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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 7, NUMBER 2, FEBRUARY 1994

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS...

• OF GENERAL INTEREST: POLICY

Item #d94feb1

"Global Environmental Politics: Lessons from Montreal," J. Kauffman (Kennedy Sch. Govt., Harvard Univ., Cambridge MA 02142), Environ. Impact Assessment Rev., 14(1), 3-9, Jan. 1994.

Experience shows that the Protocol may not serve as a model for future negotiations on global environmental problems, but several important lessons have emerged. The central question with these problems is how to make a transition to a sustainable global economic system. There is likely to be greater reliance on international organizations to deal with the consequences of industrial progress; the cooperation of developing countries is essential; and public pressure for dealing with such problems at the national level is likely to persist.

Item #d94feb2

"More Global Treaties," N. Choucri (Dept. Political Sci., Mass. Inst. Technol., Cambridge MA 02142), J. Sundgren, P.M. Haas, Nature, 367(6462), 405, Feb. 3, 1994.

Gives brief results of a study of the level of participation of different countries in multilateral environmental accords, from 1920 to 1990. China's growing involvement, in particular, is an encouraging sign.

Item #d94feb3

"Situational and Cognitive Obstacles to Political Consensus on Climatic Change," L.J. Nilsson (Dept. Environ. Stud., Lund Inst. Technol., Univ. Lund, Sweden), Clim. Change, 25(2), 93-96, Oct. 1993.

An editorial drawing on results of a project titled Cultural and Techno-Ecological Constraints and Opportunities for Natural Resource Management, funded by a Swedish agency. The relative lack of progress in international negotiations on climate change can be largely attributed to fundamental obstacles that apply to the use of scientific information in public policy and debate, including scientific uncertainty, the situational context of different actors, and our cognitive limitations.

Item #d94feb4

"The Global Environmental Facility Pilot Phase," A. Wood (WWF Intl., CH-1196 Gland, Switz.), Intl. Environ. Affairs, 5(3), 219-255, Summer 1993.

A detailed evaluation of the first, three-year phase of the GEF from the standpoint of the World Wide Fund for Nature--International, based on World Bank documents and interviews with GEF operational managers. Gives high marks to the management and staff of the GEF and the implementing agencies, but finds that the mandate of the Facility poses a fundamental problem. Established to fund innovative projects that benefit the global environment, the GEF has paradoxically neglected to address the policy failures that exist between the pursuit of economic growth and environmental protection.

Item #d94feb5

"Environmental Valuation: How Much Is the Emperor Wearing?" A. Stirling (Sci. Policy Res. Unit, Univ. Sussex, UK), The Ecologist, 23(3), 97-103, May-June 1993.

Some economists seek a monetary evaluation of environmental effects as an objective measure for making policy, yet estimates for electricity generation, for example, which differ by a factor of up to 50,000, suggest a fundamental flaw in this approach. Adoption of monetary valuation threatens to remove decision making from public debate and place it in the hands of a small group of technocrats.

Item #d94feb6

Special Issue: "Environmental Policy in the European Community: Analyzing the Interplay of National and EC Policies," H. Bezemer (Leiden Univ., Neth.), J.W.C. Peereboom, Eds., Science of the Total Environ., 129(1-2), Feb. 6, 1993 (Elsevier). The following appear with 10 other articles:

"Is an Environmentally Sustainable Future for the European Community Compatible with Continued Growth: Carbon Dioxide and the Management of Greed," M. Slesser (Resour. Use Inst., 12 Findhorn Pl., Edinburgh EH9, UK), 191-203. Explores a method for computing the longer term outcome of policies, considering the case of the EC as a single economy in the specific case of the CO2 problem.

"Legal Grounds of European Environmental Policy," J.H. Jans (Ctr. Environ. Law, Univ. Amsterdam, POB 1030, 1000 BA Amsterdam, Neth.), 7-17.

"The Implementation of EC Environmental Directives: The Gap Between Law and Practice," G. Bennet (Inst. European Environ. Policy, Jansbuitensingel 14, 6811 AB Arnhem, Neth.), 19-28.

"The Scope for Economic Instruments of Environmental Policy in the EC," J.B. Vos (DHV Environ. & Infrastructure, POB 1076, 3800 BB Amersfoort, Neth.), 29-38.