Too little or too much? Exploring the effectiveness of different policies in air pollution control from technical and non-technical pathways.

Most environmental policy studies focus on the technical pathway effect but ignore the non-technical pathway. This paper analyzes the synergistic governance effects of three types of environmental policies on the technical and non-technical pathways. The super-efficient slacks-based measure-data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) assesses the green total factor productivity, while the Malmquist index decomposes into pure technical efficiency. The findings indicate that: (1) command-and-control policy has the 'too-little-of-a-good-thing' effect, but the policy intensity in most Chinese provinces is strong enough to reduce air pollution, while market-based incentive policy may be 'too-much-of-a-good-thing', but Chinese provinces have not reached the inflection point; (2) there are considerable differences in the environmental effects of different policies through technical and non-technical pathways; (3) different policies have various focuses. Command-and-control policy focuses on the non-technical pathway, whereas market-based incentive policy can induce technological progress.

Water transfer contributes to water resources management: Crisis mitigation for future water allocation in the Yellow River basin.

Optimizing water allocation is a crucial strategy for water planning in large basins, such as the Yellow River basin. The transforming water supply pattern, triggered by inter-basin water transfer, urges the optimization and refinement of water allocation. Here, we predict the future water demand for different sectors at the provincial level and carry out future water allocation based on a multi-objective allocation model. The results imply that "demand increases in midstream and water deficits in downstream" would persist by 2050, and the demand structure highlights potential sectoral rivalry for water resources in each province. Water transfer will be the "antidote" to water disputes and will account for 19.8% and 34.5% of the water demand in 2030 and 2050, respectively. This study provides a basis for the policymaking of water management and establishes the future allocation pattern from water resources to sectors in each province in the Yellow River basin.

Assessing farmers' knowledge of environmental policy along the Ayeyarwady River: Strides towards the Indian Ocean marine life safety.

The Ayeyarwady River Basin in Myanmar is grappling with severe environmental challenges, including soil erosion and water pollution, primarily driven by unsustainable agricultural practices. This study aims to evaluate farmers' awareness of environmental policies and identify barriers to their effective implementation. In-depth interviews were conducted with 45 stakeholders, encompassing farmers, government officials, and researchers. The findings highlight a significant lack of policy awareness among farmers, exacerbated by socio-cultural, economic, and institutional obstacles. These barriers impede the successful application of environmental policies, perpetuating environmental degradation. The study advocates for integrative strategies that encompass education, community engagement, and adaptive policy frameworks to address these complex issues. Detailed policy implications are provided, offering insights into potential solutions for enhancing the region's environmental governance and sustainable development. This research contributes to understanding the critical interplay between policy awareness and ecological management, underscoring the importance of targeted interventions to mitigate environmental threats.

Quantifying regulatory limits for multiple stressors in an open and transparent way.

Biodiversity is confronted globally by multiple stressors. Environmental policies must regulate these stressors to achieve targets, but how should that be done when the outcomes of limits on one stressor are contingent on other stressors, about which there is imperfect knowledge? Deriving regulatory frameworks that incorporate these contingencies is an emerging challenge at the science-policy interface. To be fit for implementation, these frameworks need to facilitate the inherently sociopolitical process of policy implementation and account transparently for uncertainty, such that practitioners and other stakeholders can more realistically anticipate the range of potential outcomes to policy. We developed an approach to quantify stressor limits that explicitly accounts for multistressor contingencies. Using an invertebrate data set collected over 30 years throughout New Zealand, we combined ecological and ecotoxicological models to predict biodiversity loss as a function of one stressor, treating multistressor contingencies as a form of uncertainty about the outcomes of limits on that stressor. We transparently accounted for that uncertainty by presenting regulatory limits as bands bounded between optimistic and pessimistic views that practitioners may have about the local context within which limits are applied. In addition to transparently accounting for uncertainties, our framework also leaves room for practitioners to build stakeholder consensus when refining limits to suit different local contexts. A criticism of this open, transparent approach is that it creates too much scope for choosing limits that are lenient on polluters, paralyzing on-the-ground management of multiple stressors, but we demonstrate that this is not necessarily the case.

Cuantificación abierta y transparente de los límites regulatorios para varios estresantes Resumen La biodiversidad enfrenta a múltiples estresantes en todo el mundo. Las políticas ambientales deben regularlos para alcanzar los objetivos fijados, pero ¿cómo hacerlo cuando los resultados de la limitación de un estresante dependen de otros factores, de los que se conoce muy poco? La elaboración de marcos reguladores que incorporen estas contingencias es un reto emergente en la interfaz ciencia­política. Para aplicar estos marcos, se debe facilitar el proceso sociopolítico inherente a la aplicación de políticas y tener en cuenta de forma transparente la incertidumbre, de modo que los profesionales y otras partes interesadas puedan anticipar de forma más realista la variedad de posibles resultados de las políticas. Desarrollamos un método para cuantificar los límites de los estresantes que considera explícitamente las contingencias de múltiples factores. Usamos un conjunto de datos sobre invertebrados recolectados durante 30 años en toda Nueva Zelanda. Después combinamos modelos ecológicos y eco­toxicológicos para predecir la pérdida de biodiversidad en función de un estresante y tratamos las contingencias de múltiples estresantes como una forma de incertidumbre sobre los resultados de los límites de ese mismo estresante. Explicamos esa incertidumbre de forma transparente con los límites normativos como bandas delimitadas entre las opiniones optimistas y pesimistas que los profesionales pueden tener sobre el contexto local en el que se aplican los límites. Además de hacer lo anterior, nuestro marco también deja margen para que los profesionales lleguen a un consenso con las partes interesadas a la hora de perfeccionar los límites para adaptarlos a los distintos contextos locales. Una crítica a este enfoque abierto y transparente crea demasiado margen para elegir límites indulgentes con los contaminadores, paralizando la gestión sobre el terreno de múltiples estresantes, pero demostramos que no es necesariamente así.

An elephant in the room? Explaining agenda-setting in antimicrobial resistance policies in 30 European countries.

Antimicrobial resistances (AMR) present a particularly challenging cross-sectoral policy problem, affecting human and animal health as well as the environment. Compared to the actual problem pressure, the public awareness for AMR is comparatively low and the issue has not been high on the political agenda in most. Given the rising problem pressure, we aim to find out as to what degree and under which conditions political parties bring AMR on the political agenda. By means of multilevel logit regressions based on 173 electoral manifestos in 30 European countries from 2015 to 2020, we explore the conditions that explain whether AMR are taken up in manifestos. The empirical findings indicate firstly that AMR are only addressed by political parties in Northern and Western Europe, in no case in Eastern, and only in one case in Southern Europe, though resistant bacteria are more widely spread in the latter. Secondly, Green parties are those who are most likely to address the AMR challenge. Thirdly, vote share is positively associated with AMR agenda-setting, while EU membership is insignificant and the national average on antibiotics consumption is negatively related to AMR agenda-setting. Finally, AMR are surprisingly mainly perceived as a problem of the agricultural policy subsystem despite its cross-sectoral policy character. The study makes theoretical and empirical contributions: regarding theory, the article shows that typical variables that are used for agenda-setting are less explanatory for complex intersectoral policies. This is also accompanied by the empirical contribution: since problem awareness and complexity of policy problems are correlated, AMR are reduced to an agricultural issue and as such, it is taken over by political parties that have expertise on agricultural-environmental topics.

Surgeon perspectives on preference cards and environmental stewardship.

BACKGROUND: Refinement of surgical preference cards may reduce waste from surgery. This study aimed to characterize surgeon perceptions and practices regarding preference card maintenance, identify barriers to updating preference cards, and explore whether opinions on environmental stewardship relate to preference card maintenance. METHODS: This was a mixed methods survey performed at a single tertiary academic medical center. Surgeons completed questions on accuracy, frequency of updates, and perceived environmental impact of their preference cards. Responses were compared between early career and mid-to late-career surgeons using Kruskal-Wallis, chi-squared, and Fisher's exact tests. RESULTS: The response rate was 46.4% (n = 89/192). Among respondents, 46.1% (n = 41/89) rarely or never updated preference cards. Nearly all (98.9%, n = 87/88) said some of their cases had unused items on their cards. Most (87.6%, n = 78/89) made updates via verbal requests. Unfamiliar processes (83.7%, n = 72/86) and effort required (64.0%, n = 55/86) were viewed as barriers to card maintenance. Most agreed that more frequent updates would reduce waste (80.5%, n = 70/87), but respondents did not feel knowledgeable about the environmental impact of items on their cards (62.1%, n = 54/87). Mid-to late-career surgeons were less likely to update their cards annually or more often compared to early career surgeons (18.9%, n = 7/37 vs. 57.1%, n = 24/42, p < 0.001). No other responses varied significantly between early career and mid-to late-career surgeons. CONCLUSIONS: Surgeons acknowledged the utility of preference card maintenance in environmental stewardship, but unfamiliar systems and perceived effort hindered preference card review. Greater attention to preference card maintenance would promote environmentally sustainable practices in surgery.

How is political trust associated with economic and environmental policy prioritization? A longitudinal analysis between 2017 and 2022.

In this article, we examine the longitudinal development of economy-over-environment policy priorities in Finland during a period marked by several significant adverse societal events. In addition, we explore the influence of political trust on these priorities over time. We utilize a five-round panel dataset comprising 2155 observations (N = 431) to examine both within-individual and between-individual variations from late 2017 to early 2023. Our findings reveal a significant increase in the prioritization of the economy in each observation period following the COVID-19 outbreak. However, this trend is not observed among individuals with high levels of political trust. The within-individual analysis indicates that high political trust moderates, rather than causes, higher economy-over-environment prioritization. Our study highlights the significance of political trust as a preventing factor against the deprioritization of environmental policies, particularly when societies confront significant and intersecting adverse events.

Factors Influencing the Perceived Economic Benefits of Innovative Agri-Environmental Contracts.

Continued innovation in contract design may enhance the delivery of agri-environmental climate public goods (AECPG), but barriers to adoption arise in terms of how farmers perceive the economic benefits. Therefore, this paper examines survey data from Ireland and the Netherlands to analyse whether land managers agree that results-based, collective action, value chain and land tenure contracts for the delivery of AECPG are understandable, applicable to their farm and economically beneficial. Using Probit models, we also identify groups of land managers who perceive the different contract types as being economically beneficial, and these findings can inform policymakers of farmer groups who need adequate consideration during the design of agri-environmental contracts. For example, greater incentives could encourage older farmers to enrol in results-based contracts in Ireland and value chain contracts in the Netherlands. We also find a link between contract duration and the perceived economic benefits of collective action contracts in both countries, with land managers in Ireland desiring a longer duration. We highlight that policymakers and land managers in Ireland could apply lessons from the design of agri-environmental contracts in the Netherlands, where they are more common and varied. Greater knowledge exchange between users and non-users of such contracts would also help bridge the gap between theory and practice in both countries.

Poor compliance and exemptions facilitate ongoing deforestation.

Many nations are struggling to reduce deforestation, despite having extensive environmental protection laws in place and commitments to international agreements that address the biodiversity and climate crises. We developed a novel framework to quantify the extent to which contemporary deforestation is being captured under national and subnational laws. We then applied this framework to northern Australia as a case study, a development and deforestation hotspot with ecosystems of global significance. First, deforestation may be compliant under all relevant legislation, either through assessment and approval or because of exemptions in the legislation. Second, deforestation may be compliant under at least one relevant law, but not all. Third, there may be no evidence of deforestation assessment or exemption from assessment, despite their apparent requirement, which could mean the deforestation is potentially noncompliant. Finally, deforestation may occur in an area or under circumstances that are beyond the intended scope of any relevant legislation. All deforestation that we analyzed was hypothetically covered by one or more laws. However, 65% of deforestation was potentially noncompliant with at least one law. Because multiple laws could be relevant to a given clearing event, the majority of clearing was still compliant with at least one law, but of these events, only a small proportion was explicitly approved (19%). The remaining were permitted under various exemptions. Of all the legislation we analyzed, most of the exempt clearing occurred under one subnational law and most potentially noncompliant clearing occurred under one national law. Our results showed that even a nation with a suite of mature environmental protection laws is falling well short of achieving international commitments regarding deforestation. Our framework can be used to pinpoint the pathways of policy change required for nations to align local laws with these international accords.

Cumplimiento deficiente y exenciones que facilitan la deforestación Resumen Muchos países luchan por reducir la deforestación, a pesar de contar con amplias leyes de protección del medio ambiente y de sus compromisos con los acuerdos internacionales que abordan la crisis de la biodiversidad y el clima. Por ello desarrollamos un novedoso marco para cuantificar hasta qué punto la deforestación actual se recopila en las leyes nacionales y subnacionales. Después aplicamos este marco al norte de Australia como estudio de caso, un punto caliente de desarrollo y deforestación con ecosistemas de importancia mundial. En primer lugar, la deforestación puede ser compatible con toda la legislación pertinente, ya sea mediante evaluación y aprobación o debido a exenciones en la legislación. En segundo lugar, la deforestación puede ser compatible con al menos una ley pertinente, pero no con todas. En tercer lugar, puede que no haya pruebas de evaluación de la deforestación o de exención de la evaluación, a pesar de su aparente requisito, lo que podría significar que la deforestación es potencialmente no conforme. Por último, la deforestación puede producirse en una zona o en circunstancias que quedan fuera del ámbito de aplicación de la legislación pertinente. Toda la deforestación analizada era hipotéticamente legal según una o más leyes. Sin embargo, el 65% de la deforestación no cumplía potencialmente al menos una ley. Dado que varias leyes podían ser pertinentes para un determinado caso de deforestación, la mayoría de las deforestaciones seguían cumpliendo al menos una ley, pero de estos casos, sólo una pequeña proporción estaba explícitamente aprobada (19%). El resto estaba permitido en virtud de diversas exenciones. De toda la legislación que analizamos, la mayor parte de la compensación exenta se produjo en virtud de una ley subnacional y la mayor parte de la compensación potencialmente no conforme se produjo en virtud de una ley nacional. Nuestros resultados muestran que incluso un país con un conjunto de leyes maduras de protección del medio ambiente está muy lejos de cumplir los compromisos internacionales en materia de deforestación. Nuestro marco puede utilizarse para determinar las vías de cambio político necesarias para que los países adapten su legislación local a los acuerdos internacionales.

What the Paris 1924 olympics tell us about promoting oral health for community sport - a call to action.

Sport participation has huge benefits to individuals and communities including both physical health and wellbeing, prevention of non-communicable diseases, promoting equity and reducing inequalities. Sport participation can disadvantage oral health with a life-long shadow of treatment need and potential psycho-social consequences, despite these problems being preventable. It is therefore a priority to collaborate with partners in community sport to embed oral health promotion as one of the foundations of overall health in order to gain the most equitable and sustainable benefits from sport participation.

Restructuring effects of industrial and energy structures on sectoral CO2 emission peak trajectories in China.

Economic sectors are pivotal in achieving China's dual carbon goals; nevertheless, the combined impact of industrial and energy consumption structures on sectors' peak pathways remains unresolved. We extend the optimization of separate industrial and energy structures to a multi-objective dynamic input-output optimization model. Findings indicate the following. (1) China's energy-related CO2 emissions are projected to peak in 2028, reaching a volume of 10.06-10.25 Gt. The contribution of industrial structure upgrading to this peak is three times greater than that of energy structure transformation. (2) Approximately 40% of sectors can delay their peaks until after 2030 without impeding China's overall peaking before 2030. (3) Compared with the single objective of minimizing CO2 emissions, China can not only achieve its carbon peak earlier but also enhance its average annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates by more than 0.26 percentage points and increase the non-fossil energy use's share by at least 2.78%.

Deep mitigation for trade-embodied carbon emissions among the Belt and Road Initiative countries.

The frequent trade within and beyond the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has prospered the economy but has also expanded carbon emissions. Here, through a multi-regional environmental input-output analysis framework, we explore the patterns and inter-sectoral linkage of trade-embodied carbon emissions among BRI countries during 2015-2019. Then, a dynamic data envelopment analysis model considering carbon inequality as a non-discretionary input is constructed to assess the carbon emission efficiency of the identified key sector. We find that trade-embodied carbon emissions in the BRI steadily increased during 2015-2019. The manufacturing sector was identified as the key sector, exhibiting an overall efficiency of 0.6268 on average, with significant efficiency disparities. Moreover, we validate the positive role of efficiency enhancement in carbon emission mitigation, as well as the negative moderating effect of carbon inequality. Overall, this study provides optimal collaboration and initiatives to mitigate trade-embodied carbon emissions among BRI countries deeply.

How does planetary health redefine our steps? An integrative review on climate change and global physical activity

Introduction: Climate change is altering individual behaviors, particularly in terms of physical activity, with significant implications for body and mental health. Objective: This review aims to provide insights for researchers, public health professionals, and policymakers to promote physical activity effectively in the face of climate change challenges. Methods: We conducted an integrative review of studies involving adults published in English, Portuguese, or Spanish, using databases such as PubMed, Scielo, Lilacs, Web of Science, and Embase. Results: Eighty-three papers were included, revealing that heat waves reduce outdoor physical activity, while indoor activities are gaining popularity due to poor air quality. Sea level rise affects coastal areas and water-based sports, limiting access to these activities. Public policies are needed to promote physical activity for various groups, considering their specific needs and limitations. Despite these challenges, physical activity can increase resilience and be a catalyst for lifestyle changes, especially in areas most affected by climate change. Conclusion: A multidisciplinary approach is crucial for developing solutions to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change on physical activity. This review highlights the urgent need for adaptation strategies in promoting physical activity in the face of a changing environment and its implications for public health.

Role of natural resources, renewable energy sources, eco-innovation and carbon taxes in carbon neutrality: Evidence from G7 economies.

Global warming has created problems for human life, and it has been increasing for a few years. All the developing and developed countries are establishing policies to attain zero carbon status. This study extends the ongoing debate on carbon emissions. It examines the effect of natural resources and RE (Biofuel and other renewable sources) on greenhouse gas (CO2 emission and PM2.5) emissions while using data over 22 years (1999-2021) from G7 countries. In addition, this study has investigated the effect of carbon taxes, financial development, and environmental policies on carbon neutrality. The cross-sectional-ARDL, the Common correlated effect means group (CCEMG), and the Augmented mean group (AMG) cutting-edge model have been employed. Quantile regression has been employed for robustness. The study results demonstrate that biofuel and other renewable energy (RE) sources, carbon taxes, environmental policy, and eco-innovation decrease greenhouse gas emissions (CO2 emissions). Meanwhile, financial development, and natural resource dependence positively impact carbon neutrality. The robustness result also verifies the findings from CS-ARDL, AMG, and CCEMG methods. The empirical findings are used to infer policy implications for G7 economies.

Mitigating environmental pollution in China: Unlocking the potential for high-quality innovation.

The nexus between environmental pollution (EP) and technological innovation is crucial for achieving sustainable development. However, existing literature has paid less attention to the new form of high-quality innovation (HI) in environmental management. This paper uses panel data from 31 Chinese provinces from 2008 to 2020, employing the two-stage least squares method to investigate the relationship between HI and EP. The empirical results reveal that HI can effectively reduce the EP, which holds after multiple robustness tests, and this effect is more obvious in southern China. Meanwhile, HI drives clean and efficient energy transition and decreases EP. Moreover, increased environmental regulation weakens the influence of HI on EP. The major contributions of this study are constructing an HI index including innovation, human capital, and government support and examining its influence on EP in China. The findings encourage government to implement policies of innovation-driven transformation, energy conservation and emissions reduction.

Shadow prices of agrochemicals in the Chinese farming sector: A convex expectile regression approach.

The use of agrochemical inputs has significantly enhanced agricultural yields in China; however, their excessive utilization has also caused a range of environmental issues. This paper examines the costs associated with reducing agrochemicals by employing shadow prices, which represent the value of the marginal product of agrochemicals, to further develop cost-effective environmental policy measures for reducing their usage. To this end, the shadow prices of agrochemicals have been assessed by adopting a newly developed convex expectile regression approach and using statistical data from 31 provinces in China spanning from 2005 to 2020. Furthermore, the present study investigates the disparities between shadow prices and market prices for different agrochemicals across various regions in China. The findings suggest that the costs of reducing chemical fertilizers are higher than those of reducing pesticides and plastic films. Moreover, the results indicate that central China exhibits relatively high potential for decreasing agrochemical usage. Finally, these findings can inform the Chinese government's restructuring of producer support and environmental policy in a cost-effective way to mitigate agrochemicals use in the future. Additionally, the research method employed in this study holds potential for extension to other agrochemicals-dependent countries.

An empirical analysis to examine the role of institutions in bridging the gap between environmental policy stringency and energy poverty.

The findings related to strict environmental policies and energy poverty have been found contradictory. Strict environmental regulations may protect the environment by enhancing renewable energy resources but at the same time, major dependent sectors and consumers reliance on non-renewable energy resources face the problem of energy poverty. Moreover, environmental policies either soft are strict and depend on stakeholders' preferences, and such policies are implemented through institutions. Considering these aspects, the current study examines the impact of environmental policy stringency on energy poverty and further examines the role of institutions in bridging the gap between environmental policy stringency and energy poverty for the selected 31 countries from 1996 to 2020. For empirical analysis, Pooled OLS, random effect model, and system generalized methods of moments (GMM) are applied. To check the robustness of baseline models, spatial lag, spatial error, and feasible generalized methods of moments are applied. Furthermore, to examine the mediating role of institutions, we applied the structural equation modeling technique. Empirical analysis shows that an increase in environmental policy stringency significantly increases energy poverty, while institutional proxies significantly decrease energy poverty. The interactive effects of institutional proxies indicate declining effects on energy poverty. More importantly, institutions act as important mediators between environmental policies and energy poverty. Based on the findings, this study recommends soft environmental policies to maintain a balance between a sustainable environment and minimum energy poverty. This study further recommends authorizing and strengthening the institutions to formulate and regulate balanced environmental policies for environmental safety along with reduced energy poverty. This study further recommends increases in urbanization, personal remittances, and enhanced energy efficiency to minimize energy poverty.

Environmental policy stringency, ICT, and technological innovation for achieving sustainable development: Assessing the importance of governance and infrastructure.

Achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) has garnered significant attention from academia and policymakers worldwide. In this study, we examine the impact of ICT, technological innovation (TI), and environmental policy stringency (EPS) on SDI, considering the moderating role of governance quality (GQI) and transport infrastructure (TIS). A comprehensive dataset of 17 advanced nations is utilized from 1996 to 2021. To capture the dynamic and extreme marginal impacts of these policy instruments on SDG attainment, we employ the advanced technique of Feasible Generalized Least Square (FGLS). The results demonstrate that ICT has a positive and significant effect on SDGs, particularly when combined with high levels of governance quality (GOV) and transport infrastructure (TIS). Likewise, TI has a positive impact on SDGs, especially in the presence of strong governance. Furthermore, EPS exhibits a positive association with SDGs. The findings also reveal that while governance hurts SDGs, this effect diminishes when combined with higher levels of ICT, TI, and EPS, and when TIS positively moderates the relationships. The robustness estimations using DOLS and PCSE methods validate the FGLS findings. These results underscore the importance of ICT, TI, and EPS in advancing sustainable development. Moreover, they highlight the significance of good governance and robust transport infrastructure in maximizing the positive effects of these factors. These findings hold implications for policymakers and stakeholders involved in promoting sustainable development.

Environmental risk and market approval for human pharmaceuticals.

This paper contributes to the growing discussion about how to mitigate pharmaceutical pollution, which is a threat to human, animal, and environmental health as well as a potential driver of antimicrobial resistance. It identifies market approval of pharmaceuticals as one of the most powerful ways to shape producer behavior and highlights that applying this tool raises ethical issues given that it might impact patients' access to medicines. The paper identifies seven different policy options that progressively give environmental considerations increased priority in the approval process, identifies ethically relevant interests affected by such policies, and makes explicit tensions and necessary tradeoffs between these interests. While arguing that the current European regulation gives insufficient weight to environmental considerations, the paper highlights concerns with the strongest policy options, on the grounds that these may very well endanger patients' access to effective medication.

Market response to environmental policy via public procurement: An empirical analysis of bids and prices.

This paper studies the effect of Green Public Procurement (GPP) on competition, bids, and winning bids under two different regulation periods where the latter include more explicitly expressed GPP ambitions. Based on detailed data from Swedish internal cleaning service procurements, our results imply that environmental considerations might not influence the bids as required for GPP to be considered an effective environmental policy instrument. Over time, lower degree of competition and increased bids are found. This phenomenon can be attributed, at least in part, to regulatory influences, signifying an escalating complexity in the process of submitting bids.