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821. Water and Conflict - Lessons Learned and Options Available on Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Water Governance

Author:
Helle Munk Ravnborg
Publication Date:
08-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Over the last decade, water scarcity has increasingly been coupled with international security. Hitherto, the focus of concern has been transboundary water resources and international efforts have been devoted towards establishing institutions for cooperation on the management of such transboundary water resources. Such efforts appear to be successful in mitigating potential conflicts and therefore need to be sustained. At the same time, however, several observers point to the risk that local water conflicts will increase in numbers and intensity. This calls for improved understanding of the nature, extent and social, economic and political implications of such local water conflicts as well as better understanding of how to achieve effective water governance, i.e. a legislative, institutional and regulatory framework which promotes equitable access to and environmentally and economically sound management of water. These are some of the conclusions emerging from a Danida-funded study carried out by DIIS on Conflict Prevention and Mitigation in Water Resources Management, which are further expanded in this DIIS brief.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, International Relations, Security, and Environment

822. Assessing Vulnerabilities to the Effects of Global Change: An Eight-Step Approach

Author:
Colin Polsky, Dagmar Schröter, and Marybeth Long Martello
Publication Date:
06-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
There is a growing call among researchers interested in studying global change and associated effects on society and ecosystems to examine vulnerabilities as well as impacts. Such a move would require a renewed emphasis on the factors that constrain and enable coupled human - environment systems to adapt to stress. Although a picture is emerging of what general factors global change vulnerability assessments should address, it is less clear what methods are needed for this endeavor. This paper presents results from a workshop held in October 2002 to explore the issue of methods and models for vulnerability assessments. The results include an objective for global change vulnerability assessments, a set of five information criteria that vulnerability assessments should satisfy for achieving this objective, and a set of eight steps designed to satisfy those criteria. The proposed objective for global change vulnerability assessments is to inform the decision - making of specific stakeholders about options for adapting to the effects of global change. The five criteria for achieving the objective are that vulnerability assessments should: engage a flexible knowledge base, be place - based, consider multiple and interacting stresses, examine differential adaptive capacity between and within populations, and be prospective as well as historical. The eight steps for satisfying the criteria are: define the study area in tandem with stakeholders, get to know places over time, hypothesize who is vulnerable to what, develop a causal model of vulnerability, find indicators for the components of vulnerability, weight and combine the indicators, project future vulnerability, and communicate vulnerability creatively. We expect most readers to identify some of the steps as self - evident and part of their well - established disciplinary practices. However, most readers should also identify one or more steps as uncommon to their research traditions. Thus taken together the eight steps presented here constitute a novel methodological framework.
Topic:
Security, Environment, Human Welfare, and Treaties and Agreements

823. Africa's Discontent: Coping with Human and Natural Disasters

Author:
Robert I. Rotberg
Publication Date:
04-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
The inhabitants of tropical Africa in 2003 demand higher levels of performance from their governments than they could, or dared to do, in the 1970s and 1980s, a decade or two after independence from colonial rule. Nowadays they suffer despots reluctantly, as in Zimbabwe, deny them unconstitutional third terms, as in Malawi and Zambia (but not in Togo), gleefully vote for more promising rulers, as in Ghana and Kenya, or insist al- most everywhere on improved governing and government.
Topic:
Civil War, Environment, and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
Kenya, Africa, Zambia, and Ghana

824. Strengthening Linkages Between U.S. Trade Policy and Environmental Capacity Building

Author:
John Audley and Vanessa Ulmer
Publication Date:
07-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
ATTENTION TO TRADE-RELATED TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE and capacity building (TCB) has surged as people from all walks of life explore how the global trade regime can be structured to better promote equitable, sustainable human development. TCB strengthens developing countries' human, physical, and institutional capacities to participate in trade negotiations, implement trade commitments, and benefit from integration into the global trading system. Given the Bush administration's goal to “ignite a new era of global economic growth through free markets and free trade,” capacity building has become an important component of U.S. bilateral, regional, and multilateral trade negotiations.
Topic:
Environment and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States

825. Trade Preferences and Environmental Goods

Author:
Scott Vaughan
Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
For the World Trade Organization (WTO), the most important development in a decade related to trade-environment linkages is the agreement to liberalize commerce in environmental goods and services. If properly executed, the agreement will increase the availability of “green” goods in global markets and break the North-South deadlock that has paralyzed discussions on the trade regime governing such goods.
Topic:
Environment, International Organization, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States

826. The Politics of the Environment

Author:
Karlyn H. Bowman
Publication Date:
08-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Democrats lead Republicans by a substantial margin nationally as the party best able to handle environmental issues, as the first table in this collection shows. The second table looks at the power of the issue on Election Day. In 2000, for example, 9 percent of voters nationwide told exit pollsters from the Los Angeles Times that the environment was one of the top two issues for them in casting their vote. These voters pulled the lever for Gore over Bush, by 76 to 12 percent. As in elections past, other issues were more important to larger numbers of voters. In the 2000 Los Angeles Times exit poll, almost four times as many voters (35 percent) checked morals/ethical values as the top issue for them on the exit poll ballot.
Topic:
Environment, Government, Science and Technology, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Los Angeles

827. 'Oil for the Lamps of China'—Beijing's 21st Century Search for Energy

Author:
Bernard D. Cole
Publication Date:
10-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
In 1933, Alice Tisdale Hobart, wife of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey manager in Nanking, published Oil for the Lamps of China. Hobart had traveled widely in China and proved to be a very observant imperialist. Her fictional account of her experiences, not surprisingly, focused on the role played by Western businessmen, especially those engaged in importing and selling petroleum products. One thread that runs through her work is Chinese dependence on foreign sources of energy supplies, which remains the case today. This dependence on foreign- controlled sources means that Beijing's efforts to ensure the availability of energy resources adequate to fuel the nation's economic growth have important national security implications.
Topic:
Emerging Markets, Energy Policy, and Environment
Political Geography:
China, Beijing, and Asia

828. International Trade and Air Pollution: The Economic Costs of Air Emissions from Waterborne Commercial Vessels in the United States

Author:
Kevin Gallagher and Robin Taylor
Publication Date:
09-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
Abstract:
Although there is a burgeoning literature on the effects of international trade on the environment, relatively little work has been done on where trade most directly effects the environment: the transportation sector. This article shows how international trade is affecting criteria air pollution emissions in the United States' shipping sector. Recent work has shown that cargo ships have been long overlooked regarding their contribution to air pollution. Indeed, ship emissions have recently been deemed "the last unregulated source of traditional air pollutants."Air pollution from ships has a number of significant local, national, and global environmental effects. Building on past studies, we examine the economic costs of this increasing and unregulated form of environmental damage. We find that total emissions from ships are largely increasing due to the increase in foreign commerce (or international trade). We analyze the period 1993 to 2001 and find that the economic costs of SO2 pollution during the period are estimated to be $1.1 billion or $126 million per year. For NOx emissions the costs are $3.7 billion over the entire period or $412 million per year. Because foreign trade is driving the growth in U.S. shipping, we also estimate the effect of the Uruguay Round on emissions. Separating out the effects of global trade agreements reveals that the trade agreement- led emissions amount to $460 million for SO2 between 1993 and 2001, or $51 million per year. For NOx they are $1.2 billion for the whole period or $144 million per year. Without adequate policy responses, we predict that these trends and costs will continue to rise with trade flows into the future
Topic:
Economics, Environment, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
North America

829. Economic Reform, Energy, and Development: The Case of Mexican Manufacturing

Author:
Kevin Gallagher and Francisco Aguayo
Publication Date:
07-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
Abstract:
Given increasing concern over global climate change and national security there is a burgeoning interest in examining the relationship between economic growth and energy use in developed and developing countries. More specifically, delinking energy use per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) has fast come to be seen as in the interests of national economies and the world as a whole. Recent attention has been paid to the dramatic decreases in the energy intensity of the Chinese economy, which fell by 55 percent between 1975 and 1995 (Sinton and Fridley, 2000). Do other developing economies follow similar trajectories?
Topic:
Economics, Environment, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
North America

830. Free Trade, Corn, and the Environment: Environmental Impacts of US - Mexico Corn Trade Under NAFTA

Author:
Frank Ackerman, Kevin Gallagher, Timothy Wise, Luke Ney, and Regina Flores
Publication Date:
06-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
Abstract:
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) had a profound impact on corn trade between the United States and Mexico. Negotiated tariff reductions and the Mexican government's decision not to charge some tariffs to which it was entitled resulted in a doubling of US corn exports to Mexico. This paper examines the environmental implications of this change on both sides of the border.
Topic:
Economics, Environment, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
North America and Mexico