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The article presents an overview of opinions on climate change and the ways of adapting to it held by representatives of Polish local authorities (political leaders and local administration representatives) in a recently conducted survey. The author briefly describes the institutional context in which the new field of local policy has emerged and local adaptation strategies are established. The empirical analyses, based on survey data, demonstrate that local authorities in many municipalities remain relatively sceptical about the human impact on climate change: 32% feel convinced by the existing evidence. The analyses also demonstrate that there is a relationship between attitudes of local authorities towards climate change and the population size of the municipalities, as well as its previous exposure to extreme weather events. The results suggest that local adaptation policies have more chance of being developed in municipalities with specialized environmental administration.
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In the contemporary world, environmental protection and improvement priority a global society, together with efforts to achieve lasting world peace, economic growth, social justice and democracy. Economic development based on the irresponsible use of natural resources has been caused by a number of consequences. No dilemma that a strong economy and healthy environment and correspond to each condition.
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The article analyses the effect of environmental taxes on environmental protection. The research covers all European Union member states, the United States of America, Japan and People’s Republic of China, Norway and Turkey. Method for assessment of the regression tendencies of endogenous indicators has been chosen for the research. Research period: 1994 – 2015. Research results: environmental tax effect is stronger in countries having slower economic and tax growth, but more rapid development of renewable energy production technologies; the role of environmental taxes is more prominent where the level of natural energy resources is maintained at the expense of renewable energy use; ecological taxation encourages development and implementation of technologies hat mitigate pollution and creation of new jobs; environmental taxes are directly related to humans’ ecological quality of life.
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For many years, bad quality of air in Poland has had an adverse impact on the quality of the community life. Recently, certain steps have been taken both on the national as well as regional level to limit most toxic pollutants. The steps that were taken included the development of power mobility as well as barriers and bans on those heating installations that were most noxious for the environment. By the same token, appropriate legislation was enacted regulating the standards for solid fuels along with the incentives for changing the structure of heating agents. Nonetheless, careful analysis of the suggested solution indicates that their efficiency will remain negligible. In reality, coal based power generation is still preferred, and the interest in improving the quality of air still remains secondary.
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The issue of security, of its environment has been and contiues to be controversial. The concurential and conflictual climate, the presence in the field of international relations of numerous groups of economic, strategic, political interests determine the absence of consensus and of a common manner of approach of world security, as well as the imposition of a unanimously accepted pattern of security. This article analyses some of the key concepts of the contemporary security system: the anarchical environment, the bypolar and multipolar environment etc., concluding that the present security environment is a new, more secure, developing and imposing environment and has the adhesion of most international actors.
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As a result of the growing status of the People’s Republic of China in the international arena, the self-interest and principles of the foreign policy of this state are changing. In only a few regions of the world, this transformation is as visible as in the Middle East. In the 21st century, China’s engagement in this area was growing dynamically due to three processes: development of the Chinese economy, Beijing’s increasing great-power ambitions and rising instability after the outbreak of the Arab Spring. Strategic goals, which are results of those processes, includes a search for natural resources, promotion of own international initiatives among nations from the region and attempt to resolve local security issues. Nevertheless, growing engagement causes dilemmas, which China has not encounter beforehand. The most important of them is maintaining neutrality in case of conflict between different partners.
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The study analyzes the resolutions of communal councils regarding the introduction of zones free from tobacco smoke, electronic cigarettes vapor and substances released by means of an innovative tobacco product use, enacted between September 2016 and August 2018. The activity of commune councils in creating local anti-tobacco legislation has been very low, despite the resolution of the municipal council issued on the basis of art. 5 par. 4 of the Act on Health Protection Against the Consequences of Using Tobacco and Tobacco Products is an act of high importance to health. At the same time, it was pointed out that the analyzed resolutions of municipal councils do not fully fulfill the competences granted in art. 5 par. 4 acts or are imprecise in their content. It was also found that these acts repeatedly banned ex lege bans. Due to the importance of pro-health action, the activity of municipal councils in the studied area is strongly advocated.
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The solving the problem of sustainable resources and ecosystems must be firstly dedicated to monitoring, protecting and conserving the environment in relation to water and waste treatment. It is difficult to imagine a proper non-waste management action that is present everywhere (for example, waste in waters, which primarily affects the quality of water). Of course, waste can be used for different purposes (in production and processing, in energy and industrial processes, etc). Waste must be managed from the level of expectation, production, becoming, treatment and reuse or permanent disposal. This paper deals with the problems of waste management and gives a modest but recognizable contribution to how to have the care about waste, bearing in mind the application of the laws (in the case of R. Serbia). Given the problem of waste increasing, significant inputs and interfaces can be used in order to achieve improve results at the level of research and implementation in complementary areas related to industrial processes, materials, energy, water management and ecosystem management as a whole.
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Regional round-up: Siberian wildfires spread; Istanbul Convention in Armenia; Ukrainian pets and wild animals; U.S. jets for Bulgaria; and constructions in Uzbekistan.
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Even though there is no common energy policy, EU energy strategy sets the background of the energy landscape in Europe. EU energy policy responds to different challenges in the energy market. One of them is climate change. Growing emissions of greenhouse gases aroused world's interest aimed at reducing the harmful impact of the energy industry on the environment. The European Union has undertaken a low-emission strategy set out in the package called “3x20”. The aim of the study is on one hand to present program measures and regulations taken in the EU in the recent period for sustainable energy management and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and on the other try to assess program’s implementation by Member States. The article presents the current state in terms of achieving the objectives of the “3x20” package in 2017, with a special diagnosis of conditions and trends in the Central and Eastern Europe countries that joined the EU after 2004.Paper includes the analysis of the official EU documents within energy policy and empirical evidence on their implementation. The analysis uses the literature review and data from the Passport, Eurostat and OECD databases. Methods employed in this study include critical literature review and secondary data analysis
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In analyzing numerous fragments from archival materials and bibliography, the author of this contribution described the most known Istrian woods: forests of Montona, Siana and Leme, Cornaria, Vidorno and Lisignamoro. By area, some of them were large, other were small. In the past times, Istrian woods were exploited in different ways and from remote ages were remembered the most by high-quality wood, particularly in the period of Venetian government (from the 12th to the 18th century), which proclaimed publicly a very precise laws for their protection and conservancy and very severe punishments for the violators. During the Austrian (1797 – 1918) and the Italian (1918 – 1943) government Istrian woods were highly promoted, so a considerable number of ordinances and boundary stones are related to that period of Istrian history. In Venetian era the Motovun Forest, as the largest in Istria and also one of the most significant in whole state territory, was very important, while during the Austrian government Šijana Forest was famous. The latter was regulated as a park and walking zone for the upper classes coming there by coach and after by tram. All Istrian woods were not marked by boundary stones, but for those described in this contribution the marks on the ground are visible at present time and some of them are almost completely conserved. Although on quite different bases, the current legislation regulates taking care of Istrian woods in our days too, in order to conserve them the more possible for the coming generations.
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The Austrian Navy dates back to the 16th century and expanded in the first decades of the 19th century. Before the beginning of World War II it had its peak and ranged on the 6th place in the world. The end of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy also concerned the destiny of the navy as it was dissolved in 1918. Only some warships remained controlling parts of the river Danube, finishing their service in 2006. The most important harbours were Trieste (today Italy), Pula (today Croatia), Rijeka (today Croatia) and Venice (toady Italy). The paper deals with the procurement of timber for the supply of the Austrian navy in the first half of the 19th century. It investigates the effects of the increasing demand on the shaping of the cultural landscape of the Northern Adriatic region. In particular forest management taking into account socio-economic and socio-ecologic aspects and working plans for the re-cultivation of the Karst region are discussed. Although the importance of timber for shipbuilding has vanished today, the shape of the wooded landscape in the hinterland of Trieste, Rijeka and Senj, and Istria is a vivid witness of the historical interdependencies of sea and land.
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Inner life of Labin commune largely coincided with the life of other communes in the Istrian region in the Late Middle Age and New Age with arriving under Venetian control. Some documents, which form an integral part of archival records stored in the State Archive in Pazin, provide insight into economic conditions on the territory of Labin. Valuable documented material is an extremely important source of data about a multitude of taxes and difficult duties the oppressed population of Labin commune faced, which served the interests of higher government. Transporting wood intended for the Venetian Arsenal or carratada, which greatly burdened poor subjects, was certainly considered one of the biggest work obligations. Endangered peasants tried to liberate themselves from huge liabilities of transporting wood, trying to divert some of the burden on the back of nobleman, who managed to elevate within the commune, coming into the category of privileged. This caused constant disapproval of disadvantaged peasants. From the very beginning of its introduction, carratada has gradually changed its shape, turning from obligations which payers had to perform themselves to money payment for settlement the cost of transportation with a view to an even cargo distribution. The need for charging the increasing amount was expressed in the XVIII century, and even after the fall of the Venetian Republic obligations lost its primary meaning, her name is completely eradicated from the use only until the incidence of Istrian areas under Austrian rule.
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The article based on the archival material of the Franciscan cadaster kept in the National Archives in Pazin looks at the modalities of development, conservation and exploitation of the Motovun forest in the first three decades of the nineteen century. It is evident that the protection of the forest continued after the fall of the Venetian Republic. Nevertheless, control over the cutting and strict provisions of the Venetian authorities was alleviated, and part of the population used the peripheral parts of the forests as pastures for domestic animals. Though it was of exceptional significance due to the quantity and quality of timber that had in itself a period of neglect, it was recorded during Napoleonic rule over the former Venetian Istria. Because of the state of war and its focus on the land army, and not the Navy, the French administration did not take any care of the woods. The situation improved after the former Venetian estate in Istria was taken over by the Habsburg Monarchy, which cared great attention to the preservation of the woods and timber that was in it. From that moment on, the wood was reused exclusively for the navy’s needs.
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The destroyed forests were a general feature of the Dalmatian environment at the turn of the 18th century into 19th century. The main energy generator of the Dalmatian economy was still wood, and forests as the main source of wood raw material has been followed by strong deforestation for centuries. In this context, the issue of degraded forests and the problem of bad economic conditions in Dalmatia will become one of the central themes in the debate on the reform and reviving of Dalmatian economy. The idea of protecting and restoring the forests of Dalmatia as a necessary prerequisite for economic reform was created and promoted within the physiocracy movement in Dalmatia and is considered a very rare idea in the context of considering economic sector reforms and the concepts of an economy based on agriculture and trade. In the circumstances of the neglected and lagging economy in Dalmatia, it can be linked with the echo of positive examples of the agrarian sector in the Apennine Peninsula and the negative consequences that the process of deforestation and hydrogeological disasters have inflicted on agriculture. Together with Bajamonti, Banovec, Stratika, the reforestation of Dalmatia was also promoted by Trogir’s physiocrats Petar Nutrizio Grisogono and Ivan Luka Garagnin. This idea was promoted by Petar Nutrizio Grisogono as a fervent supporter of the systematic reforestation of Dalmatia and strict measures of forest protection. Ivan Luka Garagnin advocated free trade of land, private ownership and the market value of forest resources as the only reliable guarantors of launching positive trends in Dalmatian agriculture and economy. Still, the ethatist logic was inconsistent with any »physiocracy liberalism« and promoted forest restoration in the horizon of the colonial system and ancien régime. In the context of Trogir, the plan for reforestation and protection of forests perfectly fit into the French and Austrian plans for the building of military ports and shipyards in the newly-acquired territories. Although the proposed projects only partially yielded fruit, the abolition of the Grimani law and the adoption of Napoleon’s agricultural law, as well as the 1808 and 1811 Forest decrees, responded to some of the proposals submitted at the legal level.
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The EU is the most active advocate of setting global ambitions and goals for climate protection. As a consequence, it belongs to the group of world leaders in energy transformation, implementing ambitious goals of reducing GHG emissions and increasing the share of renewable energy sources in electricity generation. Energy transformation is identified not only in terms of environmental protection but also economic and industrial growth. Energy transformation is consequently one of the ways to maintain European leadership defined in environmental and economic terms (moving away from energy-intensive industries and taking leadership on efforts to counter global warming). This direction is both an element of social expectations expressed in the transition from fossil fuels towards renewable and low-emission energy sources and a response to the growing costs of energy production. Thus, energy transformation is supposed to combine social expectations (concerns for natural environment and climate protection), with the strategy of economic growth (GDP growth) and industrial development (reindustrialisation and employment growth) based on innovative technologies. Thus, energy transformation expresses the objectives of ensuring security of supply, maintaining competitiveness and global environmental balance.
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The Islamic region includes most of the arid and semi-arid areas existing on Earth. Forthis reason, water is a deficit resource there, with strategic importance. Often, in thepast and now, activities aimed at securing the right amount of water for economic andcommunal purposes led to local and interstate conflicts. The article explains the methodsof obtaining water used in this area in the past as well as today, especially in countriesexperiencing demographic explosion and high economic dynamics. Particular emphasiswas placed on the uneven distribution of desalination installations and the geopoliticalimportance of water resources as well as the possibility of using modern technologies inits acquisition, which in a privileged position puts countries with financial resources attheir disposal.
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The historical and legal, theoretical and methodological problems of building a system of environmental law sources have been considered. Based on the identification of politically and legally important factors that influenced the development of environmental legislation, the peculiarities of the legal regulation of relations on environmental protection have been justified, which resulted in a special approach to the systematization of environmental legislation. It has been proposed to identify several groups in the system of environmental legislation, combining environmental regulatory acts regarding the regulatory function performed by them for “environmental legislation proper”, “ecologized” regulatory legal acts, and international environmental legal acts. The features inherent in the system of legislation of the Republic of Belarus and their impact on environmental legislation, including the definition of the role and place of the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Environmental Protection” in the system of sources of environmental law and its main content elements, have been considered. The systematizing forms established by the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Regulatory Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus” have been considered. As a predominant form of systematization of environmental legislation proposed consolidation. The necessity of introducing amendments to the laws of the Republic of Belarus “On Regulatory Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus” and “On International Treaties of the Republic of Belarus” has been substantiated.
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An overview of the main regulations, by which public relations in the energetics sector are controlled, has been performed. The structure and main provisions of the regulations at the Russian (federal laws, decrees of the Government of the Russian Federation) and international (the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union) levels have been analyzed. Attention has been paid to the legislation establishing liability for the delinquency in this sphere (rules of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses and the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The analysis is based on the regulations on the behavior of the parties, both in the wholesale energy and retail market. The statistical data on lawmaking activity in the energy sector for the period of 2014–2018 have been given. It has been concluded that the number of regulations on the relations in this area is growing steadily, which, in turn, indicates a high interest of the state authorities in guiding the energetics sector.
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