Environmental Policy Commons^™

Charting The History Of Social And Economic Analyses In The North-East Atlantic, Ospar, Region: Lessons Learned And Future Opportunities, Rob Van Der Veeren, Philip A.S. James, Maria G. Alarcon Blazquez, Xander Keijser

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

Over the past decade, the North-East Atlantic region has witnessed a substantial increase in social and economic analyses related to ocean and coastal management. This article offers a comprehensive overview of this progress, focusing on the work of the International Cooperation Group - Economics and Social Analysis (ICG-ESA) within the OSPAR Commission. While highlighting ICG-ESA's contributions to the OSPAR Quality Status Report 2023, the paper underscores the necessity of integrating social analyses into OSPAR's decision-making processes. It calls for sustained efforts to prevent regression in the achieved progress, stressing the importance of accountability and collaboration among OSPAR and its contracting …

Developing More Useful Equity Measurements For Flood-Risk Management, Adam Pollack, Casey Helgeson, Carolyn Kousky, Klaus Keller

Dartmouth Scholarship

Decision-makers increasingly invoke equity to motivate, design, implement and evaluate strategies for managing flood risks. Unfortunately, there is little guidance on how analysts can develop measurements that support these tasks. Here we analyse how equity can be defined and measured by surveying 167 peer-reviewed publications that explicitly state an interest in equity in the context of flood-risk management. Our main result is a taxonomy that systematizes how equity has been, and can be, defined and measured in flood-risk research. The taxonomy embodies how equity is a pluralistic and unavoidably ethical concept. Despite this, we find that most quantitative studies fail …

Addressing The Need For Both Affordable And Sustainable Housing: A Policy Analysis On Avoiding Environmental Gentrification, Erin Zipman

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

This article focuses on the threat of environmental gentrification in Binghamton and the surrounding municipalities. Given certain risks, including an increasing temporary student renter population, increasing rent prices, high population of renters overall and the need for updates to the housing stock, this area of Broome County is at high risk for environmental gentrification if clean energy upgrades to the housing stock are aggressively pursued. Since clean energy upgrades such as weatherization and clean technology installation will create safer housing and reduce residential greenhouse gas emissions, it is desirable to pursue them. Thus, this article will analyze four policy alternatives …

Insights On Further Deepening Carbon Peaking And Carbon Neutrality Strategy And Pathways, Baihe Gu, Donghui Yu, Chen Wang, Yi Wang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The low carbon transition pathway is a series of goals, technologies, fundings, policies, and other integrated driven system action roadmap. With the deepening of society’s understanding of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, China’s dual-carbon faces the challenge of systemic advancement of comprehensive deepening implementation. The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China once again emphasized that achieving the dual-carbon goal will bring about extensive and profound economic and social systemic changes, and pointed out that based on China’s energy endowment, we should adhere to first establishment and then phase-out and implement the carbon peaking actions in a planned …

Evolution, Stage Characteristics And Governance Model Transformation Of China's Low-Carbon Policy, Yigang Wei, Jiawei Shi, Guannan Xu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

A systematic review of China’s low-carbon policy and paradigm transformation is imperative for establishing a well-designed policy system to achieve the “dual carbon” goals. Based on the theory of policy change, this study constructs an analytical framework of “policy objectives—policy themes—policy fluctuations”. This study uses text mining techniques and policy measurement methods to analyze 1 743 low-carbon policies implemented in China from 2000 to 2021. The study summarizes the stage characteristics and evolutionary path of low-carbon policy development in China, evaluates the contribution of each policy theme at different stages, and portrays the paradigm shift in low-carbon governance. The findings …

Analysis Of Circular Design Principles For The Sustainable End-Of-Life Management Of Renewable Energy Assets: Investigation Of Illinois And Germany Renewable Energy Policies And Programs., Samuel N. Nimaful

2024 Student Research and Creativity Conference

This poster presents an analysis into the integration of circular design principles within renewable energy policies, comparing the approaches of Illinois, USA, and Germany. With the global shift towards renewable energy to combat climate change, the sustainable management of end-of-life (EoL) renewable assets has become crucial. The study utilizes a thematic analysis to explore seven key policies from Illinois and five from Germany, employing NVivo software to dissect aspects such as design strategies, support for innovation, and enforcement mechanisms.

The State Of The Carbon Capture And Sequestration Industry In California In 2024: Challenges And Policy Solutions, Noah Jackson

School of Public Policy Capstones

Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) is the process of capturing CO₂ from an above ground carbon source, transporting it to a sequestration well, and permanently sinking it deep underground. Despite the state of California depending on CCS to reach carbon neutrality, not one CCS project is operational yet in the state. Due to the recent creation and expansion of state low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) credits and the federal 45Q credits, CCS projects are beginning to be developed. Between 2021 and 2023 twelve Class VI applications were submitted to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in California.

This paper …

Designing Social-Ecological Programs To Support Extension Participants In Civic Engagement, Angela S. Gupta, Nathan Meyer, Michelle Prysby, Shelly A. Johnson, Gail Epping Overholt

Journal of Extension

To address a need to support volunteer and citizen engagement with decision-makers in addressing social-ecological challenges, we designed and tested a “flipped classroom” training to teach civic engagement processes in the context of invasive species management. We pilot-tested the curriculum in seven states. Using results from in-course and delayed surveys, we demonstrate that participants increased their capabilities for engaging decision-makers and took civic engagement actions related to invasive species issues. Although participant recruitment and retention were lower than expected, the overall results suggest that the training approach is an effective design for satisfying participant needs and achieving learning outcomes.

Navigating Murky Waters: State-Level Strategies For Wetland Preservation And Tile Drainage Regulation After Sackett V. Epa, Caleb M. Swanson

Honors Thesis

Wetlands are some of the world’s most valuable ecosystems, serving as provisioners of species habitat, carbon sequestration, flood mitigation, water quality purification, and other ecosystem services. Human development has resulted in substantial wetland loss the world over. In the 1970s, the United States Congress passed the Clean Water Act, giving the EPA broad authority over wetland protection. However, in the summer of 2023, the United States Supreme Court decided Sackett v. EPA, limiting the EPA’s jurisdiction over wetlands to those indistinguishably connected to generally recognized “Waters of the United States” and removing federal protection for millions of acres of wetlands, …

Contemporary Voter Suppression: Impact On The 2020 General Election, Tiffany Henley, Samuel Brown, Norou Diawara, Md Iqbal Hossain, Gregory Rivera

Ralph Bunche Journal of Public Affairs

none

“Making The Bed”: Challenging Ideologies Of Ownership, Nonlocality, And Romanticism In The Age Of The Anthropocene, Ainsley P. Foster

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

The current Age of the Anthropocene marks a recent and rapid transition into a period in climate history that is notably defined by human impact. Modern Western sentiments of grief, frustration, and romanticism as a result of the interplay between domestic and corporate spaces seem to culminate in an overall attitude of apathy and acceptance of the Age of the Anthropocene. Various art forms collaborate to create the current conversation of the causatory and reactionary relationship that humans have with the Anthropocene, offering interpretations of how individuals and corporations view ownership of and responsibilities to the environment. There is a …

Political Values, Democracy, And The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, George K. Kieh

Ralph Bunche Journal of Public Affairs

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Limits Of Free Speech And Election Misinformation: A Case Study Of 2020, Scott Hofer

Ralph Bunche Journal of Public Affairs

none

Community Opinions On Environmental Action On Isla Porvenir And Whichub Walla In The Guna Yala Comarca, Sofia Houts

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Guna Yala Comarca is the autonomous, self-governed territory of the Guna people, one of seven Indigenous groups in Panama. The Comarca is located on Panama’s eastern Caribbean coast and includes 365 coral islands. Forty nine Guna communities and roughly 32,000 individuals live in the territory. The Guna General Congress is the highest authority, and each community has a local congress. As a low-lying coastal region, Guna Yala is especially vulnerable to climate change and is already impacted by sea level rise, biodiversity loss, and changing precipitation patterns. Sub-national, national, and international forms of governance and environmental action are crucial …

The Future Is Here, Kazi Uzayr Razin

Audre Lorde Prize

This essay explores the devastating impacts that global warming currently has on women living in the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest globally, located in South Asia. Womanist ideas are employed to identify the underlying injustices within environmental policies like the Paris Agreement, which undermine the effects of climate change in the global south. Initiatives led by women in vulnerable regions are then shared to offer ideas for improvement.

10 Meters To Disaster: The Challenges Of Premature Application Of Circular Economy Strategies In Jakarta’S Waste Management Structure, Almira Bowo

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Jakarta's complex issue of waste management encompasses a multitude of challenges that include inefficiencies in infrastructure, a lack of public awareness of the consequences of an inadequate waste system, socioeconomic disparities, and a deficiency in intersectoral collaboration. The urgency for holistic and sustainable solutions that prioritize proactive waste collection is underscored by the complexities of these dynamics. This field study paper argues that the attention that is being drawn towards trending waste management innovations, which are reactive strategies, could bring the waste crisis in Jakarta to an even more critical state. The sections will critically examine current waste management efforts …

Yearly Population Data At Census Tract Level Revealed That More People Are Now Living In Highly Fire-Prone Zones In California, Usa, Slade Lazeweski, Shenyue Jia, Jessica E. Viner, Wesley Ho, Brian Hoover, Seung Hee Kim, Menas C. Kafatos

Institute for ECHO Articles and Research

In California (CA), the wildland-urban interface (WUI) faces escalating challenges due to surging population and real estate development. This study evaluates communities along CA's WUI that have witnessed substantial population growth from 2010 to 2021, utilizing demographic data and the 2020 WUI boundaries by the University of Wisconsin-Madison SILVIS Lab. Employing the Mann-Kendall test, we analyze yearly population trends for each census tract along the CA WUI and assess their significance. House ownership, affordability, and wildfire risk are examined as potential drivers of this demographic shift. Our findings indicate that 12.7% of CA's total population now resides in census tracts …

Design And Test The Effectiveness Of Interpretive Signs Using Eye Tracking And Biometric Data, Hadara Gordon, Wendy Miyazaki

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

Recreational trails on forested lands should satisfy the needs of recreationists, safeguard important habitats, and maintain the natural environment (Kortenkamp et al., 2021). Appropriate management is critical because of the increasing number of visitors. Signs are a cost-effective method to reduce the negative impacts on visitors and enhance visitor experiences (Brown et al., 2010). This research aimed to investigate how visitors pay attention to signs, view the trail surrounded by trees and behave in a natural space.

The Transportation Sector, Cap-And-Trade And Blockchain: A Carbon Credit Trading Platform, Aditya Mankar, Forouzan Golshani

Mineta Transportation Institute

This study offers a solution that facilitates direct trading of carbon credits with no intermediaries by using blockchain technology aligned with the cap-and-trade system. With this solution, along with other major transformations in the industry, the transportation sector can take more ownership of emissions and mitigate the impact of its role as the largest contributor of greenhouse gasses. The solution sits at the confluence of the Cap-and-Trade initiative, carbon credit trading, and blockchain technology. Although the concept of blockchains has been the subject of significant curiosity, scrutiny, boosterism, investment, criticism, it most importantly is at the core of useful, rapidly …

Constitutional, Governance Or Market Failures: China, Climate Change And Energy Transition, Henry S. Gao, Weihuan Zhou

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Jinping announced China’s plan to further scale up its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, aiming at achieving CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060.2 A central element of the plan is reducing China’s heavy reliance on coal power. As a result, China’s use of coal already saw a steady decrease between 2013 and 2018. While coal demand increased in 2019 and 2020, new coal power plants approved in 2021 declined by approximately 58% compared to 2020.3 However, the good progress in energy transition was interrupted by the power outage sprawling over 20 provinces in China in September 2021, …