Socioeconomic and Environmental Impacts on Agriculture in the New Europe

Socioeconomic and Environmental Impacts on Agriculture in the New Europe PDF Author: Serban Scrieciu
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1136808795
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
This book looks at agriculture and the environment, placed within the dynamic context of post-communist societal change and entry into the European Union (EU). Scrieciu explores developments in eleven Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries and argues for agriculture’s natural place in these societies. The history of these countries is significant in how it has shaped the institutions and influenced the outcomes. In many cases, during communism, agriculture was not considered a strategically. An ecological consciousness did not figure high on the agendas of authoritarian regimes. After 1990, some post-communist farm economies progressed slower than others, and environmental pressures mostly diminished with agricultural restructuring. In parts of CEE, increases in numbers of low-input small farms have resulted in some, though largely unintended, ecological benefits. A dual environmental challenge has nevertheless surfaced. On one hand, environmentally unsustainable practices have been attributed to some low-input farming. On the other hand, risks of farm over-intensification and resource overexploitation are on the rise. Also, environmental regulatory and institutional frameworks are not always effectively in place. EU membership is not creating the anticipated benefits for farm growth. There are a number of systemic structural barriers preventing many farmers from drawing on Common Agricultural Policy incentives and support. The presence of many vulnerable poor farms is clearly problematic, particularly economically. However, small-scale farms could be made more acceptable and profitable by ensuring EU policies acknowledge their value and by building institutions to support alternative farm growth strategies, aside from the traditional European model of individual corporate farm expansion. The voluntary uptake of grassroots rural cooperation and farm associations may represent such an alternative. Future European farm policy reforms need to reach the small and vulnerable, and better tackle issues of farm equity, poverty, and agricultural sustainability in the new Europe. This is a timely contribution as this type of "transition" has just begun. This book should be of use to students and researchers looking at agricultural and environmental economics, post-communist rural societal change, European integration and the Common Agricultural Policy.

Socioeconomic and Environmental Impacts on Agriculture in the New Europe

Socioeconomic and Environmental Impacts on Agriculture in the New Europe PDF Author: Serban Scrieciu
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1136808795
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book looks at agriculture and the environment, placed within the dynamic context of post-communist societal change and entry into the European Union (EU). Scrieciu explores developments in eleven Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries and argues for agriculture’s natural place in these societies. The history of these countries is significant in how it has shaped the institutions and influenced the outcomes. In many cases, during communism, agriculture was not considered a strategically. An ecological consciousness did not figure high on the agendas of authoritarian regimes. After 1990, some post-communist farm economies progressed slower than others, and environmental pressures mostly diminished with agricultural restructuring. In parts of CEE, increases in numbers of low-input small farms have resulted in some, though largely unintended, ecological benefits. A dual environmental challenge has nevertheless surfaced. On one hand, environmentally unsustainable practices have been attributed to some low-input farming. On the other hand, risks of farm over-intensification and resource overexploitation are on the rise. Also, environmental regulatory and institutional frameworks are not always effectively in place. EU membership is not creating the anticipated benefits for farm growth. There are a number of systemic structural barriers preventing many farmers from drawing on Common Agricultural Policy incentives and support. The presence of many vulnerable poor farms is clearly problematic, particularly economically. However, small-scale farms could be made more acceptable and profitable by ensuring EU policies acknowledge their value and by building institutions to support alternative farm growth strategies, aside from the traditional European model of individual corporate farm expansion. The voluntary uptake of grassroots rural cooperation and farm associations may represent such an alternative. Future European farm policy reforms need to reach the small and vulnerable, and better tackle issues of farm equity, poverty, and agricultural sustainability in the new Europe. This is a timely contribution as this type of "transition" has just begun. This book should be of use to students and researchers looking at agricultural and environmental economics, post-communist rural societal change, European integration and the Common Agricultural Policy.

North Sea Region Climate Change Assessment

North Sea Region Climate Change Assessment PDF Author: Markus Quante
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319397451
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 555

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Book Description
This book offers an up-to-date review of our current understanding of climate change in the North Sea and adjacent areas, as well as its impact on ecosystems and socio-economic sectors. It provides a detailed assessment of climate change based on published scientific work compiled by independent international experts from climate-related disciplines such as oceanography, atmospheric sciences, marine and terrestrial ecology, using a regional evaluation and review process similar to that of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It provides a comprehensive overview of all aspects of our changing climate, discussing a wide range of topics including past, current and future climate change, and climate-related changes in marine, terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. It also explores the impact of climate change on socio-economic sectors such as fisheries, agriculture, coastal zone management, coastal protection, urban climate, recreation/tourism, offshore activities/energy, and air pollution.

Green Jobs for Sustainable Development

Green Jobs for Sustainable Development PDF Author: Ana-Maria Boromisa
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317751841
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
A ‘green economy’ must be built on ‘green jobs’ - the kind of employment that is low carbon, intended to reduce energy use and expected to restore environmental quality. But attempts to define exactly what a ‘green job’ is have led to varied and often contradictory answers. There are many unresolved questions including whether we consider jobs in the nuclear fuel industry to be green jobs? Or is a worker at a glass making company which supplies the glass for the solar photovoltaic industry doing a green job given that glass making is a ‘dirty’ industry? This book deals with the relationship between "green" concepts (green jobs, green economy, green growth) and sustainable development. It examines to which extent creation of green jobs supports overall economic development as opposed to creation of elitist jobs and greenwashing. In order to do so, general conceptual frameworks for green jobs, green economy, green growth and green policy are presented as well as their implementation in ten countries selected among the Group of Twenty. The selection includes advanced (the European Union, the United States of America, Australia, Canada, Republic of Korea, Japan) and developing countries (Mexico, China, Turkey and Brazil). The analysis presented in this book shows that although green concept is well-intentioned, its implementation depends on local circumstances – economic, political and social. Developed countries perceive green growth as a way to create new markets and demand, while developing countries rely more on labor intensive growth and less expensive green jobs. Thus, greening the economy does not diminish differences between rich and poor. This book is suitable for those who study and work in Ecological Economics, Sustainable Development and Labor Economics.

Environmental Challenges and Governance

Environmental Challenges and Governance PDF Author: Sacchidananda Mukherjee
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317508939
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
The economies located in East, South and Southeast Asia have witnessed an interesting growth-sustainability trade-off over the last decades. While growth considerations have paved ways for deepened ties with growing trade-investment waves and increasing population pressure necessitated exploitation of hitherto unutilized natural resources, focus on environmental sustainability has been a recent consideration. The growth impetus still playing a key role in these economies, it becomes imperative that the countries effectively address the key sustainability concerns, e.g. air and water pollution, land degradation, loss of biodiversity, climate change issues like CO2 emissions etc. But how prepared is the governance mechanism of these countries, covering not only the legislative and administrative framework but also involvement of the judiciary, presence of spirited civil society and active engagement of stakeholders in policy-framing dialogues, to rise up to these challenges? The book seeks an answer to this question through the environmental governance mechanism and natural resource conservation policies in three vibrant regions within Asia. A holistic development dimension of sustainable development path emerges, through discussion of policies adopted by developed (Japan, South Korea), upper-middle (China, Malaysia), developing (India, Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand) and least developed countries (Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal).

Environmental Finance and Development

Environmental Finance and Development PDF Author: Sanja Tišma
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415586097
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
This book presents an overview of five European national environmental strategies and action plans, with a strong focus on environmental financing. There is particular focus on the water, waste and air sectors, but these are analyzed in relation to other environmental protection measures at the national and regional level including agriculture, forestry, regional development, energy and transport. This analysis of environmental financing encompasses policy in three EU member states - Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia and two states at ...

The Great Transition

The Great Transition PDF Author: Mauro Bonaiuti
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317820282
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 139

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Book Description
Recent events including the financial crisis and the gradual lessening of the planet’s natural resources have raised the fundamental question as to whether the capitalist market system can survive its own contradictions or whether we are witnessing the outset of a profound change in civilization. By deploying the tools of the science of complexity alongside those of historical research, Mauro Bonaiuti tackles this basic question, posed against a backcloth of declining marginal returns where growth in the complexity of industrial, military and bureaucratic-institutional apparatuses is thought to have led to progressive increases in economic, social and environmental costs. In this framework, the economic crisis we are traversing, grave as it is, could be interpreted not as a simple cyclical crisis, from which it is possible to escape by the traditional policies of supporting growth, but as the outcome of a ‘passage of civilization’ inscribed in the long-term evolutionary dynamics of capitalism. After the crisis that started in 2008, with millions of people unemployed, with the failure of the economy to pick up and with the ever-growing sense of precariousness and insecurity, we are beginning to suspect that we are facing something more than a cyclical crisis.

The Sustainable Economics of Elinor Ostrom

The Sustainable Economics of Elinor Ostrom PDF Author: Derek Wall
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136173129
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Elinor Ostrom’s Nobel Prize-winning work on common pool property rights has implications for some of the most pressing sustainability issues of the twenty-first century — from tackling climate change to maintaining cyberspace. In this book, Derek Wall critically examines Ostrom’s work, while also exploring the following questions: is it possible to combine insights rooted in methodological individualism with a theory that stresses collectivist solutions? Is Ostrom’s emphasis on largely local solutions to climate change relevant to a crisis propelled by global factors? This volume situates her ideas in terms of the constitutional analysis of her partner Vincent Ostrom and wider institutional economics. It outlines her key concerns, including a radical research methodology, commitment to indigenous people and the concept of social-ecological systems. Ostrom is recognised for producing a body of work which demonstrates how people can construct rules that allow them to exploit the environment in an ecologically sustainable way, without the need for governmental regulation, and this book argues that in a world where ecological realities increasingly threaten material prosperity, such scholarship provides a way of thinking about how humanity can create truly sustainable development. Given the inter-disciplinary nature of Ostrom’s work, this book will be relevant to those working in the areas of environmental economics, political economy, political science and ecology.

Biodiversity in the Green Economy

Biodiversity in the Green Economy PDF Author: Alexandros Gasparatos
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317934695
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 429

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Book Description
In the past decade, the growing realization that biodiversity and human wellbeing are inextricably linked has led to the adoption of numerous environmental policies. The concept of the Green Economy has gained particular attention as an economic system where growth is possible within environmental limits. The preservation of ecosystem services and the halt of biodiversity loss are identified as key pillars of the Green Economy. Despite the concept’s momentum there is still no clear understanding of how biodiversity fits within a Green Economy. In the current debate, biodiversity is rarely acknowledged in economic sectors other than agriculture, forestry, fisheries and tourism, and when it is acknowledged biodiversity and its conservation feature more as buzzwords than as concrete and tangible components of the Green Economy. This book aims to identify, understand and offer pragmatic recommendations of how biodiversity conservation can become an agent of green economic development. This book establishes ways to assess biodiversity’s contributions to the economy and to meaningfully integrate biodiversity concerns in green-economy policies.

The Green Fiscal Mechanism and Reform for Low Carbon Development

The Green Fiscal Mechanism and Reform for Low Carbon Development PDF Author: Akihisa Mori
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134699883
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
This book reviews how far East Asian nations have implemented green fiscal reform, and show how they can advance carbon-energy tax reform to realize low-carbon development, with special reference to European policy and experience. East Asian nations are learning European experiences to adopt them in their political, economic and institutional contexts. However, implementation has been slow in practice, partly due to low acceptability that comes from the same concerns as in Europe, and partly due to weak institutional arrangements for the reform. The slow progress in the revenue side turns our eyes on expenditure side: how East Asian nations have increased environmental-related expenditures, and how far they have greened sectorial expenditures. This "lifecycle" assessment of the fiscal reform, coupled with the assessment of the institutional arrangement constitutes the features of this book. The book helps to provide overall picture of green fiscal reform and carbon-energy tax reform in the East Asian region. The region has a variety of countries, from lowest income to high-income nations. Nations have different interests in substance and barriers for reform. This book covers recent development of environmental fiscal reform and carbon-energy taxation in wider nations in the region, including South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Japan. In addition, the book's holistic view helps to understand why a specific nation has interest and concern on some aspects of the reforms.

The Economics of Climate Change and the Change of Climate in Economics

The Economics of Climate Change and the Change of Climate in Economics PDF Author: Kevin Maréchal
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136305076
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Climate change is without question the single most important issue the world faces over the next hundred years. The most recent scientific data have led to the conclusion that the globally averaged net effect of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming and that continued greenhouse gas emissions at or above current rates would cause this process to continue to the severe detriment of our environment. This unequivocal link between climate change and human activity requires an urgent, world-wide shift towards a low carbon economy and coordinated policies and measures to manage this transition. The starting point and core idea of this book is the long-held observation that the threat of climate change calls for a change of climate in economics. Inherent characteristics of the climate problem including complexity, irreversibility and deep uncertainty challenge core economic assumptions and mainstream economic theory appears inappropriately equipped to deal with this crucial issue. Kevin Maréchal shows how themes and approaches from evolutionary and ecological economics can be united to provide a theoretical framework that is better suited to tackle the problem.