Silvana Dalmazzone

Decentralization and the Environment

A part of the literature on fiscal federalism aver the years has dealt with environmental policy as a particular case of the supply of public goods. The centrai issue is the identification of criteria on how to allocate powers and functions aver environmental management at different levels of govemment. The main stream of literature focuses on the conditions needed to establish whether pollution standards and regulatory programs should be set and designed by centraI or rather by local governments. This paper provides a review of the debate and explores a few potential limits of the prevailing line of enquiry.

Environmental Governance and Decentralisation

Contents: Preface 1. Introduction Albert Breton, Giorgio Brosio, Silvana Dalmazzone and Giovanna Garrone PART I: FEDERAL AND SUPRANATIONAL SYSTEMS 2. Australia: Preserving Biodiversity and Managing Water Resources Jeffrey D. Petchey 3. Economic Growth and Environmental Protection in Brazil: An Unfavourable Trade-off Clovis Cavalcanti 4. Interdependence and Coordination in the Canadian Environmental Policy Process Marcia Valiante 5. Ethiopia: Protecting Nature in a Developing Decentralized Country Gedion Asfaw, Kifle Lemma and Sebsebe Demissew 6. European Union: Shifting Environmental Governance to the Supranational Level Anthony R. Zito 7. Environmental Institutions in Germany: Leader or Laggard? Stefanie Engel and Melanie Zimmermann 8. Overlapping Fiscal Domains and the Effectiveness of Environmental Policy in India Subrata Mandal and M. Govinda Rao 9. Russia: The Difficult Transition to Stable Environmental Institutions Pavel V. Kasyanov and Aliona V. Stovpivskaya 10. The Political Economy of Environmental Governance in the United States Jason F. Shogren PART II: NON-FEDERAL COUNTRIES 11. Chile: The Development-Sustainability Dilemma Tommaso Chiamparino, Laura Piazza and Irene Venturello 12. China: Seeking Meaningful Decentralization to Achieve Sustainability Changhua Wu and Hua Wang 13. The Danish Communes: Capacities and Constraints in Environmental Management Mikael Skou Andersen 14. France: Forces Shaping Centralization and Decentralization in Environmental Policymaking Albert Breton and Pierre Salmon 15. Capacity Constraints on Local Government Environmental Policies in Ghana Felix Ankomah Asante 16. Italy: Towards Responsibility-sharing in Environmental Protection Ivana Capozza and Giovanna Garrone 17. The Netherlands: An Integrated, Participatory Approach to Environmental Policymaking Duncan Liefferink and Mark Wiering 18. United Kingdom: Environmental Policymaking in a Centralised, Market-driven System Stephen Smith 19. Trends in Environmental Governance: Evidence from Seventeen Countries and Sundry Reflections Thereon Albert Breton, Giorgio Brosio, Silvana Dalmazzone and Giovanna Garrone Index

Physical and monetary ecosystem service accounts for Europe: A case study for in-stream nitrogen retention

In this paper we present a case study of integrated ecosystem and economic accounting based on the System of Environmental Economic Accounting — Experimental Ecosystem Accounts (SEEA-EEA). We develop accounts, in physical and monetary terms, for the water purification ecosystem service in Europe over a 20-year time period (1985–2005). The estimation of nitrogen retention is based on the GREEN biophysical model, within which we impose a sustainability threshold to obtain the physical indicators of capacity – the ability of an ecosystem to sustainably supply ecosystem services. Key messages of our paper pertain the notion of capacity, operationalized in accounting terms with reference to individual ecosystem services rather than to the ecosystem as a whole, and intended as the stock that provides the sustainable flow of the service. The study clarifies the difference between sustainable flow and actual flow of the service, which should be calculated jointly so as to enable an assessment of the sustainability of current use of ecosystem services. Finally, by distinguishing the notion of ‘process’ (referred to the ecosystem) from that of ‘capacity’ (pertaining specific services) and proposing a methodology to calculate capacity and flow, we suggest an implementable way to operationalize the SEEA-EEA accounts.

Multi-scale environmental accounting: methodological lessons from the application of NAMEA at sub-national levels.

Extending the application of integrated environmental and economic accounts from the national to the local level of government serves several purposes. They can be used not only as an instrument for communicating on the state of the environment and reporting the results of policies, but also as an operational tool - for setting the objectives and designing policies - if made available to the local authorities who have responsibility over the administration of natural resources, land use and conservation policies. The aim of the paper is to test the feasibility of applying hybrid flow accounts at the intermediate and local government levels. As an illustration, NAMEA for air emissions and wastes is applied to a Region, a Province and a Municipality, thus covering the three nested levels of local government in Italy. The study identifies the main issues raised by multi-scale environmental accounting and provides an applied discussion of feasible solutions.

A Regional Analysis of Renewable Energy Patenting in Italy

The paper investigates the mechanisms of induced innovation in the renewable energy industry in Italy. Descriptive analysis reveals a decoupling of innovation and production: significant RES-related innovation in Northern Italy, high levels of renewable energy production in Southern Italy. A panel analysis from 1997 to 2007 for the 20 Italian regions reveals that renewable-specific local public R&D expenditure is the main determinant of the renewable energy patenting pattern. Local financial incentives play a significant, but less important role. The wind and solar sources depend more on local public intervention than other RES such as biomass. The development of RES innovation activities appears to depend also on the political orientation of regional councils, thus confirming prior research on the role of social acceptance and political support in the development of RES.

L'applicazione dell'approccio NAMEA per emissioni in atmosfera e rifiuti speciali a livello regionale, provinciale e comunale

In questo lavoro viene presentata un’applicazione sperimentale, condotta su emissioni in atmosfera e rifiuti speciali, della matrice ibrida di flusso NAMEA per la Regione Piemonte, la Provincia di Torino e il Comune di Torino. L’esigenza di compilare conti ambientali a livello locale nasce dalla consapevolezza che a diversi livelli amministrativi esistano esigenze informative diverse che richiedono, nel momento in cui si passa da un programma generico a delle azioni da implementare, un riferimento alle specificita economico-sociali-ambientali del territorio che si gestisce. La condizione necessaria per impostare questo tipo di sistema e la disponibilita di database affidabili e sistematicamente compilati. Tale condizione viene soddisfatta sia per la compilazione della parte economica di NAMEA (ricorrendo a ASIA), sia per la parte ambientale di NAMEA (ricorrendo a IREA per le emissioni in atmosfera e al Catasto Rifiuti per i rifiuti). Viene quindi dimostrato come moduli contabili ambientali (che non si limitino alle sole spese ambientali) siano effettivamente compilabili anche a livello locale, sino a livello dei singoli comuni. Vengono inoltre discusse in dettaglio le implicazioni metodologiche emerse dalla sperimentazione. Nell’utilizzare dati diversi rispetto al SNA viene a mancare l’integrabilita con i moduli elaborati da ISTAT, inoltre a livello locale non sono applicati dei principi contabili cardine a livello nazionale.

Environmental Accounting at Different Levels of Government: The State of the Art

Environmental policy, focusing on the control of pollution and on over-exploitation, easily overlooks the extensive range of interconnections between economic activities and natural systems. In this timely book, a number of specialists examine how crucial aspects of complex environmental problems and policy can be dealt with in decentralized governmental systems.

Economics and policy of biodiversity loss

The first part of the chapter provides concise definitions of biodiversity. It explores the different meanings with which the term is used – genetic diversity, species diversity, intra-specific diversity, ecosystem diversity, functional diversity. It then considers the ecological services connected to biodiversity and the indices that can be used to quantify it, which may focus alternatively on species richness or on species diversity. The central part of the chapter focuses on the economics of biodiversity loss, including the economic value of biodiversity, biodiversity as a public good, use and non-use values, biodiversity and risk in agro-ecosystems. After analysing the social and economic factors driving the loss of biological diversity, the final sections discuss the available conservation policies: incentives, property rights, price reforms, protected areas, safe minimum standards, and international agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Biosafety Protocol.

Sustainability assessment and causality nexus through ecosystem service accounting: The case of water purification in Europe

The paper builds on the Supply and Use Tables module within the System of integrated Environmental and Economic Accounts - Experimental Ecosystem Accounts (SEEA EEA) developed by the UN. We explore the evolution of Supply and Use Tables from the System of National Accounts (SNA) to the System of integrated Environmental and Economic Accounts - Central Framework (SEEA CF) and then to the SEEA EEA, and we propose a further extension: we propose that ecosystem types should be treated as accounting units able to produce, consume and exhibit changes in regeneration and absorption rates. The implications are first explained in the methodological section and then shown in the application where the water purification service is tested against two major policy issues: sustainability assessment (we show how to assess whether the ecosystem service is used sustainably by comparing the quantification of potential and actual flow) and causality nexus (we quantify the connection between the value of agricultural production and that of the ecosystem service used). The paper highlights how the overall outcomes change when considering different scales. A contrast emerges, for example, between the positive balance at the continental scale, where water purification services appear to be used sustainably (thanks to the high potential flow of Northern European countries) and the negative balance of almost all European countries when considered at a national scale. Taking advantage of the experimental opportunities offered by operating with external satellite accounts, we are able to show how the proposed complementary tables could support policy action.

Valuing externalities from energy infrastructures through stated preferences: a geographically stratified sampling approach

ABSTRACT The externalities produced by high-voltage transmission lines are multidimensional, may strongly depend on the local context, and are thus difficult to capture through standard environmental valuation exercises. We experiment a GIS approach to design a geographically stratified contingent valuation sample of the population resident in infrastructure corridors in a whole region. We estimate, by means of a binary choice logit model, the perceived marginal damage from impacts of power lines on human health, the landscape and the environment. Specific treatment is given to qualitatively different forms of impact, namely real estate depreciation versus diffused perception of damage, arising at different distances from the lines. The set of GIS-based variables (proximity to power lines, presence of other infrastructure, endowment of natural and built heritage and other local context variables) prove to be significant predictors in the utility function of resident households. Finally, we compute simulated values that combine information on individual’s willingness to pay, population density and the dimension of the considered corridor around the infrastructure, so as to generalize the outcomes of case-specific studies for use in policy choices such as infrastructure localization, undergrounding and negotiation of compensations.