Environmental Policy Commons^™

The Perception Of Natural Resource Management In Nebraska: Efforts For Cross-Boundary Collaborative Management, Daniel Morales

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Nebraska’s agricultural landscapes are rapidly changing, affecting natural resources and their successful management. I utilized two surveys and scenario planning (Chapters 1: statewide survey, 2: local survey, and 3: scenario-planning workshop) to investigate attitudes and perceptions of natural resource management and cross-boundary collaboration. My first objective focused on determining what prevents Nebraskans from addressing natural resources challenges, considering demographics amongst generations and the type of areas they live in (rural versus urban). The second objective focused on whether landowners engaged with their community in managing natural resources. The third objective was to develop alternative future scenarios for the Denton Hills …

The How And Why Of Visual Practice At Un Climate Negotiations, Stéphanie Heckman

New England Journal of Public Policy

In this article Stéphanie Heckman examines the process and outcomes of her graphic recording work and other forms of visual practice in the context of UN climate negotiations, reflecting on three years of collaboration with the UN Climate Change Secretariat, particularly during the eighteen-month Global Stocktake process. After a review of the history and science behind visual storytelling, she analyses one of the graphic recordings made for the third meeting of the Technical Dialogue of the Global Stocktake through the lens of Kelvy Bird’s ‘Levels of Scribing’ model. Drawing on comments from delegates at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt and …

Results Of Cop27 And Expectations For Cop28, Cecilia Kinuthia-Njenga, Fareed Yasseen

New England Journal of Public Policy

Since 1995, government representatives from around the world have gathered nearly every year for the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) to advance work on multilateral agreements and to provide a way forward in tackling the significant challenges of climate change. The last of these conferences took place on November 6–20, 2022, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

COP27 brought together more than 35,000 people from across the globe to deliberate on important actions for addressing the climate. Hailed as the “African COP” and “Implementation COP,” it raised expectations that decisions from previous conferences, reflecting the needs and priorities of the …

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley, Adanna C. Kalejaye

New England Journal of Public Policy

To coincide with COP28 in Dubai, this issue of the New England Journal of Public Policy published a series of articles on climate warming.

Joint Global Responsibility Fund For Climate, Conservation, And Communities: A Proposed Innovative Tax-Based Funding Mechanism, Tamar Ron

New England Journal of Public Policy

Nature-based solutions address biodiversity loss, climate change, and societal challenges at the local, national, regional, and global levels. The costs of their conservation, however, are mostly local and national in nature. Confronting the rolling dual crisis of biodiversity loss and climate change requires us to recognize nature’s intrinsic value. Moreover, we must find practical ways for their monetary valuation to be channeled as payment for the services of conservation custodians. It is suggested here to translate the value of natural assets and the understanding of the local costs and global benefits of their conservation, into an innovative and ambitious funding …

Cop27 And The New Rise Of The Global South, Janice Golding

New England Journal of Public Policy

Developing countries require direct and indirect financial and non-financial assistance to address the climate crisis. The COP27 announcement of a new Loss and Damage Fund as well the unveiling of the Bridgetown Initiative collectively hold substantial promise to alter the course of climate multilateralism. The outcome of COP27 has presented unprecedented opportunities for the Global South to build global solidarity for climate justice, but the path ahead will not be easy. Materialization of support to developing countries may be, at best, not sustainable, or at worst, unforeseeable without consistent application of principles and values enshrined in historic, moral accountability for …

The Perfect Is The Enemy Of The Good: Carbon Credits And Funding For Decarbonization In Developing Countries, Andrew A. Bernstein

New England Journal of Public Policy

Carbon credits issued in the voluntary carbon market are an important source of funding for projects in developing countries designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as forest preservation and renewable energy. Beyond their potential to provide billions of dollars of private sector financing for decarbonization, carbon credits can generate economic opportunity, employment, and biodiversity. But they are controversial, mainly (but not only) because it is difficult to confirm and to quantify their emissions benefits. This article argues that policymakers should nonetheless support voluntary carbon market growth, so long as companies use carbon credits to mitigate emissions they cannot avoid …

Solar Radiation Modification Governance In The Context Of Temperature Overshoot, Janos Pasztor

New England Journal of Public Policy

As the climate crisis escalates, governments—and recently even those in the wealthier countries in the Global North—are struggling to manage the impacts we are experiencing around the world in frightening abundance, including record-setting temperatures, fires, floods, and glacial and ice melt. Behind closed doors, policymakers are concerned as they contemplate the increasing likelihood, even under the most ambitious emission reduction pathways, that the world will overshoot the goal agreed upon in the Paris Agreement to limit global average temperature rise to 1.5oC beyond pre-industrial levels.

It is in this “overshoot context” that interest is growing in an emerging, potentially supplementary …

The Gulf: An Appeal For More Coordinated Action On Climate Change, Fareed Yasseen

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article seeks to provide the rationale behind Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Sudani’s call at the United Nations for the formation of a negotiating group within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process that brings together all member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Iraq, and Iran. This article argues that these countries would benefit doubly from such an arrangement, because it would help them better address the direct effects of climate change, on the one hand, and to better address the effects of the measures taken to address climate change, which will affect them as fossil fuel producers, …

The Role Of Carbon Management Technologies In Meeting Net Zero, Ali Al-Saffar

New England Journal of Public Policy

The pathway toward implementing the changes necessary in the energy sector to keep global temperature rises from breaking through catastrophic barriers is narrow and tenuous and will require a range of zero- and low-carbon technologies to be dispatched at a speed and scale that is virtually unprecedented. Decarbonization through renewables, matched with the more efficient use of energy in the end-use sectors will play a large part. But there is growing realization that there will be residual fossil fuel use long into the future, and that the emissions from the burning of these fossil fuels in power plants and factories …

Comparison Of Ceneb And Cohyst Hydrologic Models Within A Common Domain In Central Nebraska, William R. Moak

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Nebraska Department of Natural Resources (NDNR) has developed several hydrologic models to help effectively manage water resources in the state. These models guide water managers to allocate surface and groundwater supplies to a range of uses (irrigation, environmental protection, interstate water agreements) and evaluate the impacts of changes to the surface water-groundwater system (e.g., new wells, evolving recharge patterns). Two such models, the Central Nebraska (CENEB) model and the Cooperative Hydrology Study (COHYST) model cover north central and south central Nebraska, respectively, but the model domains overlap along a west-east strip between the Platte and Loup Rivers, enabling direct …

Water Efficiency & Sustainability In The Mountain West, 2022, Zachary Billot, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Environment

This fact sheet analyzes the effectiveness of state-level policies related to water usage, conservation, and sustainability for the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah in 2022. The original data are published in the “2022 State Policy Scorecard for Water Efficiency and Sustainability” report written by the Alliance for Water Efficiency.

Influences On Participation In The National Flood Insurance Program’S Community Rating System In Coastal Counties In Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, And Florida, Jennifer E. Argote

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The National Flood Insurance Program provides an incentive-based program, the Community Rating System (“CRS”), to encourage communities to improve their hazard mitigation protocols to better protect against and prevent flood-related hazards. This dissertation analyzes factors that influence participation and points scored within the CRS to gain an understanding of the conditions under which communities are willing and able to take advantage of an incentive-based flood hazard mitigation program. It also includes an analysis of survey responses from 41 coastal county floodplain and CRS managers to gauge their opinions on the CRS and how it can be improved to better serve …

Críticas Contrahegemónicas De La Estrategia Nacional Del Litio: Hacia El Postextractivismo, Sarah Reyes

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

En abril de 2023, el presidente chileno Gabriel Boric anunció su esperada Estrategia Nacional del Litio, diseñada para expandir la extracción de litio y desarrollar una cadena de valor productiva nacional a través de una estructura de asociación público-privada con mayor participación estatal. El plan ha sido objeto de diversas críticas y niveles de oposición por parte de la izquierda, comunidades indígenas y organizaciones ambientales. Basándose en la creciente literatura de ecología política y decolonial sobre la extracción de litio, junto con marcos teóricos de decrecimiento decolonial y postextractivismo, este documento sintetiza y analiza críticas de estos tres grupos (no …

The Truth Behind Avocado Expansion In The Algarve: A Synthesis Of Public, Environmental Associations, And Government Perspectives And Response, Mandy Ausman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Avocado expansion has exponentially increased in the Algarve region of southern Portugal in recent years. The surge in expansion has provoked contention and discrepancy in the media regarding how and if avocado production can persist in the water-scarce region due to worsening drought conditions related to climate change coupled with the fruit’s significant water footprint. This paper aims to synthesize the arguments and response of the public, environmental associations, and government agencies to the expansion of avocado production in the water- scarce region of the Algarve, highlight the region’s current challenges of avocado expansion and water management regulation, and analyze …

Representations And Realities: Misali Island's Biodiversity In Hybrid Narratives, Justin Ross Whitney

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are complex organisms that ebb and flow between strict and unyielding conservation doctrines often at the cost of community engagement. Misali Island is different. Conceived and advocated for by community members, this organism has navigated a tumultuous tenure of environmental degradation, periods of high and low funding, and a looming tourism presence. On top of these challenges has been a growing fishing community attempting to share in the bounty of this shockingly biodiverse setting. This study sorts through the grey space of Misali Island by applying a hybrid narrative that interfaces the marine context of the …

Key Areas For Scientific And Technological Cooperation In Ecological And Environmental Protection And Sustainable Development In The Belt And Road Initiative, Bojie Fu, Yanxu Liu, Wenwu Zhao

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Green is the foundation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This study examines the ecological and environmental risks faced by BRI and their impact on sustainable development. It identifies key research areas in ecological and environmental protection that support sustainable development, including water resource management and water-saving technologies, water environment governance and human health assurance, land degradation prevention and control technologies and demonstrations, biodiversity conservation and the utilization of biological resources, mechanisms and models for ecosystem restoration, and environmental governance for community sustainable development. It is hoped to enhancing scientific and technological cooperation in ecological and environmental governance among …

Self-Reported Consumption Of Bottled Water V. Tap Water In Appalachian And Non-Appalachian Kentucky, Jason W. Marion

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: Quantitative studies on drinking water perceptions in Appalachia are limited. High-profile water infrastructure failures in the U.S. and Eastern Kentucky, coupled with human-made and natural disasters in the Appalachian Region, have likely impacted opinions regarding tap water.

Purpose: To use existing unexplored data to describe baseline tap water v. bottled water consumption in Kentucky.

Methods: Telephone-based cross-sectional data were obtained from the 2013 Kentucky Health Issues Poll (KHIP) directed by the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. Among many items in KHIP, self-reported consumption of bottled water over tap water, reasons for bottled water use, and demographic data were obtained. …

Research On Performance Evaluation System Of Shipping Enterprises Under "Double Carbon" Strategy, Xiaoyu Xue

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Transport Carbon Emission Reduction In A Seaport : Dry Port System, Jianshi Kang

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Current Conditions, Issues, And Suggestions For Ecological Protection And High-Quality Development In Loess Plateau, Bojie Fu, Yansui Liu, Zhi Cao, Zhuangzhuang Wang, Xutong Wu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin has been prioritized as a national strategy. The release and implementation of the Outline of the Yellow River Basin's Ecological Protection and High-quality Development Plan in 2021 have placed the Loess Plateau, located in the middle reach of the Yellow River, in a critical phase characterized by the need to sustain ecological restoration achievements while fostering socioeconomic progress. This study provides a comprehensive overview of the current conditions and issues related to ecological construction and socioeconomic development in the Loess Plateau. It proposes four specific suggestions focusing on improving …

Research On China’S Marine Protected Areas Policy Based On Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework 2030 Targets, Ke Duan, Xiulin Wang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at the Conference of Parties (COP15) has set a series of targets, including protecting at least 30% of the oceans by 2030 worldwide. In China, how to build a marine ecological civilization in synergy with the targets has become an important issue. This study analyzes the necessity of accelerating the construction of marine protected areas in China from the perspectives of adapting to international trends, fulfilling the responsibilities of international conventions, safeguarding maritime rights and interests, and implementing the maritime power and strategy. The feasibility …

Environmental And Socio-Economic Stress In The Mountain West, Ayda Atici, Caitlin J. Saladino, Fatma Nasoz, William E. Brown Jr.

Environment

This fact sheet examines data on environmental and socio-economic risk metrics including which metrics pose the most risk for Nevada counties.The data are retrieved from “System for the Triage of Risks from Environmental and Socio-Economic Stressors” created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) joint program on the science and policy of global change.

Coal Ash Dumps In The Mountain West, Julia Salangsang, Nicole Diaz Del Valle, Zachary Billot, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Environment

This fact sheet presents data on coal ash dumps, their management, and the pollutants that exist at each site in the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The original report includes data on coal ash dumping sites for all 50 states.

Xianghe Integrated Observatory Of Climate And Environment, Institute Of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy Of Sciences

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

No abstract provided.

Integrated Observation And Research On Climate And Environment From Boundary Layer To Middle And Upper Levels Of Atmosphere, Xiang’Ao Xia, Yufang Tian, Yunfei Wu, Jing Yang, Dongsheng Ji, Jinqiang Zhang, Renjian Zhang, Pucai Wang, Hongbin Chen, Xiushu Qie, Daren Lü

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

After more than 50 years of development, the Xianghe station (XH), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has been equipped with comprehensive detection capabilities covering from the boundary layer to the middle and upper levels of the atmosphere. As one of the few atmospheric integrated field scientific test stations in the world, XH has joined a number of important networks. Many large international field campaigns have been carried out. Long-term continuous observation data are widely used to study exchange of energy and mass in the middle and upper atmosphere, atmospheric physical chemistry and air quality in the boundary …

The Battle On The Edge Of Hexi Corridor–Taklimakan Desert: Wind-Blown Sand Situation And Prevention Tasks Of Desertification Control, Jiaqiang Lei, Xin Gao, Yongcheng Zhao, Heqiang Du, Qing He, Hongjing Ren, Xiaoyu Meng, Zihao Hu, Zuowei Yang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

In order to implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech on strengthening the comprehensive control of desertification and promoting key ecological engineering projects such as the “Three-North Shelterbelt Program”, this study is designated to make concrete efforts to win the battle against desertification on the edge of Hexi Corridor—Taklimakan Desert. The study deeply explores the situation of wind-blown sand flux and prevention tasks in the area. Based on the characteristics of desertified land and wind-blown sand activities on the edge of Hexi Corridor—Taklimakan Desert, the goal is set to effectively prevent the spread of sand and control …

Implementation Path And Strategic Planning Of Winning The Battle Of “Three-North” And Reconstructing “New Three-North”, Qi Lu, Chunlei Xiao, Yingshuang Bao, Mengchun Cui, Xiaoming Cao, Xiao Que, Liu Yang, Guipeng Cui

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Over the past 45 years, China has accomplished great achievements in carrying out “Three-North” project. Through largescale vegetation construction, the trends of land desertification, soil salinization, soil erosion and the deterioration of people’s living environment in the “Three-North” areas have been effectively restrained. The people in the desert area are getting rid of poverty and living a healthy life. In the new era, the “Three-North” project has encountered new demands, new challenges and new opportunities, and it is urgent to achieve a significant transform and upgrade and to improve quality and efficiency. This paper summarizes the current situation of the …

China’S Governance: Strategy Choice And Future Vision For Combating Desertification, Guipeng Cui, Chunlei Xiao, Jiaqiang Lei, Xiaosong Li, Yingshuang Bao, Qi Lu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

China has made remarkable achievements in combating desertification over the past 70 years. At present, China has entered a new stage of combating desertification while facing many problems such as large desertification land base and high difficulty in combating desertification, and it is more important to meet the national strategic needs of ecological construction, rural revitalization, and the development and utilization of renewable energy in desert, Gobi, and wasteland areas. The strategic choice of combating desertification in China in the new era is overall improvement and key breakthroughs. The core of the strategy is whole-area governance, innovation-driven, and technology integration. …

Not-So-Super Superfund: Cercla’S Biggest Issues, Cameron Berthiaume

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA/Superfund) is a federal law that allows the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to clean up contaminated sites and hold the parties responsible for the contamination financially liable. However, CERCLA faces a number of challenges to fulfilling its mission. This report examines some of the biggest issues facing the law in the past and present.