I: Grundlagen.- 1 Einleitung.- 1.1 Bedeutung des Themas.- 1.2 Ziele und Aufbau der Arbeit.- 1.3 Begriffsdefinitionen.- 1.3.1 Rating, Ranking, Screening.- 1.3.2 OEkologieorientierte Informationen, oekologieorientierte Daten.- 1.3.3 OEkologieorientierte Berichterstattung.- 1.3.4 OEko-Rating.- 2 OEkologieorientierte Bewertungen als Grundlage oekologieorientierten Handelns.- 2.1 Informieren, Bewerten, Entscheiden, Handeln.- 2.2 Alternativen, Umweltzustande, Ziele und Praferenzen als Determinanten einer Bewertung.- 2.2.1 Ziele und Kriterien.- 2.2.2 Praferenzen.- 2.2.3 Umweltzustande.- 2.2.4 Alternativenraum.- 2.2.5 Bewertungen durch Nutzenfunktionen.- 2.3 Delegation von oekologieorientierten Bewertungen im Rahmen eines OEko-Ratings.- 2.3.1 Delegation als Metaentscheidungsproblem.- 2.3.2 Informationsoekonomische Aspekte.- 2.3.3 Agency-Problematik.- 3 Die Bewertung von OEko-Rating-Ansatzen.- 3.1 Bewertungsziele.- 3.2 Bewertungskriterien.- 3.3 Zielbeziehungen.- II: Bisherige oeko-Rating-Ansatze.- 1 Kurzbeschreibung bestehender OEko-Rating-Organisationen.- 1.1 OEkom.- 1.2 CSH.- 1.3 Eco-Rating International.- 1.4 Hamburger Umweltinstitut.- 2 Vergleich und Analyse eingesetzter Verfahren.- 2.1 Treffsicherheit.- 2.1.1 Alternativenraum.- 2.1.2 Ziele.- 2.1.3 Praferenzen.- 2.1.4 Umweltzustande.- 2.2 Kosten.- 2.3 Transparenz.- 2.4 Verfalschende Anreize.- 3 Zusammenfassende Wurdigung bestehender OEko-Rating-Ansatze.- III: Handlungsorientiertes oeko-Rating.- 1 Ziel der Weiterentwicklung.- 2 Verbesserung der Zielorientierung.- 2.1.1 Arten von Zielen.- 2.1. Arten von Kriterien.- 2.2 Zusammenfassung.- 3 Verbesserung der Praferenzgerechtigkeit der Aggregation.- 3.1 Das zugrundeliegende Aggregationsproblem.- 3.2 Arten von Praferenzen.- 3.3 Nutzwertanalysen: Die Wahl der Praxis.- 3.3.1 Vorgehensweise.- 3.3.2 Pramissen und geeignete Bewertungssituationen.- 3.4 Nutzwertanalyse zweiter Generation: Die theoretische Weiterentwicklung.- 3.4.1 Vorgehensweise.- 3.4.2 Pramissen und geeignete Bewertungssituationen.- 3.5 Scoringverfahren auf der Basis unscharfer Logik.- 3.5.1 Modellierung nicht-linearer Zusammenhange: Das Beispiel Steuerungstechnik.- 3.5.2 Fuzzy Logic: Die Philosophie.- 3.5.3 Fuzzy Control: Die Anwendung.- 3.5.4 Beispiel.- 3.5.5 Pramissen und geeignete Bewertungssituationen.- 4 Aufbau eines handlungsorientierten oeko-Ratings-Ein Ablaufschema.- Iv: Fallstudie.- 1 Analyse der Entscheidungssituation.- 2 Beschreibung und Abgrenzung der Bewertungsaufgabe.- 3 Aufbau des Bewertungsmodells.- 3.1 Instrumentalziel-/Kriteriengenerierung.- 3.2 Feststellung der Praferenzen/Strukturierung.- 3.3 Umsetzung durch Wertfunktionen.- 4 Bewertung.- 5 Analyse des OEko-Ratings der Fallstudie.- V: Zusammenfassung.- Exkurs A: Erweiterung Fuzzy Logic.- 1 Weitere Operatoren.- 2 Verallgemeinerung auf den n-Faktorenfall.- 3 Parametrisierte Operatoren.- 4 Weitere Defuzzifizierungsmethoden.- Exkurs B: Skalentypen, Skalentransformationen.

In the last twenty years the biofuels industry has developed rapidly in many regions of the world. This timely book provides an in-depth and critical study of the law and policies in many of the key biofuels producing countries, such as Brazil, China and the US, as well as the EU, and a number of other countries where this industry is quickly developing. Drawing on a range of disciplines, the contributors examine the roles of the public and private sectors in the governance of biofuels. They discuss topics such as sustainability and biofuels, and provide a critical review of regulatory regimes for biofuels. They conclude by proposing recommendations for more effective and efficient biofuel policies. Academics working in the area of renewable energy and students in environmental law will find this book to be of interest. It will also be of use to policy makers around the world looking to learn from various existing regimes. Contributors: G. Berndes, M. Brandao, A. Cowie, A. Cowie, K.S. Dahmann, J. De Beer, O. Englund, L.B. Fowler, A. Genest, L. Guo, M.-H. Labrie, Y. Le Bouthillier, E. Le Gal, O.J. Lim Tung, W.E. Mabee, F. Maes, L.D. Malo, M. Mansoor, P. Martin, H. Mcleod-Kilmurray, M.J.F. Montefrio, B.E. Olsen, R.O. Owino, P. Pereira De Andrade, M. Powers, A. Ronne, P.M. Smith, T. Smith, S. Soimakallio, I. Stupak, V.M. Tafur, A.R. Taylor

With the rapid growth of global industrialization, there has been substantial consumption of fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas along with growing carbon dioxide emissions. Unprecedented environmental and ecological crisis clouded the world. Fortunately, the Climate Conference in Copenhagen signaled hope amid the sluggish global economic recovery. Countries worldwide have been braced for developing their scientific and industrial strategies in the era of post financial crisis with a green and low-carbon philosophy. In 2008, the UN unveiled a plan for green politics and green economy, which is well-received and carried out by countries worldwide. China s 30-year rapid economic development has attracted worldwide attention. However, how to develop in a sustainable manner when faced with acute contradictions between economic growth, resources and environment has posed great challenges to China. Therefore, it is of great significance for us to speed up the study of green development and find a rational growth model. This study is completed by Prof. Li Xiaoxi and the dedication of other leading thinkers in economics, management, environment and resources together with the help of China Economic Monitoring and Analysis Center (CEMA)."

Directed primarily toward college/university students, this text also provides practical content to current and aspiring industry professionals. Environmental Law is designed to introduce those without any legal or special scientific training to the system through which the nation attempts to preserve and protect the different aspects of our environment.

This compact and elegant work (equally fitting for both academic as well as the trade audiences) provides a readily accessible and highly readable overview of Bhutan's unique opportunities and challenges; all her prominent environmental legislation, regulatory statutes, ecological customs and practices, both in historic and contemporary terms. At the same time, Bionomics places the ecological context, including a section on animal rights in Bhutan, within the nation's Buddhist spiritual and ethical setting. Historic contextualization accents the book's rich accounting of every national park and scientific reserve, as well as providing up-to-the-minute climate-change related hurdles for the country. Merging the interdisciplinary sciences, engineering and humanities data in a compelling up-to-date portrait of the country, the authors have presented this dramatic compendium against the backdrop of an urgent, global ecological time-frame. It thus becomes clear that the articulated stakes for Bhutan, like her neighboring Himalayan and Indian sub-continental countries (China, India, Bangladesh and Myanmar) are immense, as the Anthropocene epoch unfolds, affecting every living being across the planet. Because Bhutan's two most rewarding revenue streams derive from the sale of hydro-electric power and from tourism, the complexities of modern pressures facing a nation that prides herself on maintaining traditional customs in what has been a uniquely isolated nation are acute.

In the second edition Steve Kesler (University of Michigan) has been added as an author to rewrite some chapters. The motivation for this revised edition is to more intensively address economic issues that surround the exploitation of mineral resources. This emphasis gives the book a unique character. With these sections "Metals and Society" deals with issues that pervade much of current science reporting the rate of exploitation of natural resources, the question of when or if these resources will be exhausted, the pollution and social disturbance that accompanies mining, the compromises and challenges that arise from the explosion of demand from China, India and other rapidly developing countries, and the moral issues that surround mining of metals in lesser developed countries for consumption in the first-world countries.

With its dual character, the book will be useful as an introductory text for students in the earth sciences and a reference volume for students, teachers and researchers of geography, economics and the social sciences.

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The most comprehensive and richest study undertaken so far of the factors and conditions that will determine the scope and range of shipping and shipping activities in Arctic waters now and in the future. Furthermore, it is the first study comparing the three Arctic transportation corridors, covering a variety of interacting and interdependent factors such as: - geopolitics, military affairs, global warming, sea ice melting, international economic trends, resources, competing modes of transportation, environmental challenges, logistics, ocean law and regulations, corporate governance, jurisdictional matters and rights of indigenous peoples, arctic cruise tourism and marine insurance.

Legal regulation of the environment is often construed as a collection of legislated responses to the problems of modern living. Treated as such,'environmental law' refers not to a body of distinctive juristic ideas (such as one might find in contract law or tort) but to a body of black-letter rules out of which a distinct jurisprudence might grow. This book challenges the accepted view by arguing that environmental law must be seen not as a mere instrument of social policy, but as a historical product of surprising antiquity and considerable sophistication. Environmental law, it is argued, is underpinned by a series of tenets concerning the relationship of human beings to the natural world, through the acquisition and use of property. By tracing these ideas to their roots in the political philosophy of the seventeenth century, and their reception into the early law of nuisance, this book seeks to overturn the perception that environmental law's philosophical significance is confined to questions about the extent to which a state should pursue collective well-being and public health through deliberate manipulation and restriction of private property rights. Through a close re-examination of both early and modern statutes and cases, this book concludes that, far from being intelligible in exclusively instrumental terms, environmental law must be understood as the product of sustained reflection upon fundamental moral questions concerning the relationship between property, rights and nature.

This book analyses the interpretation of environmental offences contained in the waste, contaminated land, and habitats' protection regimes. It concludes that the current purposive approach to interpretation has produced an unacceptable degree of uncertainty. Such uncertainty threatens compliance with rule of law values, inhibits predictability, and therefore produces a scenario which is unacceptable to the wider legal and business community. The author proposes that a primarily linguistic approach to interpretation of the relevant rules should be adopted. In so doing, the book analyses the appropriate judicial role in an area of high levels of scientific and administrative complexity. The book provides a framework for interpretation of these offences. The key elements that ought to be included in this framework-the language of the provision, the harm tackled as drafted, regulatory context, explanatory notes and preamble, and finally, purpose in a broader sense-are considered in this book. Through this framework, a solution to the certainty problem is provided.

This book focuses on the social and environmental issues being addressed by agricultural law within the current globalised system. What is agricultural law? Agricultural regulations concern and affect essential human needs and values that must be dealt with by pursuing a comprehensive and coordinated global approach. By tracking the developments in this context, this book explores the new challenges that agricultural law needs to address in order to frame emerging dilemmas. International governance of natural resources and their role in addressing food insecurity is the object of the first Part of the volume, which deals with sustainable agriculture and agro-ecosystem services in connection with the food security issue. The second Part focuses on the regulation of food as the main product of agricultural activity, and explores the answers that the law can provide in order to accommodate consumers' interests and concerns (inter alia, novel foods, animal welfare, direct sales and e-commerce). The third Part examines the social, environmental and legal consequences of a renewed interest in agricultural investments. Further, it analyses the evolution and the interplay between different legal systems with regard to land tenure, environmental concerns and investments in agriculture.

This book covers several dimensions of disaster studies as an emerging discipline. It is the inaugural book in the series 'Disaster Studies and Management' and deals with questions such as "Is disaster management a field of practice, a profession, or simply a new area of study?" Exploring intersectionalities, the book also examines areas of research that could help enhance the discourse on disaster management from policy and practice perspectives, revisiting conventional event-centric approaches, which are the basis for most writings on the subject. Several case studies and comparative analyses reflect a critical reading of research and practice concerning disasters and their management. The book offers valuable insights into various subjects including the challenge of establishing inter- and multi-disciplinary teams within the academia involved in disaster studies, and sociological and anthropological readings of post-disaster memoryscapes. Each of the contributors has an enduring interest in disaster studies, thus enriching the book immensely. This book will be of interest to all the students and scholars of disaster studies and disaster management, as well as to practitioners and policymakers.

The object of this book is to highlight how the nascent field of sustainability science is addressing a key challenges for scientists; that is, understanding the workings of complex systems especially when humans are involved. A consistent thread in the sustainability science movement is the wide acknowledgement that greater degrees of integration across what are now segmented dimensions of extant Science and Technology systems will be a key factor in matching the most appropriate science and technology solutions to specific sustainability problems in specific places.

In this edited work, European experts in the energy field provide perspectives on the principal issues raised by the liberalization of the electricity and natural-gas markets in the EU. The various analyses are collected under four headings. Part One - Competition - discusses how, even when the market is fully open, substantial impediments to competition remain, such as long-term contracts, refusal of access to essential infrastructures or lack of capacity in interconnectors. Contributors discuss these deadlocks and suggest possible breakthroughs. In Part Two - Transmission and Trading - experts deal with network access and pricing and energy trading. Third-party access to the network is a critical factor in ensuring a real liberalization of the market, but it raises complex technical, economic and legal issues. Liberalization has also stimulated new forms of energy trading, including physical contracts and purely financial tools. The legal and economic framework of these new forms of transactions is discussed. In Part Three - Environment and Consumer Protection - experts investigate the extent to which the liberalization process favours industrial interests and explore in what ways environmental and consumer concerns are (or could be) an integral part of liberalized energy policy. Finally, in National Experiences, contributors discuss different approaches taken by four Member States (Belgium, France, Germany and The Netherlands) in opening their energy markets.

This highly accessible book gives readers a thorough and nuanced overview of European environmental law, covering on the basic framework and principles as well as substantive law. It provides much-needed insight into a crucial area of legal practice throughout the EU; at a time when environmental law in Member States is becoming ever less 'national' and EU regulation is growing in scope and importance. The book provides state-of-the-art insights into key pieces of legislation and topical developments in various areas of environmental regulation. The first part offers a succinct overview of the framework of European environmental law and the fundamental principles that govern it. This part covers the creation, implementation and enforcement of environmental regulations and includes dedicated chapters on in particular environmental impact assessment and environmental liability. The chapters in the second part offer in-depth analysis of the substantive law in key areas, including biodiversity, air quality, waste and chemicals regulation, and climate change. European environmental regulation is becoming more complex and interrelated, making it a crucial field of study for European law graduates and an area of increasing exposure to the legal profession and in industry. This much-needed book combines detailed legal analysis with a concise and accessible style, making it an ideal companion for students, academics and professionals alike.

The report was launched during China's Twelfth Five-year Period (2011-2015). After revising the measurement system of the Green Development Index 2011, the report measures the green development level of 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions as well as 38 large and medium-sized cities in China. A Public Satisfaction Survey of the Urban Residents is first introduced into the report. Both the province and the city Green Development Index systems consist of three parts, the green degree of economic growth, the carrying potential of natural resources and environment, and the support degree of government policies. The three parts reflect the production and resource usage efficiency, the situation of environment and resources protection and pollutants emission, and government's related investment and management respectively. The China Green Development Index Report 2012 has the comprehensive evaluation of the green economy development in China and its importance to China's rational development and switch in economic development model.

Along with aviation and telecommunications, the gas supply chain has proved to be one of the paradigmatic factors in the great transformation in regulated industry law that has characterized recent decades. The liberalization in the gas market has taken two primary legal forms: (i) removal of entry barriers in competitive sectors; and (ii) regulation of infrastructure sectors through unbundling (economic separation of competitive and infrastructure sectors), and open access (requiring gas infrastructure owners/operators to allow competitors to access their facilities on commercial terms comparable to those that would apply in a competitive market). This book will focus on the latter legal form. This is the first book to analyze, in a comparative way, the detailed development of the unbundling and open access regimes across three continents. It is the author's contention that these two legal forms should be more widely implemented than they are at present. In each of five substantial chapters - on the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan - the author first focuses on the proposed or current laws and industrial practices on service, account, functional, legal and ownership unbundling and independent system operator, and then on those of different open access regimes (mainly including regulated and negotiated third party access), insofar as they have been developed in each location. Using empirical evidence from Europe, the United States, and Japan that a well-formulated and comprehensive liberalization can bring about more advantages than disadvantages, he shows how well-designed unbundling and open access regimes may accomplish the following: * inject much-needed competition into gas exploration, exploitation, import, production, and retailing; * reform and re-regulate non-competitive sectors such as transportation, distribution, and storage; * balance potential conflicts between energy security and competition; and * support interests such as environmental protection, energy rights, safety, and consumer protection. The author attends throughout to the contrasting market situations in countries that rely on importing natural gas by liquefied natural gas tankers (LNG countries), and countries with their natural gas mainly coming from production fields via direct pipelines (PNG countries). Identifying the key legal issues arising from the development of the various unbundling and open access regimes discussed, the book goes on to provide a detailed general legislative framework for gas liberalization that applies especially to LNG countries. The author finds, perhaps surprisingly, that both LNG countries and PNG countries can in fact learn from each other. This book will be a key reference for anyone interested in the legal issues of gas liberalization, and will also provide the international energy community with keen insight into the unbundling and open access regimes in the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Policymakers around the world will discover an excellent framework for launching or improving a gas liberalization scheme.

Divided into three sections, this book explores the three main pillars of sustainable development, namely economy, environment and society, and their interlinkages at the regional level. The first section, Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) for sustainable development, focuses on international agreements and national legislation, as well as the challenges in implementing ABS in e.g. India. In turn, the second section examines the process of forming Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) at the Local Self Government (LSG) level to promote environmental sustainability, highlighting local and community-level conservation initiatives that have led to the conservation of habitats and species. The third section addresses poverty eradication and food security. The case studies included demonstrate how the combination of traditional knowledge and modern techniques can enhance the productivity of traditional crop varieties, yielding greater benefits for communities. The aim of this volume is to disseminate the lessons learned from these case studies, as well as the findings from projects already in place, which can offer recommendations that can be applied to similar problems elsewhere in an attempt to find environmental solutions for sustainable development. Further, it introduces readers to new approaches to inclusive development, demonstrating that participation and grass root empowerment are key drivers of equitable and sustainable development.

This book addresses the need for deeper understanding of regulatory and policy regimes around the world in relation to the use of water for the production of 'unconventional' hydrocarbons, including shale gas, coal bed methane and tight oil, through hydraulic fracturing. Legal, policy, political and regulatory issues surrounding the use of water for hydraulic fracturing are present at every stage of operations. Operators and regulators must understand the legal, political and hydrological contexts of their surroundings, procure water for use in the fracturing and extraction processes, gain community cooperation or confront social resistance around water, collect flow back and produced water, and dispose of these wastewaters safely. By analysing and comparing different approaches to these issues from around the globe, this volume gleans insights into how policy, best practices and regulation may be developed to advance the interests of all stakeholders. While it is not always possible to easily transfer 'good practice' from one place to another, there is value in examining and understanding the components of different legal and regulatory regimes, as these may assist in the development of better regulatory law and policy for the rapidly growing unconventional energy sector. The book takes an interdisciplinary approach and includes chapters looking at water-energy nexus security in general, along with issue-focused and geographically-focused case studies written by scholars from around the world. Chapter topics, organized in conjunction with the stage of the shale gas production process upon which they touch, include the implications of hydraulic fracturing for agriculture, municipalities, and other stakeholders competing for water supplies; public opinion regarding use of water for hydraulic fracturing; potential conflicts between hydraulic fracturing and water as a human right; prevention of induced seismic activity, and the disposal or recycling of produced water. Several chapters also discuss implications of unconventional energy production for indigenous communities, particularly as regards sustainable water management. This volume will be of interest to scholars and students of energy and water, regulators and policymakers and operators interested in ensuring that they align with emergent best global practice.

This book develops a new theory of the modern economy. Conventional economic theory is (still) based on an essentially static notion of equilibrium. In contrast, this book offers an analysis of the economic process based on a truly dynamic approach. It understands modern economic activity as manifesting itself in a growth spiral. There are two main drivers of the dynamics of this spiral: steady money creation in the banking system, on the one hand; and the continuous inflow of energy and raw materials through the exploitation of natural resources, on the other. Both driving forces are generally neglected by the conventional theory. Understanding their role is absolutely essential for preventing our economy from being more and more exposed to financial and ecological crises. This book offers important insights about the functioning of the modern economy and addresses the specialist as well as the interested lay reader.

This work presents an analysis and commentary on the 1992 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, which was opened for signature following the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development. This Convention was an international treaty which addressed all aspects of biodiversity, ranging from the conservation of biological diversity and sustainable use of biological resources, to access to biotechnology and the safety of activities related to modified living organisms. The work extends beyond the ambit of the Convention itself to examine the conservation of biodiversity in international law, including measures for the protection of the terrestrial, marine and Antarctic environment and particular features relating to sustainable use of biological resources, ex-situ conservation and plant genetic resources. It further analyzes the controversial issue of intellectual property rights, the problems of implementation in the EU, differences between developing and developed states, and the role of indigenous people. This work was written by members of the Committee on Environmental Law of the British branch of the International Law Association, following an earlier study of International Law and Global Climate Change (Graham & Trotman, 1991).

Authorities in the fields of environmental and international law and policy, political science, environmental technology, and public administration compare and contrast the ways in which the United States and the European Union handle similar environmental issues. The contributors critically analyze the influence of culture and history on the way apparently "similar" developed democracies handle the same problems; they examine the center-state relationship as it applies to EU member countries in contrast to states within the United States; they look at the challenge of transboundary, international, and global environmental problems, and how these relate to the still-emerging geopolitical reconfigurations involved in such structures as NAFTA and the EU; and they examine how transnational resources are handled in the North American and EU contexts. Randall Baker has assembled leading experts who examine significant issues for policymakers and environmentalists in North America and Western Europe.