33 Wirtschaft
Filtern
Dokumenttyp
- Wissenschaftlicher Artikel (Fachzeitschriften) (9) (entfernen)
Sprache
- Englisch (9)
Volltext vorhanden
- ja (9)
Gehört zur Bibliographie
- nein (9)
Schlagworte
- Nachhaltigkeit (9) (entfernen)
The challenges and opportunities of liberal democracies in promoting international value systems
(2024)
In 1948, the United Nations proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a guideline for the protection of human rights. Not legally binding, the declaration represents an ideal that must be promoted by those who are committed to it. Among other amendments adopted since 1948, in 1998 the General Assembly passed a declaration seeking to strengthen the responsibility and right to protect human rights. "Stressing that all members of the international community shall fulfill, jointly and separately, their solemn obligation to promote and encourage respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all" (UN General Assembly, 1998,) this declaration is one of the central starting points of this paper. The Universal human rights formed the basis for many subsequent international treaties and agreements, one of the most recent being the 2030 Agenda with the SDGs. The legal situation of these agreements differs greatly in terms of their binding nature and enforceability. These issues will be examined in more detail in the following parts of this publication series. However, it should be noted here that successful implementation of the written goals requires voluntary debate and implementation. In today's multicultural, international context, some countries have significantly higher financial as well as social capital to fulfill these responsibilities. Based on the assumption that many of the existing liberal democracies fulfill these criteria of higher capacities, which will be discussed again in the course of the data analysis, this paper attempts to answer the question of what special responsibilities but also what opportunities are offered in this particular position.
To begin with, the current data situation will be examined in more detail. The focus here is on the international comparison of various reference values that are relevant to the issue at hand. First, we will take a brief look at the Human Rights Index (HRI), as processed by Our World in Data, what characteristics it has in international comparison and what questions and challenges can be derived from it. We will then take a look at the 2023 Sustainable Development Report (SDR). Here, again, we will try to recognize certain patterns in the international comparison. In a second step, we will link the progress of the individual countries with the respective income level, as already shown in the SDR. In addition, we include the Democracy Index, published by The Enonomist, in our data analysis. In the final step, we use all the data to build an overall picture that allows us to see the progress of global development in our area of interest and the associated challenges. In the following step, the results of this data analysis will be combined with further research findings and the question of the responsibility of liberal democracies in an international context. The challenges but also opportunities and possible benefits of promoting human rights and SDGs will be examined in more detail. Before concluding, we will try to generalize our findings to paint a picture of the inherent resilience of human rights and SDGs.
Over forty years ago, physicist and deep ecologist Capra indicated: "Ecosystems sustain themselves in a dynamic balance based on cycles and fluctuations, which are nonlinear processes. Linear enterprises, such as indefinite economic and technological growth will necessarily interfere with the natural balance and, sooner or later, will cause severe damage. Ecological awareness, then, will arise only when we combine our rational knowledge with an intuition for the nonlinear nature of our environment. Such intuitive wisdom is characteristic of traditional, non-literate cultures, [...] in which life was organized around a highly refined awareness of environment." Since then, natural ecosystems are being pushed beyond their limits with human societies confronting unprecedented challenges like climate change, species extinctions and pollution. Various approaches like ecological restoration, conservation, renewable energies and car sequestration have been deployed to tackle the global ecological crisis. Yet, a crucial element remains largely overlooked: integrating local and traditional ecological knowledge as well as indigenous perspectives with modern western science to foster environmentally sustainable solutions. This student research paper explores how the concept of traditional ecological knowledge is defined in science, law and policy literatures and what contribution place-based communities such as the artisanal fishery of Chorrillos can serve for improving cooperative environmental and natural resources management. The method applied aims to evaluate existing literature, synthesizing ideas, and critically analyzing the status quo. Subsequently, the paper will provide recommendations for integrating ecological traditional knowledge in legal frameworks and practice through sound policy aimed at sustainable development.
The concept of Circular Economy (CE) is becoming increasingly important in the pursuit of more sustainable societies. CE strategies are being applied in the sustainable management of a plethora of areas, such as energy, water, food and eco-industrial parks. The present paper focuses on the question of how CE principles can support the sustainable management of water in the agricultural sector around the world, considering different legislative environments, water resources management guidelines, environmental stressors, and CE practices. Considering these practices and circumstances, seven countries were compared: Brazil, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Portugal, and Taiwan. Together, CE experts in the seven countries developed a set of 44 criteria to assess each of these areas. Broader establishment and respect of water resources legislation was found to be strongly correlated with lower agricultural water use. While the application of CE practices was found to not be correlated with lower consumption, this is still novel in most countries. Based on the studied countries, it can be concluded that a global CE agenda has not been reached for water resources. Further application and variety of practices is required to better represent the impact of CE on a national scale, but local success stories could support the wider application of CE in agriculture. The findings and the framework of the study can be applied to other countries in directing CE strategies for more sustainable water use in agriculture. Increasing CE implementation, motivated by legislation and better management can help ensure water security throughout nations.
This text will explain which role “Green Bonds” play in financing projects and how the green factor is weighted. It will be discussed on how the term “green” can change the price of the bond, if there is a “green premium” and for which group of investors this type of bond is interesting. We will discuss ways to reduce their cost of capital, also considering the risks and on ways on how to improve their conditions. The sustainable and eco-friendly aspects are also highlighted in this text and they might become crucial in future investing, which gives the bond an interesting role.
E-commerce has been keeping fast increasing worldwide since beginning of the 21st century. Rapid growth of e-commerce & parcel shipping is a booming business. However, how to handle with many hard-to-solve sustainability issues of transport in urban areas, is becoming a serious challenge for urban logistic sector and numerous stakeholders. The sustainability issues contain the problems of air pollution, congestion, and sub-contractors. This paper reported those issues in the context of growth of e-commerce and analyzed their efforts on the sustainable urban logistics development.
In relation to the fast development of e-commerce and rapid increasing of parcels, urban logistic sector is facing the challenge of sustainability. Especially, last-mile delivery as the last step of goods transport, it connects to customers’ satisfaction, cost efficiency of logistic companies, and more and more public expectations to sustainability of urban logistics. To handle with the complexity of urban logistics conditions, governments and logistics companies should develop a co-operating strategy for sustainability of urban last-mile delivery. This paper is based on data collection from the long-term empirical research and a survey to the e-commerce users in Germany and China to develop a sustainable concept for the urban last-mile delivery. The key to the development of concept is to create a balance among the requirements of customers, the competition abilities of logistics companies and the public interest.
A common answer to the financial challenges of green transformation and the shortcomings of the current taxation system is the “double dividend approach”. Environmental taxes should either feed the public purse in order to remove other distorting taxes, or directly contribute to financing green transformation. Germany adopted the former approach. However, this article argues, by using the example of Germany, that “good taxes” in terms of public finance should be neutral in terms of environmental protection and vice versa. Neutral taxation in terms of environmental impacts can be best achieved by applying the “Henry George principle”. Additionally, neutral taxation in terms of public finance is best achieved if the revenues from environmental taxes are redistributed to the citizens as an ecological basic income. Thus, distortive effects of environmental charges in terms of distribution and political decision-making might be removed. However, such a financial framework could be introduced step by step, starting with a tax shift.
This paper analyzed the characteristic of the tourism destination ecosystem from perspective of entropy in Dunhuang City. Given these circumstances, an evaluation index system that considers the potential of sustainable development was formed based on dissipative structure and entropy change for the tourism destination ecosystem. The sustainable development potential evaluation model for tourism destination ecosystem was built up based on information entropy. Then, we analyzed each indicator impact for the sustainable development potential and proposed some measures for the tourism destination ecosystem. The conclusions include: (a) the requirements of Dunhuang tourism destination ecosystem on the natural ecosystem continuously grew between 2000 and 2012; (b) The sustainable development potential of the Dunhuang tourism destination ecosystem was on an oscillation upward trend during the study period, which is dependent on government attention, and pollution problems were improved.
Resource prospects of municipal solid wastes generated in the Ga East Municipal Assembly of Ghana
(2017)
Background: Municipal solid wastes management has recently become an important public health concern. Municipal solid wastes are a major source of raw materials that could be used for resource recovery for diverse applications.
Objectives: The present study aimed to determine the composition of municipal solid waste and recoverable resources from the waste of the Ga East Municipal Assembly (GEMA) in the Greater Accra region of Ghana.
Methods: An exploratory approach was used to collect pertinent data from the Abloradgei dumpsite in GEMA using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussion. A field characterization study was undertaken to segregate and estimate the value of various components of collected waste. Dumpsite workers were asked about current general composition of MSW, mode of collection and disposal, record of sanitation-related diseases, use of modern treatment plant, waste management legislation and enforcement challenges, number of trucks received by the dumpsite per day, record on pretreatment of MSW before disposal, and use of personnel protective equipment.
Results: The results showed that significant proportions (48.8%) of the municipal solid wastes were organic materials, while the remaining (51.2%) were inorganic materials. The results also showed that 63% of the municipal solid waste is collected with no sorting from the source and no modern treatment applied before dumping. It was estimated that the value of the recyclable materials in GEMA municipal solid waste amounts to Ghana Cedis (GH¢) 9,381,960 (plastic); 985,111 (mixed glass); 5,160,078 (paper) and 11,586,770 (metal) with a total of GH¢ 27,113,919 ($10,845,568) equivalent to 2,106,339.2 m3 (74,384,667.5 ft3) per annum of biogas from these components with a market value of GH¢ 1,997,972.17 ($768, 393.62); 11,579 Mwh (1.32 Mw) of electricity and 9,535 Mwh (1.09 Mw) of heat. This is estimated to be lost with the current waste management practices.
Conclusions: We recommend that GEMA institute sustainable recycling practices and utilization of biogas production technologies and prioritize sanitation and waste management education for the public, obligate home segregation of waste materials, involve workers by providing them with protective clothing, incorporate informal waste collectors and scavengers into the new system and collaborate with research institutions in waste-to-resource projects to ensure a more sustainable waste management system in the municipality.