Internationally tradeable emission certificates: efficiency and equity in linking environmental protection with economic development

Three topics dominate the formulation an international greenhouse-gas regime as part of an effective global environmental policy. Efficiency, equity, and uncertainty. And three major policy instruments are discussed as regards the implementation of the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change: A carbon tax/C02-charge, joint implementation, and tradeable emission certificates. This paper tries to answer a question that has not been rigidly asked before: How could tradeable emission certificates be tailored in such a way as to be of benefit to the developing countries, to facilitate global environmental protection and economic development at the same time, and to meet both the efficiency and the equity criterion in international relations. Next to market organization and rules of procedure, allocation of the entitlements is crucial. The author suggests a dynamic formulae, by which the initial allocation of certificates starts on the basis of current greenhouse-gas emissions but over time turns towards equity in the form of equal per capita emissions. In this way, making emission entitlements tradeable among countries implies not only that a globally effective limit to total emissions is attained with certainty, but also that the current unfair allocation of emission entitlements is consecutively shifted in favour of the poor countries. --

Globalisation and the environment: On triangle concepts and three pillars' strategies

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How to lead world society towards sustainable development?

In political terms it all started with the World Commission on Environment and Development which in its 1987 report Our Common Future stated that ...humanity has the ability to make development sustainable - to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (WCED, p. 8). The Commission defined sustainable development as ... a process of change in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investment, the orientation of technological development, and institutional change are made consistent with future as well as present needs (WCED, p. 9; italics added), Sustainable development thus deals with two fundamental issues, i.e. inter-generational equity and comprehensive structural adjustment. --

Bioregionalism: a pragmatic European perspective

In Europe, the recent debate on globalisation of the economy has - ironically - given a notable push for various concepts of regionalisation. Regions always played a strong role in people's perceptions of a good life, but regions were predominantly understood as political boundaries of states, provinces or counties. Bioregionalism, however, addresses the biological basis for a sustainable future. This concept gains in importance with the acknowledgement that ecological limits exist and that the ecological footprint of modern society is too large to be sustained in the future. Some preliminary steps have been made in Europe to define - or even impose - such limits, which in the end could lead to new and different patterns of regional development. -- Die jüngste Debatte um die Globalisierung der Wirtschaft hat in Europa - ironischerweise - eine Reaktivierung verschiedener Konzepte der Regionalisierung bewirkt. Regionen haben stets eine Rolle gespielt bei der Frage nach Identität und gutem Leben, doch wurden sie zumeist nur als politische Grenzen (von Ländern, Provinzen oder Kreisen) verstanden. Bioregionalismus meint dagegen die biologisch-physikalische Basis einer nachhaltigen, zukunftsfähigen Entwicklung. Dieses Konzept erhält Gewicht mit der Anerkennung bestimmter ökologischer Grenzen der Entwicklung und der Erkenntnis, daß der ökologische Fußabdruck (ecological footprint) der modernen Gesellschaft zu groß geworden ist, um verallgemeinerbar und zukunftsfähig zu sein. Einige vorläufige Schritte sind in Europa unternommen worden, Regionen neu, das heißt auch ökologisch zu definieren, was zu neuen und damit unterschiedlichen Mustern regionaler Entwicklung führen kann.

Global environmental governance: speeding up the debate on a world environment organization

With the beginning of the new millennium, the longstanding need for reform of the United Nations system has gained new momentum. Efficiency gains and better coordination are desirable, though not sufficient to bring about improvement in international relations. There is need, therefore, to look for institutional innovations that would upgrade the pressing tasks of environmental and development policy in the eyes of national governments, international organizations, and nongovernmental organizations, improve the institutional setting for the negotiation and implementation of new agreements and action programs, and strengthen the action capacity of the developing countries on these matters. The present essay points to and elaborates the need . for global environmental governance with the help of a »World Environment and Development Organization» within the United Nations system, and outlines the shape it might be given. --Global environmental problems,capacity building for development and environmental protection,UN reform,WEDO

Review of the list of LDCs

The Committee for Development Policy is required by Economic and Social Council resolution 1991/46 to conduct triennially a review to determine the countries to be added or graduated from the list of least developed countries (LDCs). Since the previous review was conducted in 2000, the Committee conducted another review in 2003. The Committee bases its identification of the LDCs on the consideration of three dimensions of a country's state of development - its income level, its stock of human assets and its economic vulnerability. The Committee thus uses (a) Gross National Income (GNI) per capita as an indicator of income; (b) the Human Assets Index (HAI) as an indicator of the stock of human assets; and (c) the Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI) as an indicator of economic vulnerability. In addition, because the underlying concept of the LDC category excludes large economies, in 1991 the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) endorsed the principle that no country with a population exceeding 75 million should be considered for addition to the list. --

Exploration of safety climate in Nigeria: a study of organizations in Onne oil and gas free zone

Background: In Nigeria, issues of occupational safety and health (OSH) practice are still in early infancy and hence, apparently poor OSH behaviours are common coupled with an underlying varying safety climate. Work-related accidents and death rate in Nigeria are reported to be among the highest in the world, with Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone (OGFZ)hosting most of the organizations with high-risk operations. This critical safety climate is affected by a range of internal and external factors. This study seeks to understand the nature of the safety climate, within the Nigerian context, through an exploration of the Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone, which is the largest conglomerate of multinational companies in Nigeria and a host to 170 oil and gas companies together with construction companies. The nature of work within this site is recognised as being high-risk and therefore the underlying safety climate has increased criticality. More so, there is no known safety climate study on the organisations, thus the study would help close the gap of limited or lack of data on workplace safety, and guide safety policy decisions which are needful and vital for building a good safety climate profile for organizations in the OGFZ, and other organisations in Nigeria. Aim: The study aimed to identify internal and external factors that influence the safety climate and in so doing explore the overarching climate of the OGFZ. Methods: Organizations were selected from the 170 companies operating within the OGFZ based on past and current health, safety and environment(HSE) performance data; and were divided into 2 distinct groups of peak and low performing companies. The companies were identified using the OGFZ annual safety assessment reports. A qualitative methodology was employed involving focus group discussion and in-depth interview techniques with employees drawn from twelve (12) companies comprising six (6) good and six (6) poor safety performers. The qualitative data for the study, mainly data from focus group and interviews, were analysed using thematic analysis procedures. The thematic analysis involves identification of key concepts or themes, grouping or categorization of similar concepts or comments, and coding of identified themes or concepts. Data were analysed using NVivo software, which enabled coding of texts and identification of themes in the data from participants’ responses. Results of the thematic analysis are presented in tables and appendices showing identified themes and participant responses from which the themes emanate. Results/Findings: The study found that compliance to safety rules and procedures, employee (personal) commitment and competence are among the factors that keep employees safety at work. Major causes of workplace safety risks and injuries were found to include employee-specific factors such as poor communication of safety information among workers and negligence; management-specific factor such as poor staff training, poor supervision, and provision of inadequate safety equipment and work materials; job-specific factors such as unsafe mechanical and physical conditions and equipment failure; natural factors such as unfavourable weather or climatic conditions. The findings indicate major internal factors that characterize workplace risks and injury within an organization; such as ineffective safety management in the study area, particularly, poor management commitment to safety standards, especially when involving organization’s finances or other resources; and identify negligence or conscious violation of safety standards by organizations’ management, employee attitude to safety directives and equipment failure. With highlight on cultural issues, poor motivation or incentives, job insecurity and employee attitude as one of the critical factors that directly influence organizational safety climate and safety performance; the study also identified various factors that influence employee attitude to include: management factor, employee decisions, welfare, experience, belief system, family concerns and health condition of employees. The findings also show that client pressure, economic situation, government policies, insecurity, community influence and family issues are among the most prominent external factors influencing safety climate in the organizations under study. The organizational characteristics affecting safety climate in the study area include management commitment, finance, supervision, disciplinary measures and incentives. However, factors identified as part of the measures taken by organizations to keep people safe at work included training, safety management systems and standard operational procedures and communication as well as motivation, supervision, monitoring, incentives for work performance and policy enforcement. Conclusion: This study has identified that safety issues in the OGFZ, and by extension, Nigerian organizations, are influenced by local “Nigerian Factors”, especially culture and belief system, as well as various internal and external factors that shape the behavioral pattern of their workers. The possible ways to improve the existing safety climate in the OGFZ are thus suggested to include broadly improved management commitment towards safety; employees proper management of stress factors and adherence to laid down safety policies, regulations and procedures; government improved oversight function of ensuring compliance with standard safety regulations by organizations; and non-interference of host communities with organization’s safety climate

Mitigation of foreign Direct investment risk and hedging

Instruments of risk mitigation play an important role in managing country risk within the foreign direct investment (FDI) decision. Our study assesses country risk by state-dependent preferences and introduces futures contracts as a tool of risk mitigation. We show that country risk assessments related to foreign direct investment do not matter if the multinational firm enters currency futures markets. Besides currency risk, multinationals cross-hedge country risk via the derivatives market. This may explain the empirical result, why host country risk is not a significant determinant of FDI (Bevan/Estrin 2004) together with the fact that almost all (92 %) of the world's top 500 companies enter derivatives markets for hedging purposes (ISDA 2008). --state-dependency,country risk,foreign direct investment,hedging

Needed now: a world environment and development organization

Global environmental policy certainly could gain strength if the management of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) or of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) were made more efficient. However, such a minimalist strategy of efficiency improvement is no panacea: it can only be an element, not the core of a new global environmental policy. Therefore, instead of merely calling for improved efficiency and coordination, in this paper a proposal is made to establish a World Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) as a new specialized agency of the United Nations. At the very least, such an Organization should integrate UNEP, the CSD and the relevant Convention Secretariats (climate, biodiversity, desertification conventions); close cooperation with the Bretton Woods institutions - the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization (WTO) - and the existing UN specialized agencies would need to be ensured. Also, ideas are being presented on the decision-making procedures, the participation of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and on the financing of such a World Environment and Development Organization. --

Liquidity constrained exporters: Trade and futures hedging

We present a model of risk averse exporting firm subject to liquidity constraints. The firm enters an unbiased futuresmarket to hedge exchange rate risk and may not be able to satisfy high margin calls. Then the firm is forced toprematurely liquidate the futures position. We show that preferences and expectations become important for optimumexport and hedging decisions, i.e. separation theorem and full hedge theorem are violated. Furthermore, internationaltrade is affected, for only firms that have sufficient financial resources fully exploid gains from trade. --liquidity constraint,trade,futures,hedging