This paper discusses the development process and the function of environmental partnership organizations that act in relation to various stakeholders in a region, based on the case study of “Miyako Agenda 21 Forum” in Kyoto City. Agenda 21 Forum was established in 1998. Environmental partnership organizations were active in working to prevent global warming, but their activity has been stagnant since 2005. Agenda 21 Forum has functioned as a platform, round-table, and intermediary that promotes partnership-based activities in Kyoto City. However, after the original goal was achieved to a certain level, organizations did not reset their goals, despite changes in community attitudes to global warming prevention, and their significance to the local stakeholders declined. This is the reason for their stagnation, New roles and goals are needed as an environmental partnership organization, associated with corresponding organizational change.

In this study, we conducted a web-questionnaire survey of 1,784 households that had purchased new automobiles from April 2009 to October 2010, and analyzed the purchasing factors of hybrid vehicles in consumers in Japan from two aspects: the decision-making process and the type of vehicle chosen. On the decision-making process in purchasing hybrid vehicles, the interest in the subsidy and the tax reduction for ecologically friendly cars encourages consumers both to consider the purchase of hybrid vehicles favorably and to make a final decision on purchase, and the interest in global warming encourages consumers only to consider the purchase of hybrid vehicles favorably. On the consumers’ choice of the type of vehicle, the consumers who have a greater interest in the subsidy and the tax reduction tend to prefer fuel-efficient cars without distinction between hybrid and gasoline vehicles. In contrast, the consumers who have more access to information on global warming tend to prefer hybrid vehicles to gasoline vehicles.

It is appropriate in principle that an environmental tax on energy goods should be based on the carbon content in a fossil fuel. However, for energy goods in which market price fluctuates, there is a risk that reduction of energy demand may become uncertain under a specific duty system. Therefore, when targeting demand reduction of energy goods, an ad valorem duty system is judged to be desirable. The environmental value-added tax system proposed in this paper took into consideration the employment of the system in the framework of Japan’s present consumption tax by designing a taxation system based on ad valorem duties.

How are environmental policy instruments changed when the regulations for environmental risks are tightened? This article shows two characteristics and problems of the policy instruments of environmental regulations by analyzing the qualitative changes of policy instruments of a chemical policy in Japan from a control theory perspective. Using an analytical framework based on the control theory by Christopher C. Hood, the article compares the policy instruments of chemical policy including government intentions. Finally, concerning two characteristics and problems of the policy instruments in environmental risk regulations, the fact that regulation-based methods are becoming more flexible and the fact that information-based instruments are used with networks and self-regulation by related actors, the paper concludes that burden avoidance of the stakeholders and the specialty of the chemical regulations may prevent flexible control.

Japanese power companies can meet the challenge of CO₂ abatement by either converting generating plants from high carbon intensive plants to low intensive plants or by replacing the high carbon intensive plants, while keeping electric power supply constant. This paper examines the marginal abatement cost and the potential for CO₂ abatement using data for Japanese power companies. The shape of marginal abatement cost curves and the potential for abatement estimated by redispatch is determined by the capacity of low carbon intensive plants. It is more cost effective for a company which did not invest in LNG plants in the past to use the replacement approach.

There exists a great deal of literature on economic losses from flood disasters, However, examination of the literature raises concerns with regard to inappropriate selection of flood risk variables and omitted variable bias in estimating flood damage. In this paper, we estimate a Hedonic land price model by employing two-step procedures to correct the omitted variable bias on flood risk. The flood risk is estimated to lower the land price by 10.24% and the flood damage is estimated to be 1,200,000 yen/m². This estimate is fairly large compared with the estimate by Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which indicates that the indirect damage cost is likely to be much higher than the direct damage cost. In addition, we find that previous studies are likely to underestimate perceived flood damage.

This paper presents a survey of many articles of (1) water rights systems, (2) water transfer problems, and (3) water rights system reforms for environmental protection, concerning the Western United States, England and Wales, and Japan. Present water rights reforms around the world include not only water transfer from agricultural use to urban use, but also water transfer from consumptive use to instream (environmental) use. Water rights systems have many features affected by rationality, weather, etc. Simple features of water rights systems in three countries are shown, as is the present state of water transfers from agricultural use to urban use in the Western United States. The paper also shows how water rights systems in three countries are reformed for environmental protection.