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This paper introduces a method to analyse and explore consistency within policy mixes in order to support the policymaking cycle and applies it to energy and climate change policies in the United Kingdom (UK) biofuels policy context. The first part of the paper introduces a multi-level method to evaluate consistency within policy mixes implemented over a period of time. The first level explores consistency across policy design features in policy mixes. The second level evaluates how stakeholders, and their interactions with policy instruments and each other, can impact consistency within a given context. These interactions influence the implementation of policies and can lead to unintended outcomes that fail to meet the overarching goals. In the second part of the paper, we apply our method to the UK biofuels policy mix, to explore a sector that cuts across the policy areas of transportation, energy, land-use, air, and climate change. Our analysis demonstrates how, by overlooking complex interactions in the design and implementation of policies in the biofuels sector, policy mixes have conflicted with the development of a potential low-carbon technology.

Impact assessment is a part of the policy implementation cycle, which can support the design and implementation of effective policies at a minimum cost. It can be instrumental in understanding policy options available to tackle a particular issue before devising a policy and in analyzing the performance of already implemented policy instruments with respect to the desired goals. When it comes to environmental policies, demonstrating the worth and merit of any regulation is even more important. The knowledge gathered from the evaluation of existing policies can help improve the quality of new environmental policies. This paper analyzes policy impacts and their assessments related to the transboundary movement of waste. E-waste and plastic waste fractions are used as cases in order to study three associated policies and their impact assessments. Learnings from the analysis are summarized and measures for strengthening the impact assessment approaches are recommended based on the evidence from recent developments in the transboundary movement of waste fractions. Impact assessments of waste management and shipment policies could benefit from a more comprehensive but issue-oriented approach that looks beyond the short-term economic savings.

This paper examines changing regional patterns of energy and emission efficiency in the Slovak regions in the period of 2008&ndash, 18. Firstly, we review literature on key approaches to evaluating energy and emission efficiency, followed by discussing the pros and cons of specific methods. A slacks-based model of data envelopment analysis is applied in order to investigate changing patterns of energy and emission efficiency in 79 Slovak regions (LAU 1). Thereafter, changes in energy and emission efficiency are associated with policy interventions supported by the European Structural and Cohesion Funds (ESCF) in the period of 2011&ndash, 15. The evaluation found no support for the hypothesis with regard to the positive impact of the ESCF on the increase in energy and emission efficiency. Combined support from three ESCF policy measures (&euro, 606.44m) was substantial, but accounted for a mere 6.3% of the total firm expenditure on product and process innovations in the period of 2007&ndash, 15 (&euro, 9,573m). Productivity-boosting technological innovations and structural changes in the Slovak economy (a shift towards industries with a lower consumption of energy but a higher production of gross value added GVA) were major drivers of trends in energy and emission efficiency. If an increase in energy (emission) efficiency, rather than energy savings (a decrease in pollution), is a major objective of sustainable development policies, then innovation-oriented policies and changes in the structure of economic activities should be preferred to schemes supporting simple energy-saving (emission-cutting) projects

The adoption behavior of electric vehicles (EVs) has received considerable attention. However, the whole process of purchase behavior has not been well understood. In response, this paper investigates the uptake of EVs in Beijing, China, with a focus on the whole process of purchasing an EV, as well as the relevant policies. Specifically, the classical Howard&ndash, Sheth theory is used to the analyze the whole process of EV purchasing, which is divided into four stages here, namely, &ldquo, Ignored and Neglected&rdquo, &ldquo, Proactive Attention&rdquo, Comparison and Selection of Vehicles&rdquo, and &ldquo, Usage Evaluation&rdquo, Furthermore, several &ldquo, what-if&rdquo, scenarios are set up to quantify the influence of some typical EV-related polices, including the license plate lottery policy and no traffic constriction on battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The results suggest: (1) 63.4% of BEV owners have rigid travel demands with cars, (2) BEVs with a driving range of 500 km, 30-minutes charging time and price of RMB 15,000 are the first choices for the majority of people, (3) 64% of BEV owners are influenced by positive comments from the users around them in the adoption of EVs, (4) the no traffic constriction on BEVs tends to be more influential than the license plate lottery policy in terms of the numbers of applications for the vehicle purchase permits and BEV purchasers, as well as energy saving and vehicular emission reduction. These findings should be helpful for different EV-related stakeholders, such as the government, to shape their policies and promote the development of EVs.

How to boost the economy and achieve more sustainable development with enhanced quality, efficiency, and fairness by leveraging digital technology in the post-COVID-19 era has been an important agenda faced by many countries. As China’s new infrastructure initiative has the potential to open a new pathway for economic resilience, its policy characteristics and orientation have attracted more and more attention by policy makers and researchers. Taking the new infrastructure policies issued by Chinese local governments since 2020 as a data source, this paper, on the one hand, uses text mining and social network analysis to reveal the scope and coverage of the construction of new infrastructure and its orientation. On the other hand, a quantitative evaluation of 12 provincial policies grounded on a revised framework and policy modeling consistency index approach was conducted. The results show that Chinese governments adopt a bottom-up incrementalism planning mode for the policy steering of the construction of new infrastructure. This policy arrangement is a kind of goal-oriented modulation that makes planning more adaptive and participatory to enhance the infrastructure sustainability.

High-speed rail (HSR) can potentially influence various economic activities across space. Estimating the impacts of HSR on service-sector agglomeration (SSA) was proven to be difficult but meaningful. In this paper, prefectural-level data from 1998 to 2016 and a panel data program evaluation method are employed to evaluate the effect of the Wuhan&ndash, Guangzhou HSR (WGHSR) on the SSA along the route. In this way, we construct hypothetical counterfactuals for SSA index of the WGHSR cities in the absence of the HSR projects using the SSA index in selected non-HSR cities. By comparing the counterfactual index and the actual index, the evaluation of the WGHSR&rsquo, s impact on the SSA along the route can be obtained. The results show that: (a) the WGHSR has increased the SSA by 9.44% on average for cities along the WGHSR, and (b) the impacts of the WGHSR on the SSA are heterogeneous. The WGHSR has brought about both spillover effect and &ldquo, siphon&rdquo, effect. In addition, whether the HSR influences and how much it could influence the SSA requires other supplementary conditions to be met. As a national strategy in China, the construction plan of HSR should fully consider its heterogeneity of impact on regional development. Policies should be formulated to drive the HSR&rsquo, s spillover effect to promote regional sustainable development.

Funding and efficiency have always been important factors that restrict the sustainable development of tourism in developing countries. The PPP (Public Private Partnership) is an innovative model for addressing the above problems and is popular in the sustainable development of tourism around the world. The performance evaluation of tourism PPP is a key step towards promoting the PPP policy and sustainable development. In particular, the analysis of spatial effects that are easily overlooked will help to improve the measure of PPP performance. Based on tourism PPP projects in the PPP database of the Ministry of Finance in China, this paper analyses the spatial patterns and development characteristics of tourism PPP, identifies and measures the impact factors of tourism PPP by virtue of the GeoDetector method, and analyzes the function of PPP in tourism development and governance. The research shows that there are significant spatial disparities in the tourism PPP projects. Although tourism PPP is the result of interactions between multiple factors, what plays a critical role is the financial factor. PPP acts as a policy driver in tourism development in China. It corrects spatial mismatch between tourism resources and factors, eliminates space barriers and promotes the realization of spatial justice of tourism development. This study not only contributes to the improvement of China&rsquo, s PPP policy, but also has implications for PPP policies in other developing countries.

An imperative challenge emerges from the demand to apply the scientific method in the assessment of recent agricultural and rural policies throughout the world. The objective of the present study was to conduct an ex-post quantitative evaluation of the Comprehensive Rural Village Development Program (CRVDP), a representative rural development policy operated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, a central government agency in South Korea. The primary purpose of this program is to ensure sustainable rural society. This study found a moderate but significant positive impact of the policy in enhancing the standard of living in rural areas. The present paper concludes with suggesting some policy implications, limitations and future directions of policy evaluation studies.