainable development quality of urban environment; the land resource value has not been deeply evaluated from the three aspects of society, economy, and eco-environment. Therefore, this paper tries to measure urban land resource value based on sustainable environmental space governance. Firstly, the authors constructed a scientific evaluation index system for sustainable development quality of urban environment. Next, a comprehensive evaluation method was developed for sustainable land utilization in urban space governance system. After that, the urban space governance scheme was subject to multi-objective optimization. Finally, experiments were carried out to measure the urban land resource value, and estimate the urban ecological service functions and their values. On this basis, the benefits of the urban space governance scheme were analyzed in various aspects. The results confirm the effectiveness of our measurement algorithm.

Waste Pickers and Their Practices of Insurgency and Environmental Stewardship.

Informed by different grassroots learning and educational practices engaged in waste management, and drawing from the concepts of insurgent citizenship and environmental stewardship, we examine the role of waste picker organizations and movements in creating new pathways towards more sustainable environmental waste governance. Two case studies (Argentina and Brazil) demonstrate how waste pickers inform and educate the general public and raise the awareness of socio-environmental questions related to waste management. Different educational practices are used as strategies to confront citizens with their waste: to see waste as a consumption problem, resource, and income source. Our paper draws on grassroots learning (social movement learning and insurgent learning) and education (stewardship) aimed at the transformation of waste practices. We argue that waste pickers play an important role in knowledge production promoting recycling, in landfilling less and recovering more resources. We conclude that waste pickers act as insurgent citizens and also are environmental stewards.