Around the Bloc: ‘Smoking Chimney’ Law Divides Czech Government
Christian Democrats say amendment violates constitutional privacy guarantee; environmentalists say it lets heavy polluters off the hook.
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Christian Democrats say amendment violates constitutional privacy guarantee; environmentalists say it lets heavy polluters off the hook.
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After 18 years some rural Albanian families will finally be able to sit around their dining room tables in the light.
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$120 million allegedly stolen by gas company officials and a member of parliament.
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Neighboring nations have voiced environmental concerns about the project, which comes 30 years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
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In a rare show of unity, the Kremlin and environmental groups concur on the risks posed to unique Lake Baikal by the proposed dam.
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The article analyses legal regulations concerning the application of noise barriers with reference to road investments. It discusses general provisions aimed at protecting the environment against noise, special regulations pertaining to roads, and the legal status of a noise barrier. The role of noise barriers was approached in the context of the environmental impact assessment of a project. It was also necessary to take heed of the impact of noise barriers on third parties’ interests and the landscape.
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The commented rules determine the basic scope of Geological and Mining Act of 9 June 2011. It covers the performance of geological work, extracting minerals from deposits, underground non-reservoir storage of substances, and also — as part of a demonstration project — the underground storage of waste and carbon dioxide. The provisions of this Act shall apply correspondingly to some other use of the interior of the Earth’s crust.
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Forest is a concept difficult to define in legal language. In European Union Member States the concept refers to both, an area from 0.05 ha up to 2 ha as well as an area of tree crowns from 10% to 30%. Forest definition in Poland is significantly different from the forest definition included in the European Union legislation. The Forest Act introduces four criteria of considering a given land a forest: environmental criterion, spatial criterion, criterion of the use for forest production and criterion of a relation with forest management. For the purpose of proper interpretation of forest definition, the interpretation of the following criteria is of importance: the use of the land for the purposes of forest management and its use for forest production. It is necessary to amend the forest act in the scope of specifying the forest definition. The legislator should also solve the problem concerning the issue of types of forest crops, a type of forest stand that can be considered as forest. A new forest definition should include the issue of planting fast-growing trees, pines understood as a separate type of production forests and the issue of considering the land as forest area, when this land cannot be of use for forest management.
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The object of the current article is competitive environment on the energy market in Bulgaria which is in a process of change from regulated to liberalized market of free competition. The article implies the significance of marketing strategy for the growing number of trading companies, functioning on this market. The authors have set the following objectives: 1) to state the unclear issues that trading companies currently face and the future market trends they will most probably witness; 2) to present the major market participants on the retail market of electric energy and the services they provide; as well as identify those characteristics that distinguish market leaders from the other traders; 3) to pinpoint those marketing approaches that will grant competitive advantages for the market leaders in the future.
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The European Union is characterized by different management and planning systems in terms of landscape and spatial planning. Development of the EU territorial cohesion policy is taking the lead instrument in the implementation of EU policy guidelines. Regional policies in the EU are increasingly focusing on harmonious territorial development. Europe is a witness of widespread implementation of the European Landscape Convention (Council of Europe, 2000) which is embedded in the landscape planning, protection and management by strengthening the institutional framework and creating an inclusive, people-centered approach. Developing an integrated landscape plans and assessment in spatial planning has become a potential asset in law on regional development towards sustainability. Identification of successful approaches in combining landscape management and socio - economic development are the basis for Liveable Landscape planning and policy recommendations and guidelines. One of the European Commission (Environment) aims is to protect, preserve and improve the environment for present and future generations. The new strategy for Green Infrastructure is a policy that should ensure a high level of protection of the environment and preserve the quality of life of EU citizens. It is extremely important to identify the mechanisms (tools and policies) that can be used to enhance the integration of landscape and spatial planning.
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The article attempts to answer the question: Does sustainable forest management contribute to the expansion and protection of forest resources at the Sudeten border mountain area? In order to do this, a set of indicators was analysed. The results were confronted with similar, obtained for Landkreis Bad Toelz − Wolfratshausen located in the Bavarian Alps. These considerations have been preceded by a grille characteristic of the Sudetenland border mountainous area , with particular emphasis on the history of Sudeten forests. The research period covers the years 2004-2012 due to the comparability of the data provided by the Central Statistical Office, Český úřad statistický and Regionaldatenbank Deutschland.
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Sustainable development is the main and key objective to be accomplished in the EU, hence it is important to measure the extent to which it is being implemented both at a national and EU level. For the purpose of determining this extent, the EU Sustainable Development Strategy includes a set of indicators covering the following three dimensions: economic, environmental and social. The present paper discusses only the environmental aspect. It is aimed at determining the extent to which environmental objectives were accomplished in Poland in the years 2004-2013 compared to the EU. The author adopts a number of methods, namely the analysis of statistical data and deduction, which enables to define the extent to which Poland has met environmental obligations mentioned in the 3×20 climate and energy package.
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A dynamic and wide-spread civilization progress of the contemporary world is on the one hand a source of welfare and development of human beings, but on the other hand it may result in different threats, including the ones linked to the environment pollution. The environment pollution may be of a specific character connected to the presence of chemical, biological or radioactive substance, having a negative impact on people, animals or nature. The aim of the article is to present the interdependence between chemical accidents and the ecological security. At the outset, an ecological security has been defined. A chemical disaster has been described as a consequence of chemical accidents in qualifying the ecological security. Secondly, chemical accidents which took place in the XXth and XXIst centuries and their consequences have been illustrated. Chemical accidents, pointed out in the article, resulted in downgrading and devastating the natural environment. The chemical disasters influenced a different approach in defining the ecological security. Not only the liquidation of chemical disasters’ results should be taken into consideration as it has been emphasized in the previous definitions, but also actions aiming at preventing the threats should be included when defining the ecological security. A literature analysis has been adopted as the main research method in this article.
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Economic aspects of climate change is a complex, interesting and still poorly recognized issue, in spite of the extensive pool of research and analyses intensified in recent years. In the paper the costs of climate change mitigation and adaptation were compared on the basis of available sources identified in scientific literature on the subject. The applied method of analysis was based on a comparison of the costs in terms of their basic characteristics, such as: the method of estimating the costs, the level of the cost estimates, discount rates and basic descriptive statistics. Results show significant differences between the costs of climate mitigation and adaptation in terms of the analyzed characteristics. In the discussion of outcomes the reasons for the high uncertainty of the costs estimates were analyzed. The conclusions elaborate on mutual relation of these costs, in the context of cost efficiency of measures to minimize the negative impacts of climate change.
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It is hard to imagine the functioning of today’s businesses and universities without printing devices. It is worth noting that printing costs millions of dollars and has a huge impact on the environment. The purpose of this article is to analyze printing in companies and at universities, including the costs of printing and ways to reduce them. It is also important to emphasize the impact of the printing process on the environment. This article presents trends such as MPS (Managed Print Services) printing services, or ecological actions, which attempt to reduce the negative impact of printing on the world.
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Nowadays, the growing public pressure for implementing social criteria in business is widely noticeable across the world, also in financial service industry. Many leading financial institutions create new standards of doing business respecting social responsibility. Moreover, some financial institutions are specialized exclusively in financing undertakings of significant social value. The aim of the article is to present financial institutions strictly oriented at social issues. A special attention is paid to indicate possibilities and limitations of their social activities focusing on ecological issues. In the elaboration methods of description, comparison and case study are used. Based on research results it is possible to state that alternative banking activities compared with regular banking are very limited. Alternative banking is a marginal part of banking system.
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The issue of environmental protection is one of the key challenges in the world today. Environmental performance is becoming an increasing concern for all types of business and the microfinance sector is no exception. Microfinance offers access to capital to persons of low income, who have been excluded from the formal banking sector. In recent years, alongside their financial and social objectives, microfinance institutions have started to pursue environmental goals as well. A growing number of microfinance institutions are developing environmental management programs, and microfinance stakeholders are increasingly willing to monitor environmental improvement. The objective of this paper is to present the relationship between microfinance and the concept of sustainable development. It also aims to find out why microfinance institutions tend to go green as well as to describe both the strategies of microfinance institutions in „green” microfinance and the tools for measuring environmental performance.
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The aim of the paper is to analyse and evaluate the evolution of the approach of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) to its involvement in carbon finance in the light of its carbon funds and financial mechanisms. The author investigated goals and scope of activity of the tools created by the IBRD in the years 1999-2015. The methods used include descriptive and comparative analysis. As a result, the author has grouped and characterized the IBRD’s tools and made a list of observed changes in the IBRD’s approach to its involvement in carbon finance, which includes in particular: a change in the area of interest, a change in the role of providers of capital and a shift from project approach to programme approach.
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The main aim of the article was to emphasize the importance of climate change as a major challenge for risk management in Polish agriculture. We underlined a mechanism of the impact of these processes on agriculture. We evaluated “prospective” risk management instruments adapted to the pace of climate change, including the concept of sustainable development. The paper is a review study, with some elements of meta-analysis. Factors hindering the process of introduction and implementation of “prospective” risk management instruments included: (1) very limited economic and financial data, collected by farm households, (2) a fairy loose link between farms and infrastructure infrastructure offered by the financial sector. There is a need to take into account the construction of modern insurance product conditions related to economic and financial situation of households, including their income sensitivity to disaster events. Climate change may provide incentives to improve the current institutional arrangements for risk management, as well as deepening offer tools, including insurance products partially subsidized from public funds.
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Russia’s vast natural gas deposits, widely viewed as a vital strategic asset, make it possible for Russia to exert an influence on the neighbouring countries. One of key elements of Kremlin’s gas strategy in this regard is having direct access to European and Asian markets. In the context of the EU–Russia crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine, Moscow is looking for new market opportunities for its gas. The South Stream plan has been replaced by the Turkish Stream project, and Russia is also developing gas projects with China. The short-term question for the EU should not be how to break energy bonds with Russia, but how to contain the damage caused by the current Russian strategy.
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