A database has been developed containing future scenarios of average and minimum per capita dietary energy requirements and gross dietary energy requirements at country level. Projections are carried out covering 184 countries from 1990 to 2100 based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) for providing information help to evaluate the impact of climate change on food security. An important feature of this paper is that its approach is “normative” rather than “positive”. This means that its projections reflect the most desirable future but not the most likely one. For example, per capita dietary energy “requirements” are estimated from a nutritional viewpoint but not its “consumption” from an economic standpoint. National dietary energy requirements are calculated with FAO's methodology of measuring the number of undernourished people so that the proportion of undernourished in total population may be below 2.5 % throughout the projection period. Consequently, world dietary energy requirements in SRES Al and Bl scenarios reach 9.80 × 10¹⁵ kcal, 9.92 × 10¹⁵ kcal by 2050 respectively and decrease to 7.60 × 10¹⁵ kcal, 7.65 × 10¹⁵ kcal in 2100. On the contrary, those in A2 and B2 scenarios continue to increase to 1.37 × 10¹⁶ kcal, 1.09 × 10¹⁶ kcal in 2050 and reach 1.74 × 10¹⁶ kcal, 1.16 × 10¹⁶ kcal by 2100. The results of the dietary energy requirement estimation are available at http://www.soc.titech.ac.jphmorita/download data/index.html.

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By using the Diagnosis Model of Organic Resources Circulation, this research aimed at identifying the major sources of nitrogen loading in the Yamato River Basin in Nara City and examining the effectiveness of measures to reduce nitrogen loading to the river water bodies. The study area has been developed as a suburb of the Osaka metropolitan area, and 40% of the land is covered by forest and agricultural land. The simulation result showed that the expected nitrogen loading was overestimated by 16% and had a correlation of R₂=0.62 with measured loading. The simulation also showed that approximately 78% of the loading to the major rives in the area was caused by municipal wastewater, which is both treated and untreated. The three scenarios simulated were: (1) replacing conventional septic tanks in the houses with combined household wastewater treatment facilities;(2) applying river water to paddy fields during the non-irrigation season; and (3) composting organic waste produced in the area The estimations indicated that a maximum of 40% to 45% of nitrogen loading could be reduced by adopting scenarios (1) and (2) above, and that the nitrogen demand for agriculture could be met with composting 8% of annual organic solid waste or 60% of household raw garbage in the area with the scenario (3) above.

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Using Density Functional Theory (DFT in Gaussian03) two benzene rings in Co-PCB are found to be twisted on the bond axis, whose angle is 37.8° in Co-PCB (3, 3', 4, 4', 5), and it is 90° in PCB(1, 1', 2, 2', 3, 3', 4, 4', 5, 5'). On the other hand, two benzene rings of TCDD or TCDF are in the same plane. The calculated value of C-Cl infrared absorption in Co-PCB is 778 cm^-1, which is a stretch vibration. Next, the dissociation of chlorine atom from dioxin is realized using the violet light below 318nm as the bond dissociation energy 3.8 - 3.9 eV estimated by the energy difference between the dioxin and the chlorine atom plus dioxin radical. The orbital bond energy is estimated to be 4.1 - 5.5 eV, and the zero-point energy is also estimated to be 0.38 - 1.65 eV. The bond dissociation energy is inverse proportion to the number of chlorine atoms in dioxins. On the other hand, the dissociation reaction by the extract of chlorine using hydrogen atom is successfully analysed . The reaction times of dechlorination, or the extract reaction of chlorine and the photolytic process, are 22 - 40 fs.

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Yagi Bio-Ecology Center (YBEC), Yagi Town, Kyoto, treats the wet-biomass wastes including livestock feces and urine collected from livestock farms and bean curd refuse from food factories in a mesophilic digestion tank to produce biogas which is then converted into electricity via a gas engine generator. The livestock waste treatment plant successfully achieves zero-emission because the dewatered sludge cake from the anaerobic digestion tank is aerobically fermented with the addition of fresh cattle feces and saw dust to produce compost products. In the present study, a life cycle inventory analysis was carried out on the YBEC livestock waste treatment process in terms of the cumulative CO₂ emission unit as an environmental impact index, considering the CO₂ emission by truck transportation for collecting the raw wet-biomass waste materials, the contributions of the utility inputs such as water, electricity and fuel oils required for the daily process operation and the initial construction of the process facilities. As a result, it was found that the YBEC livestock wastes treatment plant in the initial stage could achieve an energetically self dependent system and could even function as a CO₂ sink for a long-term operation exceeding 16 years, while self generating excess electricity as noted in the specifications and demonstrating zero-emission. In addition, it is expected that the employment of a fuel cell generating system in place of the gas engine generator or the liquid fertilizer utilization of the liquid filtrate of the excess sludge from the digestion tank could markedly decrease the environmental impact and significantly enhance their role as a CO₂ sink.

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Although environmental taxes to mitigate CO₂ emissions are planned or introduced domestically and internationally in recent years, those on energy-intensive industries are reduced and exempted in many tax systems to maintain international competitiveness of the industries. This paper aims to analyze whether the environmental tax seriously influences on international competitiveness of energy-intensive industries, whether the tax reduction and exemption for the industries can mitigate the influences, and how such measures influence on CO₂ emissions reduction. The influences on the international competitiveness and CO₂ emissions reduction were evaluated by comparing the case to impose the uniform-rate environmental tax and the cases to reduce and exempt the tax on energy-intensive industries. GTAP-Ex model, the applied general equilibrium model expanded GTAP-E model, was used for the simulation analyses. Consequently, the influences on energy-intensive industries due to the environmental tax were small. Also, though improvement of international competitiveness by the tax reduction and exemption was small, CO₂ emissions reduction rates and efficiency were lowered. Then, it is concluded that the environmental tax reduction and exemption should not be implemented needlessly, and the influences on individual energy-intensive industries, non-energy-intensive industries, and CO₂ emissions reduction should be considered totally if the measures are implemented.

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Normative economic theory cannot provide adequate explanations for the actual designs of environmental policies. Recently numerous studies that attempt to examine the determinants of the designs using public choice theory have emerged . The literature on the political economy of environmental policymaking process in the United States suggests that the characteristics of the U.S. political system - political competition among interest groups and presidential system under strictly separated powers - significantly influence the design of environmental policy. This paper describes the methodological characteristics and findings of such studies. Analysis of Japan's environmental policymaking process will require attention to the characteristics of Japanese political environment such as parliamentarism and limited political opportunities for environmental groups.

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In this paper, the environmental effectiveness of voluntary instrument (VI) is examined . Here VI is defined as a policy instrument which makes polluters to reduce their environmental load emissions "voluntarily" by the threat made by the government that if they fail to achieve a certain environmental target before a certain point of time, an alternative policy instrument will be applied. The conditions to make profit-maximising firms achieve the target are investigated. With regard to VI applied to individual firms, it is shown that the condition is that additional costs to achieve the target is smaller than the subjectively expected value of additional costs of the alternative instrument applied when they fail to meet the target. Information instruments and subsidy-like instruments enhance the effectiveness of VI when used jointly. With regard to VI applied to a group of firms, it is shown that if there is a subset of the fines, whose environmental load abatements meet the condition of successful individual VI above individually and jointly achieve the collective target, then it is possible that the firms will talk and agree to an abatement assignment to achieve the target and implement it, although neither the agreement nor the implementation is automatic.

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The necessity and the possibility of the cooperation of the upper and lower reaches of river have been fairly recited for a long time. However, it is theoretically interesting that it just actually hears of the cheer, and the actual cooperation of the upper and lower reaches of river is not done too much actively. It is one mystery that it doesn't become the one of the reality though the possibility of mutually beneficial cooperation is suggested. Trying to analyze the interpretation by Schweizer (1988) of Coase that assumes this phenomenon for it to be able to solve the failure of the market by the externality by the voluntary negotiation as a string of the lead is the purpose of this paper. Schweizer describes the process of the voluntary negotiation with the frame of the non-cooperation game, treats the transaction cost as not the means of postulate and a kind of simplification but one components of the model, and clarifies the played role. In this paper, the meaning is made more comprehensible by materializing as an external economic model in the cooperation of the upper and lower reaches of river, and showing this in the figure, and the possibility of the cooperation of the upper and lower reaches of river is clarified. And, the policy implication cooperating what is necessary to be able to end is actually derived. This paper is organized into five sections. In section 2, an external economic model of the river basin is constructed, the allocation before the negotiation is described as a super-short-term situation, and the allocation that becomes the most efficient there is shown . In section 3, after the voluntary negotiation of Schweizer is introduced into this model, and the inducement to the optimal solution is drawn, the influence is clarified in consideration of the transaction cost and no equipping fully information. Section 4 examines should clarified the trouble that disturbs the achievement of the cooperation of the upper and lower reaches of river, how to do in the policy, and to get them over.

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This paper investigates some policies aiming at conserving endangered wildlife species. First of all, we consider the CITES trade ban and show under what factors the ban will reduce poaching. Secondly, we investigate two types of domestic conservation policy of wildlife: one is a policy to set aside a habitat of wildlife into a national park or a protected area, and the other is a policy of utilizing community-based management (CBM) generating incentives for local communities to conserve wildlife on their own. Especially, as a representative CBM, an attempt called CAMPFIRE (The Communal Areas Management Program for Indigenous Resources) made in Zimbabwe is explained and characterized in terms of economics. We show that several conditions are required for each policy to be effective for conservation.

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A set of studies on the evaluation of the policies for the society with sound material cycle were reviewed from the point of view of waste reduction. They were taken from the latest outcomes in the field of environmental economics and policy studies. The policies under review were those which make the waste flow narrow and those which make the flows other than waste flow wide. The former were waste management policies and the latter were recycling policies. The results showed that, as to waste management policy, policies for enlarge treatment capacity were still remained; as to waste tax, the ex-post evaluation of the tax was needed; as to recycling policy, management of international recycling was one of the key issue for successful policy.

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This paper aims to discuss the definition of urban sustainability and how to realize the concept of sustainable cities into practice based on the survey of sustainable cities studies. Sustainable cities studies in our age have two directions. One direction is the specialization into each topic such as sustainable transport, sustainable housing and sustainable land use. As a result, it may be concluded that it is crucial and necessary for realizing sustainable cities to manage social common capital in urban areas according to the social criteria derived from sustainability principle. The other direction is the synthesization of the concepts of environmental, economic and social sustainability through the collaborative planning process of social common capital. Environmental policy integration which is indispensable for the more comprehensive urban planning can be attained through the reform of urban socio-economic systems. The deliberative democratic and communicative urban planning process involving multi-stakeholders can contribute to foster the institutional capacity to make consensus on the comprehensive urban policy targets for sustainable city. The economic conditions including sustainable urban economic structure are also discussed.

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This paper aims to discuss the expanding mechanism of establishing Environment-related schools and graduate schools, related to the reform of faculties of Liberal Arts in 1990s. Using the frameworks of Life cycle theory of scientific research and Higher education policy, this paper looked down at the expanding mechanism and examined the cases of Nagasaki University, Okayama University and Nagoya University. As a result, the higher education policy as well as the efforts of establishment of Environmental Science turns out to be one of the most important factors to the establishing mechanism of environment-related schools and graduate schools related to the reform of facultiesof Liberal Arts. Also, the difference of reforming process limited the scope of Environmental Science in each institution.

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A new academic plan was drawn up at Nagoya University in 1999. According to this plan, the Graduate School of Environmental Studies was established in 2001, and a new curriculum of liberal arts and sciences for the first and the second year undergraduate students started in 2003 and included almost all of the academic staff of Nagoya University. Environmental education enriched not only the graduate school but also the liberal arts and sciences programs. The history, methodology, and content of this environmental studies program were explained in this paper.

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I reviewed the development of the faculty of Environmental Studies, Nagasaki University, which was established in October 1997 under “the idea of fusion between Science and Humanity” to cope with environmental problems, and then considered the residual problems to be challenged by it. The main point to be examined is found out to be whether “the idea” is put into force effectively at the practice in education and research. Continuous efforts to improve its curriculum including the faculty development activities have been carried out with the purpose of putting “the idea” into practice and, as a result, advancement of correlation and systematization of diversified subjects to be studied by students is evaluated to have been gradually promoted. Three problems to be challenged were pointed out. To draw a future design of the faculty shared by the staffs with more structuralized curriculum is one of the pressing problems. It is also important to continue the trial-and-error challenge to systematize education and research activities with the approach which strengthens the relation between constituent staffs. Finally, to expand a regional cooperation is a very important challenge to support and develop regional community which can manage environmental loads and risk responsively.

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[in Japanese]

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