Suchergebnisse

On 16 September 2014, Indonesian lawmakers unanimously agreed to ratify the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP), becoming the last ASEAN member state to ratify. Eight of the 10 member states had ratified by 2006, and nine had ratified by 2010. Although the ratification bill reached the Indonesian Parliament during the 2000s, it was always disapproved. This article seeks to re-examine Indonesia's lengthy delay and address its long-awaited ratification. Accordingly, we build on Robert Putnam's theory of ratification from two-level game theory and develop a framework for analysing delayed ratifications. Although the negotiated AATHP was 'soft' and thus low-cost for domestic stakeholders, key domestic stakeholders had little appetite for ratification and limited substantive pressure came from neighbouring governments during the 2000s. However, in the context of heightened public concern and calls for government action and positive palm oil industry responses to international pressures, persistent international pressure and measures during the 2010s, particularly from Singapore, provided parliamentarians with enough incentive to symbolically ratify the agreement. Addressing Indonesia's delayed ratification is important in understanding ASEAN's ongoing struggle to combat transboundary haze pollution and offers a useful case study in the still-developing area of ratifications in the environmental regime formation literature. (Pac Rev/GIGA)

ABSTRACT Since the haze crisis becomes a transnational issue in the Southeast Asia region, ASEAN has formulated an initiative by creating a partnership within a framework of the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP) in 2002 as a form to overcome the haze issue. However, Indonesia as one of the country which is causing the haze issue has become the last country to ratify this agreement. As the research question is how ASEAN does encourage Indonesia to ratify AATHP, this research aims to analyze the dynamic of the role performed by ASEAN using the concept of the role and function of international organizations. This concept is able to analyze the role of ASEAN as an independent actor and the efforts by ASEAN as an arena that also explains the function of ASEAN for its role. The role of ASEAN is then able to influence Indonesia to ratify AATHP. The success of the ratification carried out by Indonesia is inseparable from the power by ASEAN which then gives the ability to shame to Indonesia as the last country to ratify AATHP. This research uses descriptive qualitative method using official documents issued by ASEAN and related journals as data sources. Keywords: Indonesia, ASEAN, Role and Function, Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP)

A comprehensive study of the formation process of haze events in the Jinan area of China during winter is conducted based on the ground-based and satellite observation data from 1 December 2020 to 12 January 2021. According to variation of pollutant concentrations, two typical types of haze pollution are found in the Jinan area. During the type 1 haze pollution, the PM2.5 concentrations are greater than 75 μgm−3 and less than 115 μgm−3 with a short duration. The haze is mainly caused by local pollutant emissions and the accumulation of pollutants transported from areas around Jinan. By contrast, type 2 haze pollution episodes have a long duration and peak PM2.5 concentrations between 150 μgm−3 and 250 μgm−3, which is considered heavy pollution. Type 2 haze pollution is mainly caused by a mixture of long-range transported dust with locally emitted pollutants. Moreover, the unfavorable meteorological factors such as stable inversion layer, continuous cold high-pressure system, high relative humidity, and low wind speed play an important role in the formation of both types of haze pollution. In addition, there are significant photochemical processes during the haze pollutions. According to satellite data, the AOD in Jinan and surrounding areas is maintained at a high-level during haze pollution. It indicates that the local pollution is often accompanied by regional pollution during haze pollution events. This study reveals the formation process of haze pollution and promotes the study of regional climate change, which can provide guidance to the government in the prevention and control of haze pollution in East China.

Haze Pollution, consisting essentially of PM2.5 and PM10, has been arousing wide public concern home and abroad. It has become a universal urgency for atmospheric researchers, governments, organizations, institutions, and the general public to conduct corresponding actions. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the institutional distribution and the regional evolution trend of path characteristics of haze pollution in China under the spatial–temporal heterogeneity on the basis of spatial econometrics, by incorporating the spatial element into the framework of the Multiple Influencing Factors mechanism. The results show that it has been abating under the governance year by year, though with a decreasing intensity ; the major polluted regions have been moving from the East to the central and western area ; there is significant spatial autocorrelation among the highly polluted area, but the effective local regulations of les- polluted regions do not impact the neighboring regions correspondingly ; among the impacting factors, industrial structure, energy intensity, and traffic pollution have a significant Positive Impact on haze pollution, and the level of urbanization has a Negative Impact, while economic growth and innovation performance have no significant Positive Impact and are both weak in promotion. This research, theoretically and practically, offers reference for the Chinese government to integrate regional effective systems into multiregional diversified environmental governance, so as to realize its Green Ecology Transformation Development Strategy.

AbstractBased on statistical data on 30 provincial administrative regions in China from 2000 to 2016, this paper conducts an empirical study of the impact of industrial agglomeration on haze pollution using the spatial Dubin model (SDM), spatial lag model (SLM), and spatial error model (SEM). The findings are as follows: (1) Industrial agglomeration can effectively reduce the degree of haze pollution. (2) Haze pollution has an inverted U-shaped relationship with economic development and population agglomeration. (3) The secondary industry has a positive correlation with haze pollution, while the tertiary industry can reduce haze pollution but not in an obvious manner. (4) The level of innovation and urbanization can help to reduce haze pollution, and the level of economic opening up and carbon dioxide emissions can exacerbate haze pollution. (5) Due to the insufficient commercialization of scientific and technological achievements, investment in science and technology is not obviously effective in preventing and controlling haze pollution. The relationship between environmental regulation and haze pollution is still unclear due to regional differences and the varied effectiveness of law enforcement. The study suggests that the government should guide industrial agglomeration in a reasonable manner, improve joint prevention and control across regions, and strengthen environmental regulation to prevent and control haze pollution.

This article examines ASEAN's cooperation on transboundary haze pollution. I argue that ASEAN's creation of the haze treaty in 2002 demonstrates its attempt to depart from certain elements of the institutional culture. But both ASEAN's treaty and cooperation have been hindered by certain normative constraints, organizational customs, and domestic politics.

The impact of environmental regulations (ER) on haze pollution control has been continuously debated in the field of sustainable development. This paper explores the direct and indirect threshold effects of ER on haze pollution, and five underlying mechanisms—technological innovation (TI), industrial structure (IS), foreign direct investment (FDI), urbanization (UR), and electricity consumption (EC)—are adopted to investigate the indirect threshold effects. Panel data, over the period 2008–2018, of 284 Chinese cities were used and the threshold effects were predicted endogenously based on the panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) model. The results showed the following: (1) For the direct threshold effect, there exists a U-shaped relationship between ER and haze pollution. ER significantly reduced haze pollution when ER < 38.86 due to "cost effects". However, ER increased haze pollution after the threshold owing to the "green paradox", which was not significant. (2) For the indirect threshold effect, when TI = 0.37, IS = 39.61, FDI = 7.25, and UR = 42.86, the relationships between ER and haze pollution changed. The changes and corresponding reasons for the indirect threshold effects are discussed in detail. (3) After a comprehensive analysis, the threshold effects have obvious regional distribution characteristics and internal connections. Finally, based on the results, it is essential for governments to enact appropriate environmental regulatory policies and enhance inter-regional synergies in environmental governance.

Industrial transfer from advanced regions is a good way to foment economic development in less advanced regions. Nevertheless, does industrial transfer intensify or alleviate haze pollution? To answer this question, this study employed the shift-share method and spatial panel models to explore how industrial transfer processes impact haze pollution in the case of China. The main results are as follows: (1) With the advances made in industrial transfer and upgrading, China has entered the stage of decoupling between the economic development level and haze pollution. (2) Industrial transfer could effectively alleviate the degree of haze pollution in the transferred-out areas, but it would have a significant accelerating effect on haze pollution in the transferred-in areas. Compared with non-polluting industries, polluting industries would be responsible for a large deterioration in the local air quality. (3) Environmental regulations, as the main factor mitigating environmental pollution, do not achieve the desired effects and significantly reduce the regional pollution levels that led to haze. Therefore, the effects of industrial transfer should also be comprehensively considered in government of undertake regions. There would likely be great economic costs if the old path of &ldquo ; pollution first and treatment later&rdquo ; is followed. This study not only advances the existing literature, but also is of considerable interest to policy makers.