Search results for "Environmental Policy"
showing 10 items of 35 documents
Can green infrastructure help to conserve biodiversity?
2017
The gradually decreasing connectivity of habitats threatens biodiversity and ecological processes valuable to humans. Green infrastructure is promoted by the European Commission as a key instrument for the conservation of ecosystems in the EU biodiversity strategy to 2020. Green infrastructure has been defined as a network of natural and semi-natural areas, designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services. We surveyed Finnish experts' perceptions on the development of green infrastructure within the existing policy framework. Our results show that improving the implementation of existing conservation policy instruments needs to be an integral part of developing green infr…
General overview: European Integrated project on Aerosol Cloud Climate and Air Quality interactions (EUCAARI)-integrating aerosol research from nano …
2011
In this paper we describe and summarize the main achievements of the European Aerosol Cloud Climate and Air Quality Interactions project (EUCAARI). EUCAARI started on 1 January 2007 and ended on 31 December 2010 leaving a rich legacy including: (a) a comprehensive database with a year of observations of the physical, chemical and optical properties of aerosol particles over Europe, (b) comprehensive aerosol measurements in four developing countries, (c) a database of airborne measurements of aerosols and clouds over Europe during May 2008, (d) comprehensive modeling tools to study aerosol processes fron nano to global scale and their effects on climate and air quality. In addition a new Pan…
Regulating Internet Trade in CITES Species
2013
International trade in species that are or may be endangered by collection from the wild is regulated under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora (CITES) for 176 member States (Parties). Internet commerce is a relatively new route for such trade. In 2007, the CITES Secretariat asked Parties to collect information on internet wildlife trade and report problems and implemented regulations. The reports indicated it was difficult to even approximate the influence of e-commerce on CITES-listed species (CITES Secretariat 2009). We report a case study in which we quantified international transactions over an internet auction site of CITES-listed cacti …
Potential for cascading impacts of environmental change and policy on indigenous culture.
2022
AbstractGlobal environmental and societal changes threaten the cultures of indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLC). Despite the importance of IPLC worldviews and knowledge to sustaining human well-being and biodiversity, risks to these cultural resources are commonly neglected in environmental governance, in part because impacts can be indirect and therefore difficult to evaluate. Here, we investigate the connectivity of values associated with the relationship Ngātiwai (a New Zealand Māori tribe) have with their environment. We show that mapping the architecture of values-environment relationships enables assessment of how deep into culture the impacts of environmental change or pol…
No evidence of systematic pre-emptive loggings after notifying landowners of their lands’ conservation potential
2020
Landowners can intentionally impair biodiversity values occurring on their land to pre-empt biodiversity protection. This often leads to significant negative effects on biodiversity. We studied whether landowners in Finland engaged in pre-emptive loggings after they were notified that their wooded mires are candidate sites for a mire protection program. After the notification, harvesting rates of the candidate wooded mires were significantly lower compared to harvesting rates of similar but non-candidate wooded mires. Annual and monthly harvesting rates indicated that notifying landowners of the conservation potential did not launch systematic pre-emptive logging behavior. Nevertheless, par…
From the LCA of food products to the environmental assessment of protected crops districts: A case-study in the south of Italy
2010
In the present study, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was applied to evaluate the energy consumption and environmental burdens associated with the production of protected crops in an agricultural district in the Mediterranean region. In this study, LCA was used as a ‘support tool’, to address local policies for sustainable production and consumption patterns, and to create a ‘knowledge base’ for environmental assessment of an extended agricultural production area. The proposed approach combines organisation-specific tools, such as Environmental Management Systems and Environmental Product Declarations, with the environmental management of the district. Questionnaires were distribute…
Unwanted effects of European Union environmental policy to promote a post-carbon industry. The case of energy in the European ceramic tile sector
2016
Global warming combined with low carbon transition plans is threatening the future of high energy consumption industry sectors in the European Union (EU). The need to respond to environmental challenges is demonstrated by support for international level energy policies and legal requirements, such as the Kyoto Protocol which the EU supports, and increased EU-level environmental legislation and energy policies. The effect of these initiatives is gradually transforming industrial activities in the EU. However, since not all countries have adopted these policies, evaluation of their net effect needs to take account also of side-effects such as delocalization of industry activity and the legal …
The Strategic Use of Innovation to Influence Environmental Policy: Taxes versus Standards
2015
Abstract This paper evaluates the strategic behavior of a polluting monopolist to influence environmental policy, either with taxes or with standards, comparing two alternative policy games. The first of the games assumes that the regulator commits to an ex-ante level of the policy instrument. The second one is the time-consistent policy game. We find that the strategic behavior of the firm is welfare improving and leads to more environmental innovation than under regulatory commitment if a tax is used to control pollution. However, the contrary occurs if an emission standard is used. Under commitment, it is shown that both policy instruments are equivalent. We conclude that the optimal env…
Natural versus manufactured capital: win–lose or win–win? A case study of the Finnish pulp and paper industry
2001
Abstract The effect of investments on environmental variables has been discussed through the win–win rhetoric, specifically in micro-level analysis. On the macro-level the win–win rhetoric has been replaced by the arguments for and against the substitutability of natural and manufactured capital. Here these two concepts belonging to different levels of analysis are linked by looking at the environmental and economic effects of chosen investment strategies in a traditionally capital-intensive industry over time. The paper shows that, rather than generalise the existence of win–win situations or the substitutability of capital, these positions are determined by purely situational factors. As …
The environmental Kuznets curve within European countries and sectors: greenhouse emission, production function and technology
2018
Based on the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis and the technological change and the environment literature, our original contribution consists in analysing within the decomposition model the direct and indirect influence of technological change as well as the energy mix on CO2 emissions. Focusing on the dirtiest sectors of 25 EU countries in the period 1997-2005 and considering the endogeneity issue, we estimate an adjusted EKC relationship comparing a single equation model (univariate model) with a simultaneous equations system (bivariate model). Following Lopez (J Environ Econ Manag 27:163-184, 1994), a second equation is introduced where per capita income is a positive functio…