The Conservation Soil of Mexico City (SC-CDMX) covers 57% of the territory and is the designated area for conservation due to the great amount of ecosystem services (ES) it provides. Urban, rural, forested and cultivated areas conform it.

The government of Mexico City has applied integrated conservation and development projects (ICDPs) in the area. Examples are: the Funding Program in Support of the

Conservation and Restoration of the Ecosystems through Social Participation (PROFACE) and the Retribution for the Conservation of Environmental Services in the Ecological-Communal Reserves and Communal Areas of Ecological Conservation (PRCSA). These programs merge owners and users of the land in the development of the conservation activities, providing them with economic support in exchange. Our research question is: Are PROFASE and PRCSA being successful public policies in providing an improvement in environmental performance and social development?

An external quantitative and qualitative evaluation of both programs was done in order to identify the performance and limitations in environmental and social terms. We developed an analysis of land use change, a historical analysis of the programs and we performed

interviews and workshops with the beneficiaries and the technicians in charge of the program. Land use change was first evaluated in all of the Conservation Soil Mexico City using a multi-temporal cartographic comparison of 2008, 2010 and 2015 in the software IDRISI. For the specific analysis of PROFACE and PRCSA, parcels were chosen and the percentage of land use change was determined using GIS.

Referring to the conservation state, in case of PROFACE, the environmental performance has not improved given that the forest cover has not increased as expected. In PRCSA the forest cover has increased but a lower than expected rate. In relation to the involvement of the beneficiaries, we were able to observe that even though the resources are very limited, both programs represent the main source of income of the beneficiaries.

Mexico legally enforces the evaluation of social development programs but that is not the case for the ones related to environmental issues. Departing from a socioenvironmental perspective we were able to implement an evaluation that included both factors. This is the first time the programs of PROFACE and PRCSA are evaluated and will serve as the baseline for future evaluations and suggestions for improvement. Our work also addressesthe complex interactions native to peri-urban areas in one of the largest cities in the world.

Key Words: public policy evaluation, integrated conservation and development projects (ICDPs), environmental performance, sustainable development, land use change.

In Germany, municipalities are faced with the demanding task to contribute to the German “Energiewende” by increasing the share of renewable energies and energy efficiency by 2050. Despite a comparatively high level of CO2-emissions from the region’s energy-intensive industry, even cities in the Ruhr area have voluntarily committed to ambitious reduction targets in line with the national levels. Furthermore, many of these cities have set up climate action plans to deal with the local dimensions of energy transformations.

In order to monitor the state and the progress of energy transformations at regional level, however, neither top-down CO2-monitoring approaches (e.g. CO2-inventories) nor elaborated bottom-up evaluation methodologies of policy programmes in the energy sector are sufficient. In addition to these approaches, more comprehensive monitoring schemes are demanded that do not only assess single emission or energy indicators but adequately reflect path dependencies and specific socio-economic dynamics of cities and regions under investigation.

Thus, the paper will start with a review of existing monitoring schemes, thereby identifying the main components of such a comprehensive transformation monitoring system: Twelve qualitative and quantitative indicators aim at qualifying the state of on-going, regional energy transitions. In a second step, we will apply our comprehensive monitoring system to the specific dynamics and structures of the Ruhr area:

- The Ruhr area is Germany’s biggest industrial agglomeration, inhabiting 5 Million people and characterised by polycentricity.

- For decades now, the entire region is experiencing a continuous and enormous economic structural change caused and accompanied by an economic downturn, which shrank the industrial core of the Ruhr area. Thus, a close link between sectoral energy policies and structural policies aiming at the regional industry and business sector is particularly important.

- The Ruhr area is still characterised by coal-based power plants, which are surrounded by energy-intensive industrial plants (e.g. ….) benefiting from an integrated economy (Verbundwirtschaft). The resulting path-dependencies complicate a gradual transformation of the region’s energy infrastructures.

- Municipalities in the Ruhr area grapple with a high level of public debt and, as a result, tight budgets and limited capacities to manage the ‘Energiewende’

Based on our monitoring of the ‘energy transformation of the Ruhr area, we will conclude with recommendations regarding the improvement of the regional energy strategy on the one hand and a critical review and enhancement of our monitoring scheme on the other hand.

A more comprehensive approach of an energy transformation monitoring would enhance the information basis of regional stakeholders and international investors, and would support the design of foreword-looking energy policies and strategies.

Acknowledgements:

The paper is based on a large research project called “Energiewende Ruhr - Framework to Implement the Energy Transition at the Local Authorities of the Ruhr Area” funded by the Mercator Foundation between 2014 and 2017.

Why do countries subsidise fossil fuel? What determines the level of petroleum subsidies? This article identifies structural, political, and economic determinants of fuel subsidies using a panel dataset (N=60, T=20). The findings suggest that regime type (democracy or autocracy) has no explanatory power controlling for resource endowments and development level. Similarly, party ideology (left or right) has no explanatory power when it comes to petroleum subsidies. I argue that the theory of veto players has more explanatory power for policy change than simplistic notions of regime type and party ideology. Furthermore, administrative capacity and quality of bureaucracy of the state plays a significant role in explaining the presence of petroleum subsidies controlling for other factors. The results also show that international institutions and globalisation play an important role in reducing or phasing out subsidies and encouraging countries to tax petroleum appropriately.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) possesses a burgeoning identity as more developed member states such as Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia take on leadership roles in defining local and regional regulations. While the conglomeration of nations in the region are organized in a similar fashion to that of the European Union, the environmental policies of the two regions are drastically different in applicability and enforcement. Recently, ASEAN sprung into prominence as foreign and local investment help develop these nations, enabling the region to successfully claim a seat in the congregation of significant economic powers in the Asia Pacific region. This effect is even more amplified as the economy of some of the more developed nations in Asia, such as Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, are seeing slower growth. How is the ASEAN contributing to environmental preservation as an ecologically significant region? Where does the ASEAN currently stand in terms of regulatory stringency and legal system framework? How is the ASEAN enforcing policies created for environmental protection?

Keywords: ASEAN, environmental governance, regulatory, enforcement, effectiveness, regional governance