Complex Network Modeling and Evolutionary Game Simulation of the Arctic Environmental Emergency Response and Governance

Environmental pollution is one of the major challenges in China, which seriously affects people's life, economy and society. This paper proposes a multi‐criteria group decision‐making method based on hesitant fuzzy preference relations with self‐confidence (HFPRs‐SC) behaviours and applies it to the evaluation of the environmental pollution emergency response process. Firstly, a comprehensive evaluation system is proposed that covers the environmental pollution emergency response process. Moreover, is utilized to obtain the normalized hesitant fuzzy preference relationship, and an algorithm that considers both the hesitant fuzzy preference value and the self‐confidence level is proposed to improve the consistency of HFPRs‐SC. In addition, combined with subjective and objective weights of experts, a weighted average operator based on the confidence level is applied to aggregate individual HFPR‐SC. Furthermore, the score function of HFPRs‐SC is designed to get the best ranking. Finally, a case study on an explosion accident in Fujian Province of China is conducted to verify the practicability and effectiveness of the proposed method with comparative analysis and sensitivity analysis. Based on the analysis, some suggestions are put forward for improving environmental pollution emergency response.

Arctic-wide intergovernmental cooperation protecting the Arctic environment formally began with the establishment of the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS), which later transformed into the Arctic Council. However, the founding documents of cooperation in both were soft-law in nature rather than internationally concluded treaties. The main objective of the Arctic Council is to promote ‘environmental protection’ and ‘sustainable development’ in the Arctic. Neither the AEPS nor the Arctic Council included the issue of climate change in their working agenda or as a primary concern during their establishment. However, the AEPS was concerned with the ‘global climate’ during its formation, although it decided not to address the issue since other international forums had already started to work on it. Nevertheless, climate change seriously affects both of the main objectives of the Council: environmental protection and sustainable development in the Arctic. In the course of time, climate change has become an important issue within Arctic-wide cooperation. The Council provides significant information to policy-makers and other actors by conducting a number of projects to limit climate change in the Arctic or address the consequences caused by climate change to its ecosystems and inhabitants. Even with its institutional weaknesses due to the lack of proper mechanisms, the Council functions through its various working groups and their programs. Two decades after the beginning of cooperation, it is timely to conduct an extensive evaluation of its success mainly in the field of climate change.

1. Following the establishment of the Rovaniemi initiative to develop an Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy, it was proposed that an Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) should be developed. AMAP will be responsible for the preparation of reports on the State of the Arctic Environment; for developing and approving the protocol and coverage assessment; deciding on monitoring requirements; and for advising on the research and other resources needed to undertake investigations. 2. It is proposed that AMAP should, as its first priority, monitor the levels and assess the effects of anthropogenic pollutants in all the component parts of the Arctic environment including the effects of contaminants on human health. To monitor the levels of anthropogenic pollutants, high quality measurements will be of fundamental importance. The measured components will include radionuclides; heavy metals; persistent organic pollutants; various atmospheric gases and aerosols; and various biological and physical parameters. Practical models will be used to complete the knowledge gained from measurements; to perform process studies; to understand transport mechanisms and pathways; to allocate contributions to different regions (transboundary transport), to define measurement strategies still further; and to indicate trends. 3. Two of the most significant threats to the Arctic environment may come from climate change, induced by global warming, and the effects of stratospheric ozone depletion and increased UVb radiation on life forms (including humans) in the Arctic. National monitoring of climate parameters should be co-ordinated within the framework of AMAP when a mutual interest is recognized and not otherwise organized internationally. Programmes to discover the causes and effects of climate change and to understand the processes of climate change are to a large extent being developed by other international groups and in other fora. AMAP should be familiar with these programmes and develop links with them to encourage and facilitate an Arctic focus in climate programs. Measurements aimed at assessing climate change (e. g. extent and variability of sea-ice and glaciers; permafrost and soil-temperature measurements; and changing ecosystems) will provide important inputs to the AMAP dataset. In turn, AMAP data will be relevant to climate change programmes in the Arctic. 4. Campaigns to identify and quantify the extent of possible stratospheric ozone depletion will provide AMAP with useful data. In turn, AMAP will contribute data on the effects. 5. AMAP has noted that other impacts on the Arctic environment arise not only from the long-range transport of pollutants but from local activities, which include mining, hydrocarbon exploitation, and changing settlement patterns and changing lifestyles. 6. One of the first AMAP tasks will be to co-ordinate and assess national programmes and to develop these programmes in an international framework so as to meet the basic needs of the Rovaniemi process. Existing work by relevant international programmes will be utilised in such assessments. A further stage will be the development and extension of such measurement networks. 7. It is proposed that AMAP's organisational structure should include an Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Task Force (AMATF) and a permanent secretariat. The Task Force will consist of the eight Arctic nations plus observers from other nations with significant Arctic research programmes. A liaison mechanism will be developed for a wide range of international organizations involved in monitoring and regulatory activities, assessments and research (e. g. ICES; OSPARCOM; UNECE; World Climate Programmeof WMO/ICSU; WMO; the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme). It will also be necessary to liaise with organizations specialising in the Arctic such as the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and the Arctic Ocean Sciences Board (AOSB) and with international organizations representing indigenous peoples. 8. The establishment of a central database that can serve the Task Force and participating scientists is recommended. In the first phase there is a need for a directory/ reference database and a system for the interchange of data. A system for preparing and presenting key information for the status reports has also to be established. 9. Coordination of research on the Arctic environment and processes should be encouraged between participating countries. Research projects should be linked to monitoring in such a way that essential processes important for understanding and explaining observations have high priority. Close co-operation between the IASC and AMAP should be established.

The Arctic region, with its unique and fragile ecosystem, faces significant challenges in environmental protection due to climate change, increasing human activities, and geopolitical tensions. This paper examines the international legal framework governing Arctic environmental protection, focusing on the roles and limitations of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement). While UNCLOS provides a foundational legal framework for ocean governance, its applicability in addressing Arctic environmental concerns should be acknowledged, as should the complementary role of the BBNJ Agreement. However, the lack of provisions specific to Arctic environmental issues creates a gap between the effectiveness of international law and the urgent need for a comprehensive legal regime tailored to the Arctic context. Furthermore, the supplementary role of the BBNJ Agreement to UNCLOS remains limited. By highlighting key challenges in the implementation of international law, including disputes over Article 234 of UNCLOS, this study underscores the urgent need for a more robust and cohesive international legal approach to ensure the sustainable future of the Arctic environment, and concludes with appropriate recommendations.

Optimization of suspect and non-target analytical methods using GC/TOF for prioritization of emerging contaminants in the Arctic environment

In the context of the integration of global "dual carbon" goals and sustainable development concepts, the environmental and social governance (ESG) system has become a core dimension for measuring the comprehensive competitiveness of enterprises and a key institutional guarantee for driving their green transformation. This article is based on the actual situation of Chinese enterprises, focusing on the intrinsic relationship between ESG and green development, sorting out the core connotations and requirements of the two, analyzing the current situation and problems of enterprise ESG construction and green transformation, exploring the ESG driving mechanism, and proposing optimization strategies. Research has found that ESG can effectively solve the cost, technology, and cognitive challenges in corporate transformation through environmental constraints guidance, social synergy, and governance system guarantees; The practice of green development in enterprises has also improved the ESG implementation path in reverse. This article aims to provide practical references for enterprises to construct ESG governance frameworks and formulate green development strategies, as well as theoretical support for high-quality and sustainable economic development in China.

The paper focuses on the global environmental governance and features of public participation as an integral element of sustainable development. Recently, sustainable development and environmental governance have become interrelated elements of social development. The requirements to strengthen the role of civil society, especially representatives of the public, under the new or reformed system of international environmental governance are important issue of the article. The civil society should play a major role in five key areas: collection and dissemination; policy development consultation; implementation of environmental policy; monitoring and evaluation; promotion of environmental justice. The author defines the features of powers' separation between the actors in international environmental governance, enlightens the question of the public environmental management and its role in environmental decision-making. Thus, determination of the usefulness of the international environmental governance model for the national systems of law is up to date. The research of the peculiarities of the realization of public participation in the international environmental governance is consider to be of the highest relevance, and the development of public environmental management as a distinct element of environmental governance is the issue for the further investigations.

Real-time oil spill concentration assessment through fluorescence imaging and deep learning.

To improve the effectiveness of envir onmental management of watersheds and improve the environmental management mechanism of cross-administrative watersheds, we develop a neoliberal framework for action using incentives, examine the cooperative strategies of local governments in watershed treatment and people-oriented environmental protection under central government subsidies, and analyze the cost effectiveness of multiple strategies in a dynamic perspective, and we have the following important findings: (1) Compared to vertical ecological compensation, the introduction of horizontal cost-sharing contracts is more effective in enhancing inter-local cooperative environmental governance. (2) When the marginal benefit of the downstream local government is greater than half of the upstream marginal benefit, the upstream local government's pollution control investment and the effect of pollution control are improved, and the Pareto improvement of the environmental governance benefit of the watershed is realized, i.e., the cost-sharing contract driven by the downstream can achieve a win-win situation for both environmental and government governance benefits. (3) When the marginal benefit of downstream environmental advocacy is between 0.5 and 1.5 times the marginal benefit of upstream government, the cost-sharing contract is more effective in improving downstream benefits. Conversely, when the marginal benefit of downstream is greater than 1.5 times, the marginal benefit of upstream, the more effective the cost-sharing contract is in improving the marginal benefit of downstream. The results of the study provide useful insights for the government to develop reasonable pollution management cooperation mechanisms to improve environmental management performance and thus enhance the sustainable development of the watershed.

In recent years the increasing hydrocarbon demand and at the same time the end of easy oil has pushed Oil and Gas companies towards unconventional deposits and higher risk and remote areas characterized by social and environmental sensitivities. Although the experience in developing the Arctic region dates back to the early 20th century, there has been recently an increased and renewed global interest in the Arctic. In particular regions like the Norwegian-Russian Barents Sea, Alaska and Greenland have become the preferred areas of exploration and production activities despite of all the threats posed by the extreme operating conditions, the site remoteness, the ice presence, the prolonged darkness and the political regulation. In this sensitive and hostile environment Oil spill Preparedness and Emergency Response become particularly challenging. This paper shows the efforts made within the company to combine consolidated methodology and new initiatives with the aim of delivering a proactive instead of reactive approach to manage the consequences of catastrophic oil spill with a special focus on the issues posed by Arctic operations. In the perspective to enhance the oil spill preparedness and the emergency response, the paper describes the synergy between an expeditive semi-quantitative approach to assess the risk of blow out and releases from pipelines with an environmental analysis tool included in the company 3Ter Advanced Emergency System. Blow out risks and pipeline releases are studied through predictive company in house modeling tools. The results of such simulations feed the environmental analysis tool that is characterized by different layers i.e. habitats, marine regions and protected areas and additional information such as meteo marine data, bathymetry and thickness and concentration of oil. Through the combination of all the above mentioned techniques, it is possible to identify the most appropriate preventive and recovery barriers and select the most suitable response tactics taking into account the specific challenges posed by Arctic environment.

This Special Issue, based on the Third International Conference of the Transatlantic Maritime Emissions Research Network (TRAMEREN), Copenhagen, June 2019, examines emerging issues in Arctic environmental and climate change governance. The law of the sea performs a paramount role in stabilising a legal order in the ocean, including the marine Arctic. However, physical and ecological conditions surrounding the ocean may change over time, particularly in the era of climate change. Thus the antithesis between change and stability in the law of the sea is key when considering effects of climate change on the law of the sea. The six articles in this Special Issue provide insights into the development of the legal framework for governing the marine Arctic addressing, respectively, changing paradigms in the law of the sea, retreating coasts in the Arctic, environmental assessment, the Polar Code, fuel use regulation of Arctic shipping, and Arctic climate interventions.

As deep seabed mining technology matures and global demand for key minerals grows, new requirements are being posed to environmental governance systems. However, given the urgent need to formulate the Regulations on Exploitation of Mineral Resources in the Area, China’s existing legal provisions on environmental governance of deep-sea mining are too principled to meet the needs of practice, thus hindering the goal of marine environmental protection. In response to the above dilemma, this paper proposes improvement suggestions from three perspectives: the licensing system of deep-sea mining, the environmental regulatory system for deep-sea mining, and the financial system of deep-sea mining. These suggestions aim to enhance the adaptability and effectiveness of China’s deep-sea mining environmental governance system.

This part explores institutional issues concerning the Arctic Council and its place in the governance of the Arctic region. It shows that the Arctic Council today occupies a key place in the overall hierarchy of institutions related to the Arctic. Nevertheless, its activities are not without specific problems, among which the main one is the permanent expansion of the number of observers, primarily by those countries located far from the Arctic. It is shown how these processes lead, if not to erosion of cooperation between the Arctic countries, then at least to the internationalization of the Arctic problematic, which is not always in the interests of the countries whose coasts are directly washed by the waters of the Arctic Ocean. In particular, such a debatable issue as the potential granting of observer status to such a supranational structure as the European Union has been considered. The questions as to which decision-making model—consensus, qualified majority, or some other—is most appropriate for the Arctic Council’s activities have also been investigated. The pros and cons of transforming the Arctic Council as an international forum into a full-fledged international organization are analyzed. Considerable attention in the section is paid to the differences between the Arctic and Antarctic as two polar regions, but with entirely different governance systems and legal regimes. In light of Russia’s two-year chairmanship of the Arctic Council, practical proposals have been made concerning new areas of the Arctic Council's activity. In particular, it was proposed to give it the authority to discuss and further develop marine protected areas in the Arctic. All of the problematic issues that stand in the way of this proposal have been identified, particularly those of a legal nature. It shows how scientific research and cooperation are a unifying factor for interstate cooperation in the Arctic. Attempts to coordinate research outside the Arctic Council in a new international organization are judged premature. Finally, we consider the most controversial issue regarding the Arctic Council's activities—granting it the authority to discuss issues related to security, particularly its military aspects. It is shown to what extent this proposal meets or does not meet the interests of the Arctic states.KeywordsArcticArctic CouncilArctic governanceSecurity

As the construction of coal-fired power bases in China accelerates,the amount of ecological damage and environmental pollution caused by this and their subsequent operation and servicing becomes more serious. It should be a priority to establish the ecological and environmental risks posed by coal-fired power bases,to assess their impact on ecosystems and human health,and to develop reasonable strategies for the protection,governance,and restoration of the environment. A sustained and methodical program of ecological and environmental monitoring is the basis for solving these problems. However,currently,the monitoring of technical systems still presents several operational shortcomings,such as low levels of automation,high operating costs,and poor spatial and temporal coverage. At the same time,significant developments in the Internet of Things are improving both the production efficiency of data collection and the way in which data are captured. Accordingly,we believe that the Internet of Things could be one of the more effective ways of solving the problems inherent in the current monitoring of technical systems,in respect of the sensing layer,transport layer,supporting layer,application layer,and client layer. For the study area in the current work,we used Xilinguolemeng in InnerMongolia,an area that is rich in coal resources and one of the principal regions for coal-fired power base operation in China. To obtain the reference information regarding the problems of the atmospheric environment,meteorological data,surface water,groundwater,and soil environment,we needed to deploy the appropriate number of relevant sensors around the study area,after having established the principles for selecting the most suitable sensors. The data were transferred to the central platform via wireless sensor networks and the general packet radio service. Then,we analyzed these data and determined the state of the ecological systems and environmental pollution. At the same time,the platform provided the following functions: monitoring of environmental quality,environmental impact assessment,environmental management and decision-making support, ecological efficiency analysis, and environmental emergency response. The government,especially the environmental protection department,and the company can both easily obtain ecological and environmental information using a technical system based on the Internet of Things. The advantages of the Internet of Things system are as follows. First,it provides a large amount of high-quality data on the ecology and environment because of the avoidance of errors caused by manual operation. Second,the data are available for analysis in near real time. This means that problems can be identified quickly and that data are handled online,such that the builders and managers can respond quickly,helping in the implementation of ecological restoration and environmental protection policies and measures. Finally,the cost of monitoring and management is reduced. Therefore,technical systems for the ecological and environmental monitoring of national large-scale coal-fired power bases,which are based on the Internet of Things,can satisfy the requirements for providing high-quality ecological and environmental data at relatively low cost. Because of the large number of coal-fired power bases,ecological and environmental monitoring based on the Internet of things,offers the advantages of low cost,high precision,high universality,and widespread appeal.

Earthworm acute toxicity, plant seed germination bio-toxicity tests were conducted to evaluate the contaminated site polluted by a pharmaceutical intermediates accident. In the earthworm acute toxicity test, the mortality rate of earthworms in the control group was 0, while the earthworms mortality rate in the two groups of contaminated soil both reached 100% within 24h and three days respectively. The plant seed germination rates of four species except ryegrass were all less than 20% in the treatment dose (contaminated soil: reference soil, 25%). The test results indicated that the soil samples showed high biological toxicity. Eco-toxicity tests can effectively characterize the ecotoxicity and be used in quick identification of accident hazard and risk assessment in environmental emergency response. In addition, it can provide government departments with the basis for the environmental management and provide technics of detailed site survey and risk assessment for relevant scientific research departments and enterprises as well.