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How to Regulate Our Waste-Full World
STILL ONLY ONE EARTH: Lessons from 50 years of UN sustainable development policy BRIEF #23 How to Regulate Our Waste-Full World Jen Allan, Ph.D. July 2021 Key Messages and Recommendations • There is a long history of dumping hazardous wastes in the seas, on land, and in developing countries; management efforts only started in the 1970s. • The 1989 Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal has expanded to include new wastes and to ban shipments from developed to developing countries. • Proactive management that scans the horizon for new hazardous waste streams has often been missing and is necessary to protect human health and the environment. • The legitimacy of global governance of hazardous wastes may rest on its ability to enable governments protect the most vulnerable. Waste is the most tangible form of pollution. medications, paints, and electronic waste At every stage of production and consumption, (e-waste). we create waste and throw it away, rendering But the products we dispose of do not it invisible from of our lives. Hazardous waste disappear. Much of our waste has value in its takes many forms. It includes the by-products second, discarded life. Minerals and metals of manufacturing or industrial processes, can be recovered and reused. Some types of like toxic ash or sludge. It can be discarded waste can be recycled. In fact, there are entire commercial products, like pesticides. We industries that dispose, recover, and recycle produce hazardous wastes from our homes, our waste. Some of our trash can be another’s by throwing away asbestos-laden insultation, treasure. -
Towards a More Resource-Efficient and Circular Economy the Role of The
Towards a more resource-efficient and circular economy The role of the G20 | 1 A background report prepared for the 2021 G20 Presidency of Italy Towards a more resource-efficient and circular economy The role of the G20 PUBE TOWARDS A MORE RESOURCE-EFFICIENT AND CIRCULAR ECONOMY © OECD 2021 2 | Table of contents Executive Summary 4 1. Introduction 9 2. Past trends in material consumption and waste generation 10 3. Projections of future materials use 18 4. The environmental impacts of materials use 21 5. A transition to a circular economy can lower resource demands and environmental impacts and contribute to the economic and social recovery 24 6. Recent developments on resource efficiency and circular economy policies 27 7. The role of cities towards the circular economy transition 32 8. Towards a G20 policy vision on resource efficiency 38 References 47 TOWARDS A MORE RESOURCE-EFFICIENT AND CIRCULAR ECONOMY © OECD 2021 | 3 Tables Table 1. Selected environmental impacts of materials use 21 Table 2. Selected examples of national, regional and local strategies for resource efficiency, waste management and the circular economy of G20 countries 27 Figures Figure 1. Domestic Material Consumption in G20, OECD and BRIICS 10 Figure 2. Domestic material consumption per capita [tonnes] 11 Figure 3. Resource productivity levels differ substantially among G20 countries, but some improvements could be achieved 12 Figure 4. Despite improvements in resource productivity, domestic material consumption increased in G20 countries 13 Figure 5. Material footprint per capita remains high also for countries with low Domestic Material Consumption per capita 14 Figure 6. As income levels rise, waste generation increases [left], but waste treatment processes improve [right] 15 Figure 7. -
The Phenomenology of Gridlock
Cornell Law Library Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository Cornell Law Faculty Publications Faculty Scholarship 6-2013 The heP nomenology of Gridlock Josh Chafetz Cornell Law School, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/facpub Part of the Legislation Commons, and the Politics Commons Recommended Citation Chafetz, Josh, "The heP nomenology of Gridlock" (2013). Cornell Law Faculty Publications. Paper 586. http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/facpub/586 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Cornell Law Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SYMPOSIUM THE AMERICAN CONGRESS: LEGAL IMPLICATIONS OF GRIDLOCK THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF GRIDLOCK Josh Chafet4 Assertions that our legislative process is gridlocked-perhaps even "hopelessly" so-are endemic. So many more of our problems would be fixed, the thinking goes, if only our political institutions were functioning properly. The hunt for the causes of gridlock is therefore afoot. This Essay argues that this hunt is fundamentally misguided, because gridlock is not a phenomenon. Rather, gridlock is the absence of phenomena; it is the absence, that is, of legisla- tive action. Rather than asking why we experience gridlock, we should be asking why and how legislative action occurs. We should expect to see legislative action, the Essay argues, when there is sufficient public consensus for a specific course of action. "Sufficient," in this context, is determined with reference to ourspecific constitutionalstructure. -
1 Towards a Third Generation of Global Governance Scholarship This Is the Final Typeset and Copyedited PDF Version. the Chapter
Towards a Third Generation of Global Governance Scholarship This is the final typeset and copyedited PDF version. The chapter should be cited as: David Coen and Tom Pegram, ‘Towards a Third Generation of Global Governance Scholarship’, Global Policy, Global Policy, Volume 9, Issue 1 (February 2018), 107-113. Abstract Global governance is widely viewed as in crisis. Deepening interdependence of cross-border activity belies the relative absence of governance mechanisms capable of effectively tackling major global policy challenges. Scholars have an important role to play in understanding blockages and ways through. A first generation of global governance research made visible an increasingly complex and globalising reality beyond the interstate domain. A varied second generation of scholarship, spanning diverse subfields, has built upon this ‘signpost scholarship’ to generate insight into efforts to manage, bypass and even – potentially – transcend multilateral gridlock to address pressing transboundary problems. This article plots a course towards a ‘third generation’ of global governance research, serving to also introduce a special section which brings together leading scholars in the field of global governance, working across theoretical, analytical and issue-area boundaries. This collaborative endeavour proposes to advance a convergence, already underway, across a theoretically and empirically rich existing scholarship, distinguished by a concern for the complexity of global policy delivery. 1 Introduction Although its conceptual, analytical and theoretical boundaries may be hotly debated, global governance is widely viewed as a vital component to addressing transboundary common goods challenges, from large-scale violence to sustainable development, health to climate change, bio-pathogen containment to financial disruption. As Martin Wolf (2012) of the Financial Times suggests, humanity’s efforts to overcome the tragedy of the global commons ‘could prove to be the defining story of the century’. -
Global Waste Trade Chaos: Rising Environmentalism Or Cost-Benefit Analysis? by Margareth Sembiring1
NTS Insight, no. IN19-02, July 2019 Global Waste Trade Chaos: Rising Environmentalism or Cost-Benefit Analysis? By Margareth Sembiring1 Abstract Contents International garbage disputes are rare. Lately, however, the world witnesses waves • Abstract of newsworthy trash saga.the From Philippines shipping containers of rubbish back • Global Waste Trade Industry to Canada, to Malaysia planning to return tons of garbage back to countries of origin, • Waste Smuggling to China’s near-total ban of plastic waste import, it is hard not to wonder whether this • China’s Plastic Waste Import Ban is a real sign of rising environmentalism. Have countries begun to think that the • Environmental Consciousness or Cost-Benefit Analysis? environment is worthy of a similar priority as the economy? This Insight argues that behind the seemingly growing pro-environment attitudes, it still remains to be seen whether this trend is sustainable in the long run. Considering that the global waste trade is a multi-billion dollar industry, the balance may tip to favour the economic activities again once the dust has settled back. The paper first looks at a brief description of the global waste trade industry. It then discusses some of the contemporary development in the global waste industry particularly on the issues of waste smuggling and China’s plastic waste import ban. It describes related experiences in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand. Recommended citation: Margareth Sembiring, ‘Global Waste Trade Chaos: Rising Environmentalism or Cost-Benefit Analysis?’, NTS Insight, No. IN19-02 (Singapore: RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS Centre)). Photo credit: Shutterstock 1 Margareth Sembiring is Associate Research Fellow with the Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies at the S. -
Media and Gridlock
Media and Gridlock Daniel F. Stone1 9th Media Economics Workshop - New Economic School October 2011 1Oregon State University I Anecdotal evidence: minority party tried to block major new policy proposals (social security, health care reform, jobs bill?) I Term `gridlock' only coined after 1980 elections I Binder (1999): hard evidence of increasing gridlock in 80s and 90s (term coined in 80s) I Cloture motions way up over time, especially in last two Congresses Gridlock in U.S. appears to have increased in recent years I Term `gridlock' only coined after 1980 elections I Binder (1999): hard evidence of increasing gridlock in 80s and 90s (term coined in 80s) I Cloture motions way up over time, especially in last two Congresses Gridlock in U.S. appears to have increased in recent years I Anecdotal evidence: minority party tried to block major new policy proposals (social security, health care reform, jobs bill?) I Binder (1999): hard evidence of increasing gridlock in 80s and 90s (term coined in 80s) I Cloture motions way up over time, especially in last two Congresses Gridlock in U.S. appears to have increased in recent years I Anecdotal evidence: minority party tried to block major new policy proposals (social security, health care reform, jobs bill?) I Term `gridlock' only coined after 1980 elections I Cloture motions way up over time, especially in last two Congresses Gridlock in U.S. appears to have increased in recent years I Anecdotal evidence: minority party tried to block major new policy proposals (social security, health care reform, jobs bill?) I Term `gridlock' only coined after 1980 elections I Binder (1999): hard evidence of increasing gridlock in 80s and 90s (term coined in 80s) Gridlock in U.S. -
Why Gridlock Matters
\\jciprod01\productn\N\NDL\88-5\NDL503.txt unknown Seq: 1 2-JUL-13 11:56 WHY GRIDLOCK MATTERS Michael J. Gerhardt* INTRODUCTION A week before the 2012 presidential election, I had the opportunity to speak with a former senator. I asked him about gridlock. I wondered what he would say to my law students who had lost hope in the legislative process because of the gridlock that defined the 112th Congress. He told me that they had good reason to have lost hope. He said that he conceived of the legislative process as a target; that the center of the target represented the areas that were most important to the country and the likeliest ones in which bipartisan agreement could be reached; and that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA” or “Affordable Care Act”),1 in which he said that President Obama had invested so much time and capital, was on the periph- ery, if not the outside, of the target. He explained that the ACA exceeded the scope of congressional power. He explained that opposing the ACA should be the top priority of legislators and citizens. When I asked him what issues were at the center of the target, he initially did not respond. After I politely pressed him for an answer, he eventually said that there was nothing more important than opposing the health care bill. For him, gridlock had become a constitutional necessity. The former senator’s position on gridlock is hardly unique. Indeed, more than a year before President Obama’s re-election, Antonin Scalia, the longest serving justice on the current Supreme Court, told the Senate Judici- ary Committee that, “Americans should learn to love gridlock . -
How Partisan Gridlock in State Legislatures Encourages the Use of Citizen Initiatives
blogs.lse.ac.uk http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2015/11/23/how-partisan-gridlock-in-state-legislatures-encourages-the-use-of-citizen-initiatives/ How partisan gridlock in state legislatures encourages the use of citizen initiatives. While partisan gridlock has become a common occurrence in the US Congress, this is also often the case in many state legislatures. In new research, Frederick J. Boehmke, Tracy L. Osborn, and Emily U. Schilling look at one consequence of legislative rules that encourage legislative paralysis – the increasing use of ballot initiatives by citizens. Using data from the American states, they find that as ‘pivotal legislators’ – gatekeepers whose support is needed to overcome a legislative filibuster or gubernatorial veto – become ideologically farther away from the state’s median voter, initiative use increases due to those lawmakers thwarting legislative action to secure preferred outcomes in the form of ballot measures. In the early 20th century, Progressive reformers pushed for institutions of direct legislation, such as the initiative, referendum and recall, as a means to return power to the people and to place a check on elected officials. In this way, the direct initiative process in the American states offers a potential cure for legislative inaction. In the current era of increased legislative polarization and gridlock, such institutions may be more important than ever. In new research, we find that the initiative process can indeed provide an important alternate mechanism for making policy. Yet, the initiative process can potentially both hinder and encourage legislative obstructionism. We show that more burdensome hurdles for legislative action in the American states lead citizens to sponsor more ballot measures in order to alter policy outside the legislative arena. -
Gridlock, Lobbying, and Democracy Joseph P
University of Cincinnati College of Law University of Cincinnati College of Law Scholarship and Publications Faculty Articles and Other Publications College of Law Faculty Scholarship 2017 Gridlock, Lobbying, and Democracy Joseph P. Tomain University of Cincinnati College of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.uc.edu/fac_pubs Part of the Law and Politics Commons Recommended Citation Joseph P. Tomain, Gridlock, Lobbying, and Democracy, 7 Wake Forest J.L. Pol'y 87 (2017) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Law Faculty Scholarship at University of Cincinnati College of Law Scholarship and Publications. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Articles and Other Publications by an authorized administrator of University of Cincinnati College of Law Scholarship and Publications. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GRIDLOCK, LOBBYING, AND DEMOCRACY JOSEPH P. TOMAINt the Supreme Court vacancy left by W Antoninith the refusalScalia, theto fillSenate adds another layer of gridlock in Washington.' In the recent past, congressional gridlock has threatened to shut down the legislative process by such maneuvers as creating a faux debt crisis and by regularly assailing the president and the executive branch over so-called job-killing regulations.' Through these efforts, obstructionist Republicans have attempted a gridlock hat-trick by trying to shut down each of the three branches of government-at least as far as the headlines go.' The political reality, however, is more nuanced, and gridlock is more complicated than commentators often claim-and not to the public benefit. -
A Theory of Political Gridlock
Theoretical Economics 12 (2017), 555–586 1555-7561/20170555 A theory of political gridlock Juan Ortner Department of Economics, Boston University This paper studies how electoral incentives influence the outcomes of political ne- gotiations. It considers a game between two political parties that have to bargain over which policy to implement. While bargaining, the parties’ popularity varies over time. Changes in popularity are partly exogenous and partly driven by the parties’ actions. There is an election scheduled at a future date and the party with more popularity at the election date wins the vote. Electoral incentives can have substantial effects on bargaining outcomes. Periods of gridlock may arise when the election is close and parties have similar levels of popularity. Keywords. Bargaining, elections, political gridlock, inefficient delay. JEL classification. C73, C78, D72. 1. Introduction An important element of political negotiations—especially negotiations over high- profile or landmark legislation—is that agreements can have consequences that go well beyond implemented policies. As Binder and Lee (2013) put it, “Negotiation in Congress is never solely about policy; politics and policy are always intertwined.” Beyond policy considerations, political parties usually weigh whether compromising on a given issue is in their best electoral interest. Reaching an agreement can lead to changes in the par- ties’ level of support among voters, and these changes can be of crucial importance in determining electoral outcomes. The goal of the current paper is to study how such elec- toral incentives affect the outcomes of political negotiations. The results shed light on the circumstances under which electoral considerations can lead to periods of gridlock and political inaction. -
Federalism in Eastern Europe During and After Communism
James Hughes Federalism in Eastern Europe during and after Communism Book section Original citation: Originally published in Fagan, Adam and Kopecký, Petr, (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of East European Politics. Routledge, London, UK. ISBN 9781138919754 © 2018 Routledge This version available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/69642/ Available in LSE Research Online: March 2017 LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website. This document is the author’s submitted version of the book section. There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it. Federalism in Eastern Europe during and after Communism James Hughes Chapter 10 Forthcoming in Adam Fagan and Petr Kopecky eds. The Routledge Handbook of East European Politics. Routledge 2017 One of the earliest political visionaries of federalism in Eastern Europe,interwar Polish leader Józef Piłsudski, famously remarked to former socialist comrades that “we both took -
Gadani Ship-Breaking Yard
Gadani Ship-breaking Yard According to statistics released by environmental advocate, non-governmental agency Shipbreaking Platform, South Asian yards now offer about $450 per light displacement tonnage, or LDT, while Chinese yards offer only $210 and Turkish yards slightly better at $280 per LDT. It is also showed that a large container ship weighs in at almost 25,000 LDTs. That translates into $11.25 million in India, but only $7 million in Turkey and $5.25 million in China. Furthermore, Shipbreaking Platform releases a yearly survey on the industry. During 2017, the organization recorded, the industry internationally scrapped 835 ships, which totalled 20.7 million gross tons. That’s a substantial fall from 2016, when 27.4 million tons were scrapped. The number of scrapped ships has declined by greater than 30 percent from the boom days of 2012 to 2013. According to Mulinaris’s research, during 2017, saw the demolition of 170 bulk carriers, 180 general cargo ships, 140 containers, 140 tankers, 20 vehicle carriers, 14 passenger ships and 30-40 oil and gas related units, which include platforms and drill ships. The research also mentioned that most decline into the category of small and medium-sized ships, ranging from less than 500 gross tons to 25,000 gross tons. Another study which was compiled by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the agency has forecast the acceleration of global ship breaking, notably oil tankers and container ships, from now on, but particularly from 2020 until 2023. This reflects the scrapping of ships built during the later half of the 1990s, with a useful life of 26 or 27 years.