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Well-designed environmental regulations are a prerequisite for achieving green economic growth. However, the effectiveness of campaign-style environmental regulation—a widely used environmental management instrument in developing nations or even in some developed nations, on green economic growth remains under-researched and has not reached a consistent conclusion. This paper takes advantage of China's Central Environmental Protection Inspector policy—the strictest and largest campaign-style environmental regulation policy in China's history, as a natural experiment and uses the difference-in-differences method to explore the effect of campaign-style environmental regulation on green economic growth, and further analyze its underlying mechanisms and heterogeneity effects. The panel data covering 280 prefecture-level cities in China from 2009 to 2019 are used. Our results show that Central Environmental Protection Inspector can result in an average of 14.2% increase in green economic growth, and this effect is sustainable for a long time. Mechanism analysis shows that Central Environmental Protection Inspector boosts green economic growth mainly by promoting green innovation and optimizing industrial structure. Further heterogeneity analysis reveals that the positive effect of Central Environmental Protection Inspector on green economic growth is greater in eastern China and underdeveloped cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent theories of firms' environmental behavior propose that numerous factors influence a firm's environmental decisionmaking process. Economic considerations play a central role, but interactions between the economic climate, regulatory structure, and social culture in which a firm operates are more important than economic considerations alone. This article investigates the conditions surrounding eight existing pulp and paper mills in Maine that influence the level of compliance. Factors unique to Maine's economy, history, and relationship between people and their environment come together to influence firms' environmental performance and attitude. Such "place-based characteristics" are crucial in designing policies to promote economic development and protect environmental quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental innovations have been emphasized for effectively solving environmental problems. In the innovation literature, organizational factors have been listed among the determinants of innovations, and firm-level research and development (R&D) has been perceived crucial. This indicates that environmental considerations should be integrated into all organizations, especially in R&D, to promote environmental innovation. A typology of six forms of "environmental integration" in product development is created based on organizational integration and product development literatures, and the occurrence of the different integration forms in the product development of four Nordic paper and packaging companies is studied. The results show that although environmental considerations in research and product development are standard practice on some level, the practice still varies a great deal between companies. Furthermore, different combinations of the environmental integration forms used in organizations have implications on the source from which environmental information for innovation originates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst the mounting interest in China's Ecological Civilization (EC) campaign, this paper examines its ground-level implementation and its influences on fostering eco-conscious urban governance. Employing a temporal approach to scrutinize the change in local priorities over time, this paper conducts a detailed case study of Dali, a tourist destination in Southwest China. Environmental protection has escalated in this city over the last decade, manifesting in diverse measures adopted by the local government, including the demolition of hundreds of buildings in the core conservation zone of the lake Erhai. This paper demonstrates how the campaign of EC has strengthened environmental efforts locally, while emphasizing that local compliance relies on heightened oversight and financial support from the central government. Moreover, this paper argues that, despite resembling a degrowth strategy in terms of rhetoric and short-term effects, EC-led demolition serves as a spatio-temporal fix that has helped the local government to address both ecological and political imperatives, with growth coalitions being reconfigured. Overall, this paper contributes to scholarly discussions on the impacts of the EC campaign, expands the comprehension of the dynamic process of greening urban governance, and spotlights the analytical prowess of the demolition lens in such studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the development of membrane structures in China. It begins with a historical review of the early applications of membrane structures in the country, highlighting pivotal events and engineering endeavors that contributed to the development. Subsequently, recent advancements in the realm of membrane structures in China are succinctly summarized. The past decade has witnessed notable progress in the implementation of membrane structures, particularly within expansive stadiums and indoor sports arenas. Additionally, cases exemplifying the diverse applications of membrane structures in various projects are presented. Noteworthy among these are the incorporation of membrane structures in building facades, suspended ceilings for indoor spaces, and the utilization of ETFT membrane structures. Furthermore, applications of air-supported membrane structures are explored, especially in the areas of sports facilities and environmental protections. Technical standards and specifications that have played an important guiding role in the development of membrane structures in China are introduced in the last. Finally, 8 issues for the future research and development of membrane structures are pointed out in the conclusion part. It is expected that this paper can serve as a catalyst for further advancement and practical implementation of membrane structures in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy supply and environmental capacity are important material foundations for social and economic development and constraints for scientific and sustainable development, and with achieving the strategic goals of carbon peak and carbon neutral at an early date, too. Therefore, the international community generally regards energy-economic- environment (3E) as a necessary research direction. This paper studies the relationship among effective energy utilization, economic growth protection and ecological environment protection by establishing the contribution rate model of energy consumption factors to economic GDP growth. At the same time, this paper puts forward the government needs to use carbon trading market, carbon tax, such as low carbon management mechanism based on the Pareto Optimality of carbon trading market, prompts the excess money of the country or the region back to actively invest in low-carbon production, lets more energy companies to clean energy and low carbon production transformation, and helps to achieve the goal of regional energy industry carbon neutral. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past four decades, pollution and other forms of environmental degradation have radically transformed China's landscape. So have the ambitious greening policies implemented to tackle these problems. During the same period, an enormous gap in wealth and amenities has arisen between the modernizing cities and rural areas, the latter playing an important, and often ignored, role in China's environmental project. This paper identifies two paradoxical processes transforming rural environments: the mobilization of rural efforts to green the nation and the ruralization of pollution. While seemingly contradictory, both processes illustrate how the rural is expendable and malleable to state interests. This article proposes the concept of socio-environmental reproduction to theorize the environmental paradox in which many rural communities find themselves in contemporary China, as their environmental work and sacrifices sustain economic and political systems. This concept builds on the work on social reproduction by feminist scholars, particularly those who have sought to integrate the environment into their analyses. This paper proposes to expand the concept to include all the environmental work and sacrifices that certain people are asked to make to fuel the economic system, preserve political stability, and protect privileged spaces from pollution. As a whole, this article shows how China's rural–urban divide is constitutive of the country's environmental project and how national greening initiatives enable uneven development. Furthermore, this case foreshadows what will likely occur elsewhere as countries seek to green themselves. As the ecological era unfolds in China and elsewhere, it exposes how deep social divides are mobilized to fulfill environmental objectives. This paper theorizes the environmental work and sacrifices that risk falling on the shoulders of the most vulnerable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses several consultation papers related to environmental law. Consultation on soil strategy; Landfill risk assessment guidance.

Promoting high-quality economic development, boosting high-level ecological environment protection, and integrating deeply digital economy and energy efficiency has become a general trend. This paper, based on 284 prefecture-level Chinese cities from 2008 to 2018, uses the entropy weight method and super-efficient SBM-DEA model to measure the digital economy and energy efficiency (decompose into energy pure technical efficiency and energy scale efficiency), respectively. After the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics, a fixed-effect model is constructed to study the impact of the digital economy on energy efficiency. The research results show that: (1) the development of the digital economy effectively promotes energy efficiency, mainly reflected in the improvement of pure technical efficiency of energy; (2) the development of both the digital economy and the energy efficiency in China has complex spatial and temporal evolutionary characteristics, and there is heterogeneity in the impact of the digital economy on energy efficiency at the temporal and spatial levels; and (3) digital economy effectively improves energy efficiency by reducing unnecessary energy consumption through the R&D innovation effect. The development of the digital economy has far-reaching significance on the optimization and upgrading of the economic system, accelerating the improvement of energy efficiency and achieving green transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) with unique performance advantages and development potential is widely used in electronics, aerospace, environmental protection, automobile, machinery, textile, chemical, pharmacy, environmental protection and other industries. The researches on PPS material are constantly advancing and improving in both quantity and quality. To clarify the progress and status, and to explore current focus and development trend of PPS at a global level, the bibliometric analysis was used based on Web of Science Core Collection database. 1118 papers were retrieved, and countries or regions, institutions, journals, authors, research areas, author keywords, and highly cited articles were discussed in detail. The results of bibliometric analysis show that China was the dominant country in terms of contributions of paper output, followed by the USA, South Korea, Japan, India, and Germany. Germany and China both were the most active partner which worked with other high productive countries. "Polymer science" was the most attractive research area with 451 papers involved in. "Journal of Applied Polymer Science" was the most comprehensive source of PPS material publications and with the highest h-index. The author keywords "mechanical property", "behavior", "composite", "morphology", "kinetics", "friction", "tribological property" and "crystallization" reflected a high level attention and hot topics for PPS. Based on the results of bibliometric analysis, the research progress and achievements of preparation, performance improvement and application field expansion in recent years were summarized and explained. To achieve more comprehensive performance and to be suitable for more special applications in various fields, the enhancement and toughening of PPS, the modification by blending or alloying with other polymers or other reinforcing materials, the production of PPS ultrafine fiber and PPS membrane were shown as the research emphasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since AI Chatbots are increasingly adopted in different industries, the purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of AI Chatbots on pro-environment attitudes and willingness to pay for environmental protection. By employing quantitative methodology, multivariate data analysis was conducted to test the effects of AI Chatbot in terms of its interaction, anonymity, customization, and problem-solving on pro-environmental attitudes and individual willingness to pay for environment protection. This study reveals the critical role of Chatbots in encouraging people to protect the environment. Problem-solving is found to be the highest influence on both pro-environmental attitudes and individual willingness to pay. Meanwhile, interaction, anonymity, and customization were revealed to affect WTP indirectly through pro-environmental attitudes. Therefore, digitalization by exploring new technology like AI Chatbots becomes an important concern to reduce the negative actions of humans on the environment and Carbon emissions and develop agricultural tourism activities toward green production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Angela Merkel has stood out as a global leader during her 16-years tenure as Chancellor of Germany. Her chancellorship included navigating dynamics of human rights issues (support for migrants - particularly Syrian refugees), environmental protections, citizens' wellbeing, and economic development. This paper examines the nature of her complex leadership journey, successes, and challenges through the lens of responsible leadership theory and serves three purposes. Firstly, it is an effort to provide a window into Merkel's leadership and the lessons it offers for leading in a world amidst crises, polarization, and complexity. Major insights in this regard include acting with courage, navigating crises with persistence, pursing multilateral collaborations, and building a nonconforming leadership profile. Secondly, it critically examines the relevance of responsible leadership theory as a framework for globally responsible leadership, especially outside the realm of business organizations. In doing so, the paper particularly explores the role of ethical grounding, relational competence, and adaptive and systems capability as key dimensions of responsible leadership. Finally, it identifies some gaps in and blind spots of responsible leadership conceptualizations and offers considerations to expand the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper exploits a quasi-natural experiment in China, the environmental protection tax reform, to examine the effect of environmental regulation on corporate green investment. Based on Chinese listed company data and the multi-period DID method, we find the enhancement of environmental regulation harms corporate green investment in a short time, and green investments in the treatment group were reduced by 19.57 million (RMB) on average. Further exploring and examining the potential mechanisms of the above effect, we find the above effect is caused by the suppression effect of financing constraints and the crowding-out effect of research and development (R&D) expenditures. We also analyze the heterogeneity of enterprise ownership, enterprise size, and enterprise location, and find that non-state-owned enterprises, small-sized enterprises, and enterprises in the eastern region will experience a greater reduction in green investment when environmental regulation is enhanced. Based on the above findings, we put forward corresponding policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act (SEPHCA), Canada's most recent attempt at mobilising federal and provincial action, does not go far enough toward depoliticising environmental justice within its borders. Based on a comprehensive review of legislative and academic literature, the current paper argues for the codification of the right to a healthy environment to be enshrined in Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In doing so, Canada will realise the merits of ecological constitutionalism, meet the standards of the United Nations and the international human rights discourse, and realise its sustainable development goals in light of the triple planetary crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the legal and policy intersection of property rights and environmental law. Property rights are closely connected to and often in tension with many elements of environmental law and policy. Appropriate controls on the use of property rights and natural resources, and effectively managing the environmental consequences of such use, are critical in addressing the environmental challenges of our time. This paper first reviews the importance of property rights in the context of our legal, social, economic and political systems. It then examines the active use of property rights and mechanisms to address environmental challenges, including the creative and innovative use and development of new forms of property rights that have emerged in recent times. This is followed by a discussion of recent developments in restricting the use of property rights in land use and natural resource development to address environmental issues. The paper concludes with some ideas for future development of the law, and emerging new directions for future research. Throughout the paper, New Zealand will be used as a case study to reflect on the relationship between property rights and environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the real effects of pollution charges reform on SO 2 emissions at the city level. Using the establishment of Comprehensive Work Plan for Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction (The Plan) in China as a quasi-natural experiment, our difference-in-differences estimation shows that: (1) increasing pollution charges has a significant and positive effect on controlling industrial waste SO 2 , and this relationship is robust to different specifications and alternative measures; (2) SO 2 emissions can be reduced to achieve reduction targets by forcing companies to strengthen the degree of process production controls and end-of-pipe treatment; (3) eastern and western cities have a better pollution control effect than the other regions, and large cities have better emission reduction effects than smaller cities. Overall, this paper sorts out the evolution of China's pollution charge policy, and reveals the mechanisms behind the real effects of pollution charges reform on SO 2 emissions, thus providing timely implications for policymakers concerned with environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scientific case for co-ordinated global governance of the climate system is firmly established, but how does this fit with a politician's mandate as a democratically elected representative? What role do national politicians think they can and should play in climate governance? This paper tests these questions empirically, using data from interviews with 23 Members of the UK Parliament, and a focus group of civil society advocates, conducted between 2016 and 2018. A global goal to limit climate change has been agreed through the 2015 Paris Agreement. Yet while the Agreement sets a clear goal, the means to achieve it remain firmly at the level of the nation-state, with each country assuming responsibility for its own national plan. Thus national administrations, run by elected politicians, have a crucial role to play. This study shows that, while Members of the UK Parliament have an understanding of the challenges posed by climate change and wider changes to earth systems, few have yet been able to operationalise this understanding into meaningful responses at the national level. The study highlights two, linked, reasons for this. First, politicians' ability to act – their agency – is limited by the practicalities and procedures of everyday politics, and by the norms and cultures of their working life. Second, UK politicians feel little pressure from their electors to act on climate change, and have to work to justify why action on climate change carries democratic legitimacy. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of this research, in the light of the recent high-profile climate protests and declarations of a 'climate emergency'. It argues that politicians, working with other stakeholders, need support in order to articulate the scale and significance of global climate governance, and craft responses which build democratic support for further action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WEIRD countries (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic) consume well above the earth's capacity to produce. Non-WEIRD countries look on, with justifiable envy and want to increase their standard of living. Not only do we need to reduce consumption in WEIRD countries, we need also to understand the non-WEIRD citizens' motivations to avoid/reduce future issues caused by over-consumption. This paper covers the breadth of phenomena of ethical consumption habits and their drivers in Pakistan. In-depth unstructured interviews were conducted with Pakistani respondents and analysed using laddering technique to uncover drivers of ethical consumption. Consumption choices in Pakistan are driven primarily by religiosity and frugality. While concern for health and environmental conservation is shared with WEIRD countries, underlying values (conformity and tradition) differ. These results emphasize the need to understand the drivers in developing societies and adjusting our marketing programs to improve societal wellbeing and environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes books, papers, and reports on environmental protection and development, noting titles including "Building for a Changing Climate: The Challenge for Construction, Planning and Energy," by Peter F. Smith, "Epidemics: Science, Governance and Social Justice," edited by Sarah Dry and Melissa Leach, and "Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro," by Janice Perlman.

This article presents the author's views on the issue of phosphine toxicity. The paper by researcher N. Brautbar and J. Howard involving two case study reports on adverse human health effects they attribute to phosphine exposure was reviewed. The author wish to point out that the adverse effects attributed to phosphine are not consistent with the available literature on the toxicity of phosphine. The paper contains a number of mis-statements regarding the hazards of phosphine, some resulting from reliance on a NIOSH Alert which contains errors, and others resulting from an incomplete review of the literature which led to some erroneous conclusions by the authors. With respect to the NIOSH Alert, more detailed and accurate summaries of the hazards of phosphine are presented in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency documents.

Unsustainable patterns of tourist behavior produce a massive environmental burden. Nevertheless, it is unknown which behavioral strategies can be implemented to foster resource-efficient behavior in customers of leisure and travel services. This article aims to identify and summarize the evidence about the interventions which have been tested to promote sustainable hotel guest behavior. Electronic searches were performed in the main databases from inception to September 2016. Papers deemed eligible for inclusion were experimental field studies, reporting factual changes in guest behavior. The final sample was composed of nine papers comprising 13 studies in a total of 5,859 hotel stays. Results showed that all included interventions targeted towel reuse. Five different types of interventions were identified including environmental appeals, messages prompting commitment for conservation, donation to charity, social norms, and nudges. Only the last two forms of interventions (social norms: effect size [ES] = -0.25, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [-0.39, -0.12], p = .004 and nudges: ES = -0.43, 95% CI = [-0.72, -0.13], p = .009) showed significant positive effects in promoting towel reuse. Particularly regarding social norms, our work shows an effect weaker than reported in previous meta-analyses but consistent (low between-study heterogeneity) in producing modest increases in the levels of towel reuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bamboo has been studied and utilized quite significantly in recent years because of its advantages such as short growth period, good appearance, environmental protection and superior mechanical properties. Bamboo is processed into profiles to address inherent issues with size limitation and self-defects and use of BFRP can enhance the mechanical properties of bamboo for widespread application. In this paper, the mechanical properties of BFRP strengthened chamfered laminated bamboo lumber (LBL) columns with four eccentricity e 0 of 30 mm, 60 mm, 90 mm, and 120 mm were tested. The strengthening effect of BFRP on the performance of LBL columns subjected to eccentric loading was compared with the specimens without any reinforcement. Several analytical models to capture the mechanical performance of BFRP reinforced LBL columns with different eccentricities have been proposed in the current study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latin America is highly vulnerable to climate change. From a justice-centred approach, its communities have been using human and constitutional rights as a strategy to combat environmental degradation and protect ecosystems in climate litigation. Thus, the paper analyses the ecological dimension of human rights arising from the Latin American climate litigation by selecting disputes that link human rights and the protection of a specific ecosystem, which enables catching both the right to a healthy environment and the rights of nature. As for the results, the national courts interpret human rights from the notion of a socio-ecological system, emphasising a rights-duties approach based on social justice. The territory becomes a non-static space, there is a long-term temporal scale of rights, and the lawsuits elaborate on the interests of future generations. The rights of nature acknowledge a more-than-human world and argue that nature's legal titularity complements human rights, and both agendas meet at the intersection with the safe climate system. Although climate change appears as a secondary concern, applicants use the climate crisis as a crosscutting element aimed at ecosystems' protection and its impact on human rights. In conclusion, these disputes are ecological legal experiences that extensively redefine human rights law from the meeting between the system of rights and the cultural context of groups historically excluded from the spaces of power. Human rights receive a new axiological content reoriented from the realities of peripheral territories and previously invisible ecological backgrounds through the dynamic interaction with plural subjects that become drivers of transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on environmental governance in an institutional setting. He mentions that the creation of environmental policies needs the participation of the public and private sectors with an emphasis on governance. He also discusses that the protection of the environment is done in multi-level institutional conditions which include international cooperation. The author describes that the decision making process for environmental policies includes more interested groups in global and local levels. He also presents papers on institutional governance of the environment.

Over the last 30 years, Tanzania has adopted different policy approaches to conserve forests. However, the idea that providing livelihood benefits is a key strategy for achieving conservation effectiveness has persisted throughout the shift from earlier integrated conservation and development approach to the 'newer' green economy. This one-dimensional conception of what 'local people' value and why precludes a clear understanding of substantive social justice considerations – what is being contested, why, and by whom – when conflicts arise in policy implementation settings. Using a green economy project that addresses charcoal-driven forest loss in Kilosa, the paper examines a conflict between forest conservation and farming and studies the variegated notions of justice that farmers express in relation to the conflict. The paper builds upon a developing strand in the political ecology literature, namely of empirical analyses of rural people's justice conceptions in environmental conservation, to demonstrate analytic and practical values of a multidimensional justice framework. It illustrates how the framework can help to assess and reframe environmental interventions, going beyond one-dimensional conceptions, to focus attention on the diverse ways in which justice can be recognised or denied at different levels and in different ways for different groups of people. Particularly, it highlights that context matters, as despite the distributional 'success' of the project, disregarded concerns over procedural and recognition justice dimensions led to farmers' loss of land, covert resistance, and continued struggles over compensations. This paper therefore argues that being attentive to a range of justice dimensions can expose locally valued and contested conservation aspects, as well as guide more just environmental conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the campaign for legal personhood for the Great Barrier Reef launched by the Environmental Defenders Office of North Queensland in 2014. Although this campaign has been unofficially shelved, the paper argues that it still provides a useful chance to think through the practicality and politics of some of the current experiments in environmental law, especially contemporary attempts to expand legal definitions of personhood. The EDO campaign is held up to critical scrutiny by considering its practical efficacy, environmental merits, conceptual foundations and ethico-political import, especially in relation to Indigenous justice. It argues that such experiments are to be welcomed, whether as immediate opportunities, thought experiments or pressure points, and that public and scholarly discussion of the legal personhood mechanism needs to be alert to the dangers of unknowingly and ironically replicating dominant power relations while seeking to overthrow them, but also of shutting down alternatives at precisely the moment we need them most. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As concerns around climate change and global warming intensify, extreme weather events such as heavy rain, blizzards, and smog-induced haze have greatly impacted the commuting travel mode selection of urban residents. Such behavioral shifts have in turn led to changes of the carbon emissions generated from these residents. This paper constructs a "extreme weather (W)–travel behavior (B)–carbon emissions (C)" research framework. Using a multiple logistic regression model, the transportation mode shift model, and the econometric model of urban resident's travel behavior under the influence of extreme weather conditions were constructed. The marginal effects of weather on residents' commuter behavior, through the use of transportation type and distance of travel were also obtained. The study found that the overall carbon dioxide emission levels of daily commuting has gradually decreased due to the influence of extreme weather. However, as some travelers still adopted high-emission commuting modes through the use of taxis or ride-sharing services, there was still a slight increase in CCDE levels in certain extreme weather contexts. In particular, when haze was prevalent, vehicle restriction policies only reduced CCDE by 2.18%, while the remaining 77.83% of total CCDE remaining unchanged. This research provides a key reference point for governmental departments in urban transportation management and environmental protection to formulate policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fault-tolerant control systems are utilized in safety and critical applications to achieve greater reliability and availability for continued operation despite faults in the system components. These systems can be utilized in the process plants to avoid costly production loss due to abnormal and unscheduled tripping of the machines. In this paper, advanced fault-tolerant control systems of active type are proposed for air–fuel ratio control of internal combustion gas engine in a process plant to achieve greater reliability and availability to avoid a shutdown of the gas engine. Gas engines are extensively used equipment in the process industry and proper air–fuel ratio control in the fuel system of these engines is quite important to achieve greater engine efficiency, fuel energy savings and environmental protection. Active fault-tolerant control system is proposed in this paper in which linear regression–based observer model is used in the fault detection and isolation unit for fault detection, isolation and reconfiguration. Fuel actuator is introduced in the fuel supply line and proportional feedback controller is implemented to maintain the air–fuel ratio in faulty conditions. Redundancy in the sensors and fuel actuator is proposed to avoid engine shutdown in case of simultaneous faults in more than one sensor and to avoid a single point of failure due to fault in the single actuator. Noise is introduced in the sensor measurements to determine the robustness of proposed active fault-tolerant control system in noisy and faulty conditions. Results show that the proposed system remains stable, maintaining air–fuel ratio well in faulty conditions and is robust to noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the early years of 20th-century air pollution control in Los Angeles. In both scholarship and public memory, mid-century efforts at the regional level were overshadowed by major federal developments, namely the Clean Air Act and creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. Yet the mid-century local experience was highly consequential and presaged many subsequent challenges that persist today. The article begins with an exploration of the existential, on-the-ground misery of smog in Los Angeles during the 1940s and 1950s. The article examines the role that scientific evidence on smog did and did not play in regulation, the reasons smog control galvanized support across various constituencies in the region, and, finally, some of mid-century air pollution's limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work of global governance increasingly entails some pairing of list and algorithm. Across sectors as diverse as environmental conservation, migration, nuclear nonproliferation, humanitarian aid, counterterrorism, and more, the list-plus-algorithm is, it seems, displacing rival juridical forms on the global scale. This paper probes some implications of the proliferation of this conjunctive form of’law’. Beginning with a typology of some types of governance work that the list-plus-algorithm is called to do on the global plane, this paper tracks movements of knowledge from the arcane form of the list into an algorithmic mode, and back again. It considers, too, some difficulties with which these configurations of lawful authority may be associated and the repertoire of techniques that international lawyers typically use to address these. Among these, the endless championing of transparency will be the focus of particular critique. Precisely as the prospect of seeing definitively through these decision-making devices seems, for a range of reasons, almost impossible to achieve, preoccupations with transparency have intensified. But what else might be entailed in making ‘public’ the governance work of these list-plus-algorithms? This paper takes up this question by focusing attention on how lists-plus-algorithms bring peoples, places, and things into lawful relation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The panel vector autoregression (PVAR) model preserves the advantages of the vector autoregression model while expanding its time series to the spatial direction, which can effectively solve the problem of individual heterogeneity using panel data. It is derived from econometrics but has been applied interdisciplinarily because of its advantages in metrology. Given its increasingly important role in econometrics and interdisciplinary applications, a systematic review based on the bibliometric tool was conducted by screening 292 articles related to PVAR from the Web of Science. First, a descriptive analysis of the related articles was conducted to identify the current research status of PVAR. It reveals that macroeconomic effects, economic growth and environmental protection, and model adaptation are the primary topics in PVAR-related research. Then, the study classifies PVAR models into three categories and summarizes the four estimation methods within the knowledge domain. Having clarity on the different categories and estimation methods enhances the practical utility of the PVAR model. Finally, to gain insight into the knowledge evolution of PVAR, this study discusses how research hotspots in the field have evolved over time. This analysis provides a historical perspective and allows researchers to anticipate future trends and emerging areas of interest within PVAR. Based on these findings, this study identifies three research opportunities that can guide future investigations in the field of PVAR. This study aims to foster extension applications of the model in econometric research and highlight its potential for interdisciplinary applications. Plain Language Summary: The Knowledge Analysis of Panel Vector Autoregression: A Systematic Review The panel vector autoregression model is an extension of the autoregressive model to a spatial dimension. It is derived from the field of econometrics but has been applied interdisciplinarily because of its advantages in metrology. Given its increasingly important role in econometrics and interdisciplinary applications, a systematic review was conducted based on 292 articles related to panel vector autoregression screened from Web of Science. First, descriptive statistics of the articles were performed using bibliometric tools to recognize the current research status. The development process and theoretical knowledge of the panel vector autoregression model are then discussed. Finally, we present a future research agenda. Most studies use the panel vector autoregression model to develop empirical research, but few have addressed its theoretical concerns. This work will meet the challenge of enlightening the extension application of the model in econometric research and illustrate its potential in interdisciplinary applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) was passed by the US Congress in 1976, its advocates pointed to new generation of genotoxicity tests as a way to systematically screen chemicals for carcinogenicity. However, in the end, TSCA did not require any new testing of commercial chemicals, including these rapid laboratory screens. In addition, although the Environmental Protection Agency was to make public data about the health effects of industrial chemicals, companies routinely used the agency's obligation to protect confidential business information to prevent such disclosures. This paper traces the contested history of TSCA and its provisions for testing, from the circulation of the first draft bill in the Nixon administration through the debates over its implementation, which stretched into the Reagan administration. The paucity of publicly available health and environmental data concerning chemicals, I argue, was a by-product of the law and its execution, leading to a situation of institutionalized ignorance, the underside of regulatory knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flagship congress of the European Federation of Corrosion (EFC), EUROCORR 2020 was held under the above theme from the 7th–10th September. Owing to the pandemic, this was held as a VIRTUAL conference. This major corrosion event will be reviewed in four parts over four issues, with the present instalment providing an overall summary, giving titles and access to the plenary lectures, and covering technical sessions on corrosion mechanisms, methods and modelling, corrosion reliability of electronic materials and devices, cathodic protection and cathodic protection in the marine environment, corrosion in oil and gas production, corrosion in the refinery and petrochemistry industry and finally corrosion control in low carbon energy technologies particularly solar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the deepening of government reform, the Chinese government has strengthened the functions of public service and social management. Public policies are increasingly concerned with residents' well-being. However, environmental quality, which can be regarded as a visual indicator to reflect the performance of environmental protection and the quality of public service, is still not optimistic in China. Thus, we wonder if there exist deep relationships among public expenditure, environmental pollution, and subjective well-being. By combining the data from the Chinese Family Panel Survey (CFPS) with relevant government statistics, we find that public expenditure improves residents' well-being, whereas environmental pollution has a negative effect. More importantly, environmental pollution is found to moderate the relationship between government expenditure and residents' subjective well-being. These findings not only prove the extra costs of environmental degradation, but also suggest that good performance of environmental governance should be emphasized in promoting human welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the large-scale investments of both China and the EU in climate-change mitigation and renewable-energy promotion, the prevailing view on China-EU relations is one of conflict rather than cooperation. In order to evaluate the prospects of cooperation between China and the EU in these policy fields, empirical research has to go beyond simplistic narratives. This paper suggests a conceptual apparatus that will help researchers better understand the complexities of the real world. The relevant actors operate at different levels and in the public and private sectors. The main message of the paper is that combining the multilevel governance and value-chain approaches helps clarify the multiple relationships between these actors [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I examine the effects of an environmental sociology travel study program in Zion National Park (United States) on 11 students during the summers of 2018 and 2019. I outline the program, and then I use students' reflections in their posttrip final papers to illustrate the effects of the program on their sense of environmental identity. While there was some variance in the growth of environmental identity, all students reported that they were profoundly affected by the program. For many, their environmental identity became salient. I also argue that we, as sociologists, need to grow our experiential environmental education so that many will become advocates for environmental change but also so that some will become the leaders we need to address the climate crisis and the environmental, social, and economic injustices that are deepening because of it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing body of knowledge about the impacts of climate change on tourism destinations and about tourism’s commitment to address these impacts. However, there has been limited research about climate change responses by national or sub-national tourism agencies and the role they play in providing information, incentives and leadership to encourage the uptake of climate change actions by the industry. This paper assesses the climate change responses of nine Australian government tourism agencies. Information on climate change, sustainability and green business practices is drawn from the corporate websites, annual reports, tourism plans, fact sheets, and case studies produced by one national, six state and two territory tourism agencies from 2007 to 2010. The paper focuses on how government tourism agencies are addressing climate change mitigation by promoting carbon reduction initiatives and carbon offsetting schemes. Climate change tourism responses are more developed in Australian states with climate change policies and in destinations vulnerable to the impacts of climate change or dependent on long haul travellers. To date, few government tourism agencies report on their own carbon footprint or mitigation and offset measures. This study highlights a range of mitigation options that will assist government tourism agencies to address climate change impacts through policies, strategic plans and green business advice for tourism operators. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this paper is to provide examples of strategies and procedures for remediation of buildings affected by toxic moulds. Four case studies are included in the paper. Moisture and inadequate ventilation are the keys to proliferation of toxic moulds and dispersion of spores in air. Prevention should always be the main objectives for any environmental management plan or service maintenance of a building. The management and remediation plan should include an adequate control of moisture, damp and ventilation in the building. The most effective strategy for remediating mould problems is by source control, preventing or limiting the generation of moulds, and the other is to remove the sources. There should be a detailed study to identify the sources of mould problems. The remediation could involve mothballing of a building to rectify defects including leaks and removal of damp materials; venting of underfloor or wall cavities and to improve the general airflow in the building. Remediation may involve vacuuming to remove spores in air and mould from surfaces. Other techniques include heat treatment, steam cleaning, biocides treatment, fumigation and UV treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homelessness is among the most urgent crises facing the United States. In addition to tents or sleeping bags on urban sidewalks, many people experiencing homelessness exist outside of public view, along rivers and other waterways, and elsewhere "out in nature." This paper explores reasons individuals live near waterways, specific health and human service needs of this population, and why these needs remain largely unmet. We conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 84 individuals experiencing homelessness, 56 of whom were currently residing or had previously resided near the San Diego River or in nearby canyons, as well as seven key informant interviews with homelessness services and environmental conservation organizations. Our findings reveal that people live near urban waterways for several reasons, including the competing influences of systems designed to ameliorate the impacts of homelessness, such as criminal justice systems, public health systems, and the emergency shelter system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the techno-environmental urban policy that emerged in Cleveland, Ohio following the financial crisis, consisting primarily of mass demolition and greening programs, we argue this techno-green fix is an urban redevelopment strategy in shrinking cities that reshapes these places into manageable islands of urban development. Demolition and green reuse accelerated displacement without gentrification in long established low-income communities of color while reinforcing the racial hierarchies in US property markets. We demonstrate how the unevenness of the demolition program mirrors earlier racialized practices while adopting the rhetoric and strategy of "smart shrinkage." We show that behind its neutral and scientific ambition, this strategy targets the most disadvantaged areas of the inner city. The market rational of these programs reproduces old patterns of racial segregation in the city. Finally, we show that the "green" dimension of this strategy is highly ambivalent. If "greening" is publicly presented as a means to benefit marginalized areas and residents, it is also used as a way to transfer the maintenance of urban services to poor residents on the city's east side, to erase urban spaces, and to foster market dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the development of a thermal comfort toolkit designed for the normative assessment of the indoor thermal environment of office facilities. It is one component of a larger building performance toolkit developed for the US General Services Administration. The thermal comfort part includes a set of unambiguously defined performance indicators (PI) based on the notion of objectively quantifiable performance measures. The set of indicators is founded on existing knowledge in biophysics and physiology, and constitutes a normative tool to assess the performance of buildings. The calculation of PIs is fully operational and web based. In the paper, the theoretical derivation of the indicators is given and their relevance in design scenarios is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A database (IERIE) has been established that holds detailed information on indoor environment research projects across Europe, which is of potential value to both researchers and funders of research. This paper demonstrates how the database can be used to evaluate topic trends and patterns in indoor environment research, particularly focusing on indoor air monitoring. The illustrative analyses reveal, for example, the number of projects that are associated with indoor air monitoring and the types of study being performed. It is anticipated that as the database grows and develops it will be of increasing value to policy makers as well as to researchers and funding bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information about several consultation papers related to the environmental law and other related fields. Draft Great Britain report regarding plans and programmes to achieve limit values set by the First Air Quality Daughter Directive sought views on the British Government's and Devolved Administrations' report to the European Commission on plans and programmes to meet the ambient air quality limit values for pollutants set under the First Air Quality Daughter Directive. Another consultation paper, Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme, seeks views on a second set of proposed amendments to the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme Regulations 2003 with respect to new entrants, closures, the Registries Regulation, the Commission Monitoring and Reporting Decision, temporary exclusion, fees and insolvency.

The involvement of private sector actors in low carbon urban transitions is a neglected element of geographical analysis. Drawing on Polanyian, cultural economic geographies and the non-capitalocentric ethics of JK Gibson-Graham’s diverse economies perspective, the paper engages with the wider literature on the engagement of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in environmental action, corporate social responsibility and low carbon transitions to develop a substantivist account of the contribution of SMEs to local low carbon transitions. The paper argues that, contra formalist economic analyses of economic rationality, SME owners should not be thought of as uncritical profit maximizers but as actors in favour of positive low carbon futures. Thus the paper argues that Polanyian economic geographies and diverse economies perspectives, which rarely speak to each other, can be drawn together, and concludes with suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the generation of presences and absences of objects in plant biosecurity practices. We use praxiography to trace how multiple versions of disease were generated on a quarantined banana plantation during an emergency response to a suspected outbreak of feared Panama disease. Attending to the practices, techniques and materials that established different versions of disease presence and absence, we ask if the momentarily certain absence of disease on a particular farm necessarily indicated a favourable biosecurity outcome, thus informing enhanced policy strategies for plant health. There were, in fact, multiple objects. Not only diseases, but multiple presences of health, stress, disease and disorder were involved in confirming the absence of Panama. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper is based on measured environmental conditions and ventilation rates during a summer period in the occupied naturally ventilated and passively cooled Environmental Building at the Building Research Establishment, Garston, UK. Initially, the comfort and air quality environmental conditions in the first (typical) floor of the building are discussed. These are found to be satisfactory. The paper then goes on to investigate the cooling effectiveness of the various ventilation flowpaths and associated thermal mass. In particular, the paper focuses on the south façade passive stacks and their relative contribution to cooling through increased ventilation. It was found that due to the relatively narrow plan of the building, the cross-ventilation flow paths could satisfy most of the summer cooling ventilation requirements. Passive stacks can enhance the cooling ventilation of the space during warm and still days, as intended by the design, and may also have the potential to assist night-time cooling due to their thermally massive structure.Copyright © 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The generator is the most popular mobile power device and backup power device in the world. It is very important for human life. Therefore, it is important to develop more efficient combustion technology in order to save energy and reduce air pollution. In this paper, a novel technology of hydrogen and oxygen compound gasoline fuel is developed. Hydrogen and oxygen gases are produced from an electrolytic cell and then mixed with the intake gasoline and air. The compound fuel is sucked into the engine combustion chamber. The hydrogen and oxygen gases can be produced immediately without any storage device of hydrogen. The experimental results show that this technology can increase the power generation and decrease emission pollution due to promoting combustion efficiency. In addition, the spark plug seat temperature increases due to higher heat value of hydrogen. This technique can reduce carbon monoxide and HC, but increase carbon dioxide. The research and development of this technique can achieve the goals of energy saving, emission reduction, relative safety, easy refitting and low refitting expense. Moreover, this research possesses academic innovation and industrial application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to analyse the perspectives of civil society actors in Malta about the country's sustainable energy policy and its impact on green jobs. Perspectives of 11 civil society actors comprising employers, trade unions and non-governmental organisations are analysed to provide a broad reflexive analysis of the policy process in question. Findings illuminate a broad consensus within civil society that the policymaking process in the field of sustainable energy should incorporate different voices from civil society – such as employers, trade unions and environmental non-governmental organisations – apart from experts in energy, economics and other areas. Indeed, this study's findings include civil society's reviews on how commercial viability, workers' rights, environmental protection and sustainability interact with and within the sustainable energy sector and related green jobs. Nonetheless, this study signals that within Maltese civil society, sharing of knowledge and good practice and effort coordination lack. Different interests and sectarianism testify to inconsistently interacting and competing human local networks. This broadens the discourse on effective sustainable energy policy and creation of related green jobs, also making it more complex. Indeed, the direction of such discourse bears potential for sporadic development. Whilst challenging vertical trajectories, institutionally centred and technical transitions in the area of environmental sustainability, the primary data gained from this study highlight need for policy to address the identified challenges through projects, funding and incentives that foster coordination between different types of civil society organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a regional political ecology lens, this paper explores emerging geographies and politics of a "postnatural" ecomodernist turn in mainstream environmentalism. We examine the unfolding case of ecological restoration and renewable energy development at Southern California's Salton Sea. Ambitious proposals to restore the massive, increasingly degraded lake (and finance restoration) by reengineering it as a hub for geothermal energy generation and high-tech green industry hinge upon the ambiguity and malleability of restoration in an environment long classified as postnatural. These plans coincide with a broader rush on renewable energy sites in the California desert, and mounting conflicts over water and land with legacy agro-industrial interests. The case illustrates significant problems within postnatural environmentalism. First, it demonstrates how theorizations of the postnatural can intersect with green capitalist projects of re(e)valuation and development, as the Sea's managers manipulate environmental framings to support accumulation-minded projects, and accumulation imperatives swamp other functionalities of restoration. Meanwhile, despite the flourishing of postnatural discourses, the "pristine" is shown to do continued work as the Sea becomes a sacrifice zone for development deflected from better-protected spaces. This postnatural positioning has rendered the Salton Sea vulnerable to neoliberal austerity and speculation in ways that compromise its future existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]