Search

Since 2014, China has implemented a unified environmental regulation policy for the livestock industry. With unified environmental regulations across provinces, does the phenomenon of 'pollution havens' still exist? To address this question, this paper examines spatial variations among provinces and their spillover effects on the pig industry using data on environmental regulations and pig production panels. The results indicate that: (1) Environmental regulation policies are gradually converging across regions. (2) Under unified environmental regulation, the existence of 'pollution havens' in the pig industry is no longer evident. As national regulations become stronger, increasing local regulatory intensity will not affect the number of pig farms in neighboring areas nor lead to significant emigration of such farms. (3) In cases where there are inter-regional variations in environmental regulations, large-scale farmers may relocate to neighboring areas with less stringent regulations; however, under unified environmental regulation, neither small nor large-scale farmers will migrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article articulates the historical entanglement of Ireland's big tech ecosystem with earlier forms of economic development and state-sanctioned polluting practices, particularly focusing on strategies for attracting multinational companies since the 1960s. The outsourcing of polluting multinational industries to Ireland's rural regions has a long history, one tied into fault-lines of the country's postcolonial condition and developmental economy in the 1970s and 1980s. During this era of economic liberalisation, Ireland's environmental politics were frequently organised against the outsourcing of toxic chemical, pharmaceutical, and technological industries to rural Ireland. Ireland's position as a western European nation-state undoubtedly means that wealth accumulated via these industries merits complicity in the global supply chains sustaining "green" extractivism in the Global South. But rural Ireland also bears an uneven share of responsibility for these industries, whose destructive externalities are often imposed on these places through large-scale infrastructures. Historical struggles for environmental justice in these rural sites foreground access to land, livelihoods, health, and cultures of place. Contributing to recent debates on the colonial endurances of contemporary "green" development, we argue that these rural movements should be a starting point for a "just" transition attuned to anti-imperialist goals in Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on ethnographic research conducted in the Ecuadorian Amazon, this paper seeks to reframe the industrial contamination problem. From critiques of neoliberalism to Marxist-oriented environment theories, industrial contamination is understood as asecondary effectof a larger problem of the capitalist system. There are at least four, often overlapping, ways of understanding the pervasiveness of the problem,via: (1) cost-benefit analyses, which determine it to be cheaper to remediate environmental damages than prevent them; (2) weak regulation, which shapes those cost-benefit analyses; (3) the externalisation of certain costs onto third (usually marginalised) parties; and (4) contradictions inherent to capital accumulation which promote the destruction of the very environmental conditions that capital depends on. Curiously, even where contamination is conceptualised as an inherent and necessary feature of capitalism, it appears as collateral damage, as the ‘unintentional by-product’ of something-other, rather than a ‘conscious imposition of “power over”’ a particular group of people (De Angelis, M. 2004. ‘Separating the Doing and the Deed: Capital and the Continuous Character of Enclosures’.Historical Materialism12:2, 57–87). This is curious because small farmers and indigenous people affected by a devastating oil-related disaster in Ecuador describe contamination otherwise – as a kind of targeted, chemical warfare against those living ‘in the way of’ extractive operations. Dealing with the narrative gap between those lived experiences of contamination and the expert discourses about it, this paper introduces the concept of an ‘incentive to contaminate’. By critically expanding the prevailing theories, the concept turns greater attention to the productive work that contamination does for the oil industry, thus challenging socio-legal categories of intent that impede environmental justice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Global climate change governance is under increasing pressure to deliver meaningful action. It is now widely agreed that a low-carbon growth path requires major transformations of energy systems. The ways in which the 10 largest oil and gas companies in the world present their rationales for addressing climate change and their activities related to climate action, including the oil and gas companies’ involvement in international climate diplomacy, are examined. How these major companies in different world regions seek to influence states and other actors are illustrated through their actions on climate change. The analysis highlights the relations between state and non-state actors and our understanding of the allocation of responsibility in climate change politics. Novel empirical findings contribute to new insights into the climate change activities currently underway in the oil and gas sector, with implications for both the theory and practice of climate change governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the global social–economic impact of shale gas extraction, comparing the differing social and economic impacts shale gas extraction may have on communities in developed and developing countries. It argues that the benefits of fracking are more likely to be enjoyed by communities in highly and very highly developed countries rather than by those in countries with low or medium levels of development . Additionally, it shows that the potential risks and drawbacks of shale gas and its extraction are more likely to be experienced by communities in these latter countries than by those in highly or very highly developed countries. However, it also demonstrates that even communities in developed countries are vulnerable to environmental and health risks associated with shale gas extraction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The public is concerned that activities accompanying hydraulic fracturing in the development of shale gas resources are unnecessarily adversely affecting them and the environment and is petitioning elected representatives to take actions to reduce risks. The health risks associated with fracturing chemicals and air pollutants are relatively unknown and constitute the impetus for public concern. An evaluation of state legal and regulatory provisions regarding best management practices discloses that states are not adopting timely regulations to protect people and the environment from activities accompanying hydraulic fracturing. Simultaneously, regulatory policy concerning negative externalities suggests that governments underinvest in the protection of human health and environmental quality. Governments have choices in protecting people from dangers that accompany shale gas development. Due to the risks of injuries and unpaid damages from shale gas development, governmental policies need to evolve to accord people greater health protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the plan of the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. power plants and the role of economic elites in public policymaking. Topics include the history of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the policy discussion group the Ash Council, and U.S. states' prioritizing of economic development over environmental protection. Competition for capital, clean air regulations and pollution regulation are also discussed.

The relation between economic growth and two key water quality indicators is assessed for South Korea’s four principal rivers. The growth of the national economy accompanied a shift in environmental and industrial policy that fostered improved water quality. The relations between biochemical oxygen demand and GDP in the Geum and Nakdong Rivers and between chemical oxygen demand and GDP in the Yeongsan and Nakdong Rivers support the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis. In general, the turning point for improved water quality occurred at later economic development stages for industrial pollution than for biological pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

After more than three decades of extremely rapid industrial growth, China faces an environmental crisis. The rural industrial sector, which includes millions of loosely regulated factories and employs hundreds of millions of workers, is a major focal point of this crisis. This paper provides a critical review of scholarship on industrial pollution in rural China and advances a new framework for thinking about the topic as a political domain with three inter-related parts: • The politics of knowledge: What do rural citizens know about environmental contamination, and how do they know they know it? What sources of information are available to the public regarding pollution incidents? How does uncertainty about pollution sources and severity, as well as the potential links to health risks, shape rural peoples' experience of pollution? • The politics of action: What strategies do individuals, communities and civil society organizations use to combat pollution? What outcomes are associated with such strategies? • The politics of regulation: How are national laws and policies regarding pollution control implemented in rural areas? How do agencies and enforcement officials balance the competing objectives of environmental protection and economic growth?The paper concludes by considering the implications of this framework for how scholars understand industrial pollution in rural China and briefly discussing a future research agenda for this field. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the 1970s and 1980s, Japan was known as the leading innovator in environmental policy. Other OECD countries found much to emulate. Two decades later, Japan appears to have lost its innovative edge to other OECD countries. Why has Japan fallen from its position as the global leader? How should Japan regain its reputation? Possible causes of the rise and fall of Japanese environmental policy are examined by exploring its domestic policy subsystem, the international arena and the arena where domestic and foreign issues converge, the emerging space in which sub-national authorities have become increasingly recognised as direct contributors to global environmental strategies. Each of three approaches – the domestic/foreign divide, interaction and convergence – offers a partial answer to these questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Partnership for Environmental Priorities (NPEP) program was created by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to reduce or eliminate the nation's production of hazardous wastes and products. The NPEP is a voluntary program that provides incentives to public, private, and federal organizations that minimize their use and generation of thirty-one priority chemicals. These chemicals are considered to be persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic in the environment and present health risks to human and ecological receptors. The USEPA estimates that 90 percent of priority chemicals are used or produced during manufacturing of various household and industrial products and, as a result, end up in municipal and industrial waste streams. Ultimately, these chemicals find their way back into the environment through wastewater discharges, incineration, or other disposal practices. The NPEP program supports the goals of the National Waste Minimalization Program by encouraging simple waste minimalization solutions such as recycling, replacement, or elimination of wastes or products that contain priority chemicals, and cradle-to-cradle management of waste. Although the USEPA does not limit waste minimalization practices to only the priority chemicals, the program has set specific goals to track the elimination of these thirty-one chemicals to the environment on an annual basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author examines an aspect of industrial pollution and environmental protection in the United States. He contends that corporate American has determined that prudent environmental regulation is an obstacle to economic competition in the global marketplace. As a result, industrial interests in the United States seek to damage and undermine organizations that advocate for sound environmental policies and oversight. Among other issues the article examines the machinery assembled by industry to combat environmental regulation.

In examining the impact of environmental issues on construction law, recent construction-related legislation and litigation can be seen as indicators of the growing importance of specific property-related environmental issues. Through reference to relevant literature and law reports, several recent legal developments can be identified relating to energy production and consumption, water inundation, the physical qualities of buildings, excluded materials, noise and disability discrimination and, finally, waste disposal and contamination. Recent law relating to energy consumption in buildings is evidence of the ever-widening set of legal obligations regarding energy efficiency. Similarly, recent litigation relating to nuclear waste and wind farms may be more typical of future energy cases than those relating to traditional fossil fuel production processes. Noise represents another form of environmental pollution and has been seen in a number of cases. The impact of the built environment on people with disabilities is now recognized in Part M of the Building Regulations which places additional disabled access requirements on all building owners, landlords, employers and service providers. Property professionals, local authorities and statutory authorities need, more than ever before, to be aware of their current legal obligations while remaining constrained by resource and financial management regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifies a crisis in the oil sector of Nigeria in addition to the problems affecting the environment and the economy. Initiatives to discover the technical relationships between oil and gas explorations; Policy for protecting aquatic resources and the environment; Policy instrument available to the government to correct adverse environmental behavior.