The proceedings of an International Conference held in Geneva, Switzerland, January 1993, providing a comprehensive overview of environmental issues in Central European countries, and a look at possible problem-solving approaches with comparative studies based on some current Western practices. The volume is organized in three parts: environmental management--principles and experiences; challenges to Central European countries (Poland/Czechy and Slovaky//Hungary/Romania/ex-USSR/ex-East Germany); and systems analysis and techno-economic modeling. No index. Note: the $120 price is estimated; the publisher's price is 590 francs. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
This book provides a coherent analysis of the environmental challenges and achievements in institutional strengthening and policy reform, environmental policy instruments, environmental financing, and environmental management in enterprises in transition countries.
In the last three decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall, there has been a vast amount of study looking at transforming the planned economy to a market economy from both theoretical and empirical aspects. This book provides an overview and insight into transition economies in the recent decades and looks at key economics topics from the so-called “transition strategy debate” to environmental reform. The book also includes an analytical review and meta-analysis of the existing literature. By integrating theoretical discussions and synthesizing empirical findings in a systematic manner, this book may help to enlighten the debate on the timing, speed, and policy sequence of economic transition. The book will particularly appeal to researchers, policy makers, other practitioners, and under- and post-graduate students who are interested in transition economies in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Southeast Asia, and China. It aims to be read as an advanced reader.
First published in 1999 , the book is based on papers given at the final workshop of a research project into the evolution of environmental regulation in Poland undertaken as part of the UKs ERSC Global Environmental Change Programme. Other invited papers focused on the development of regulatory policy in transforming economies and in the UK. Furthermore the book highlights the weakness of internal political processes in Poland and the important role played by foreign sponsored pressures whilst exsamaning the divergence between the way environmental charges are supposed to operate and the ways in which they are implemented and enforced. Topics covered include the links between privatisation and the environment, the saline water problem in Upper Silesia, enforcement of and compliance with environmental charges, air pollution in Krakow and the structure of the Polish environmental administration system.
This volume presents the results of a three-year collaborative effort involving research institutions in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Case studies demonstrate the diversity of environmental problems to which a variety of economic instruments can be applied - air and water pollution, packaging, deforestation, over-grazing, wildlife. They also show what is needed for them to work successfully and the pitfalls to avoid in introducing them, providing guidance for future applications. Written to be accessible to non-economists, the book offers source material for students and academic economists, as well as for professionals working with economic instruments.
Environmental Management, with few exceptions, is not taught in colleges, universities, technical and management institutions. The result is that the students of these institutions lack knowledge and sensitisation to environmental issues. They lack the awareness of environmental consequences of human actions. To fill this void, Environmental Management is timely. The book provides background material to various environmental problems. It surveys a range of topics from sustainable development and ecological imperatives to strategies for managing environmental issues. The problem of pollution, waste management, biological diversity and forest management have been analysed in the light of laws and international conventions and treaties. The book brings out the realities about the damage being inflicted on the environment and our exploitive attitude to nature. It concludes with discussion and debate about values in nature and touches upon the subject of metamorphosis of the whole trajectory of attitudes in modern societies.
Environmental Transitions is a detailed and comprehensive account of the environmental changes in Central and Eastern Europe, both under state socialism and during the period of transition to capitalism. The change in politics in the late 1980s and early 1990s allowed an opportunity for a rapid environmental clean up, in an area once considered one of the most environmentally devastated regions on earth. The book illustrates how transformations after 1989 have brought major environmental improvements, as well as new environmental problems. It shows how environmental policy, economic change and popular support for environmental movements, have specific and changing geographies associated with them. Environmental Transitions addresses a large number of topics, including the historical geographical analysis of the environmental change, health impacts of environmental degradation, the role of environmental issues during the anti-communist revolutions, legislative reform and the effects of transition on environmental quality after 1989. Environmental Transitions contains detailed case studies from the region, which illustrate the complexity of environmental issues and their intimate relationship with political and economic realities. It gives theoretically informed ideas for understanding environmental change in the context of the political economy of state socialism and post-communist transformations, drawing on a wide body of literature from West, Central and Eastern Europe.
Environmental management is a global phenomenon, embracing all businesses in all countries, whether or not there already exists an organised response to managing environmental impacts. Today, there are gross inequalities between the world's richest and poorest nations in terms of income distribution, consumption patterns, access to resources and environmental impact. Yet both the developed north and the developing south are committed, at least in words, to achieving sustainable development. Public awareness of environmental issues in the North has been rising in recent years and further degradation is now largely minimized through more stringent regulatory regimes, voluntary agreements and growing consumer and stakeholder pressure on corporations. Still, the north is continuing to lead an environmentally unsustainable lifestyle as environmental improvements are nullified by overall increases in consumption levels. In the south, a billion people still do not have access to the most basic needs. Poor countries need to accelerate their consumption growth if they are to ensure that the lives of their people are enriched. However, with rapid economic growth and corresponding increases in consumption now under way, their environmental impact is soon to become substantially greater. In a world that strives towards stemming global crises such as climate change, the path already taken by the rich and high-growth economies over the past century cannot be repeated by the south if the desired objective is to create a future that is truly sustainable. Growing Pains examines environmental management in the south from a number of perspectives. It is designed to stimulate the discussion about the role that corporations and national and international organizations play in sustainable development. It does not offer panaceas, as each country has its own problems and opportunities; and, after almost 50 years of failed panacea-oriented economic development policy transfer from the north to the south, it is time to abandon hope for universal solutions and instead look to individual approaches that work. The book is divided into five themes: globalization; the role of business; a focus on national strategies; trade and the environment; and the organizational and structural challenges of sustainable development. With contributions from an outstanding collection of authors in both the developed and developing worlds including UNIDO; the Thailand Environment Institute, Arthur D. Little, Inc., Shell Peru; IUCN, the Russian Academy of Sciences and IIED, this important and unique new book presents a body of work that will provide essential reading for businesses working in developing countries, environmental and developmental NGOs and researchers engaged in the debate and sharing of best practice in this increasingly critical subject area.
This second edition of the Historical Dictionary of the World Bank shows the substantial progress the Bank has made, this mainly through the dictionary section with concise entries on its component institutions, related organizations, its achievements in various fields, some of the major projects and member countries, and its various presidents. The introduction explains how the Bank works while the chronology traces the major events over nearly 70 years. Meanwhile, the list of acronyms reminds us just who the main players are. And the bibliography directs readers to useful internal documentation and outside studies.
