Encouraging the Sustainable Adoption of Autonomous Vehicles for Public Transport in Belgium: Citizen Acceptance, Business Models, and Policy Aspects

Several mobility-related issues persist in and around urban areas. Autonomous vehicles promise substantial environmental, safety, and economic benefits but may also cause unintended adverse effects that stem from single-passenger mobility becoming more affordable and accessible. While using them for public transport (i.e., autonomous shuttles) can help avoid such downsides, there are many challenges to their adoption, particularly ones that are related to citizen acceptance and economic aspects. Based on a novel survey of Brussels’ citizens, we provide insights from user opinions on last-mile autonomous shuttle services and analyze the effect of various attitudinal and socio-demographic factors affecting such acceptance. Our respondents exhibit an overall positive acceptance albeit with a limited willingness to pay for it. In addition, based on expert interviews, we provide a discussion on appropriate business models and policy recommendations to help ensure the timely adoption of AVs in Belgium that adapts to mobility needs and policy goals.

Nepal government is secure for now

Significance Assembly members are elected indirectly. Last July, Sher Bahadur Deuba was appointed prime minister in line with a Supreme Court order. Deuba’s multi-party coalition has a sizeable majority in the House of Representatives, parliament’s lower house, and a comfortable one in the National Assembly. Impacts If local elections take place in May as currently planned, they will serve as a barometer of public sentiment towards the leading parties. KP Sharma Oli, whom Deuba replaced as premier, will be eyeing a return to power. Politicking risks distracting the government from pursuing important policy goals.

How did UK policymaking in the COVID-19 response use science? Evidence from scientific advisers

Background: Responses to COVID-19 have invested heavily in science. How this science was used is therefore important. Our work extends existing knowledge on the use of science in the pandemic by capturing scientific advisers’ experiences in real time.Aims and objectives: Our aim was to present generalisable messages on key qualifications or difficulties involved in speaking of ‘following the science’.Methods: Ninety-three interviews with UK scientific advisors and government officials captured their activities and perceptions during the pandemic in real time. We also examined Parliamentary Select Committee transcripts and government documents. This material was analysed for thematic content.Findings and discussion: (1) Many scientists sought guidance from policymakers about their goals, yet the COVID-19 response demonstrated the absence of a clear steer, and a tendency to change course quickly; (2) many scientists did not want to offer policy advice, but rather to provide evidence; and (3) a range of knowledge informed the UK’s pandemic response: we examine which kinds were privileged, and demonstrate the absence of clarity on how government synthesised the different forms of evidence being used.Conclusions: Understanding the reasons for a lack of clarity about policy goals would help us better understand the use of science in policy. Realisation that policy goals sometimes alter rapidly would help us better understand the logistics of scientific advice. Many scientists want their evidence to inform policy rather than determine the options selected. Since the process by which evidence leads to decisions is obscure, policy cannot be said to be evidence-based.<br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>Scientific advisors need to know policy goals, but these can be obscure and changeable.</li><br /><li>Many scientists want their evidence to inform policy rather than determine the policy selected.</li><br /><li>Evidence feeds into decisions in obscure ways, so policy cannot be said to be evidence-based.</li><br /><li>‘Evidence-informed’ policy is a more feasible aim than ‘evidence-based’ policy.</li></ul>

Myths of Multipolarity: The Sources of Brazil's Foreign Policy Overstretch

In this article, we provide a framework to analyze the foreign policy overstretch of middle powers, that is, their recent tendency to expand foreign policy goals and ambitions beyond their capabilities. We propose that overstretch results from the interaction of permissive international environments and the collusion of domestic actors to produce foreign policy myths. These myths, in turn, justify unsustainable swelling of foreign policy expenditures until they are shattered. After laying out our theory, we test it against the case of twenty-first-century Brazil. First, we document how interest groups logrolled to foster and capitalize on a “myth of multipolarity,” which, once entrenched in elite discourse and public opinion, resulted in a tangible overgrowth of foreign policy. Second, we show the extent of overstretch across four indicators—number of embassies, participation in peacekeeping operations, membership in international organizations, and aid projects overseas—using the synthetic control method to compare Brazil with a plausible counterfactual.

Evaluation of the Policy Arrangement of Street Vendors in Gembong Asih Center Surabaya City

Surabaya, as the second largest metropolitan city, has a long record in overcoming the problem of street vendors who are increasing every year. The existence of irregular street vendors is considered as a barrier in creating a safe, comfortable, orderly, clean layout. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze the Evaluation of Street Vendor Structuring Policy in Sentra Gembong Asih Surabaya City. The research method uses qualitative descriptive with informant retrieval using purposive sampling techniques. Researchers chose bridgman & davis theory with four focuses: input, process, outputs, outcomes. The results of the study showed that the focus of input, supporting resources are adequate, and human resources are sufficient in number and ability. Focus process, said to be effective, efficient, and has been educated. Focus output, it is said to have not had a successful output in influencing policy goals. Because the existing policy has not met the expectations of traders. Focus outcomes, in the arrangement of traders Gembong Asih the impact received by policy targets has an impact on place and income.

Soviet Legacy and Imagined Past Converge in Levant Battlefields

The article analyzes main drivers of the revitalization of the Soviet ideological narratives in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. A key impetus for the study has been ever increasing number of the terrorist attacks claiming dozens of lives in Russia committed by Central Asian originated fighters as well as arrest of dozens of members of the various religious organizations banned in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The hypothesis rests on the assumption that ideological cacophony stemming from deep controversies embodied in the refashioned Soviet ideological narratives to me major cause of the problem. While employing the path dependence approach, I mainly point to interaction between the surge in the religious extremism and ideological disorientation caused by ideological disorientation in the region continuing since the breakdown of the Soviet Union in 1991 to address main research question “what are external implications of post-Soviet ideological narratives in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan?.” The paper finds out that the post-independent identity policies are not designed to build a new idea but to moot or keep at arms-length identities marginalized during the Soviet period. The Soviet legacy constitutes the core of the neo-ethnic identities introduced by former communist leaders just slightly refashioned with highly selective and politically motivated supplements. Sharp contradictions embodied in these narratives designed to ensure policy goals is among drivers of the ideological disorientation which in its turn acts as a breeding ground for the recruitment of Uzbek and Tajik youth to the global terrorist networks.

The Eastern Mediterranean in UAE Foreign Policy: Goals and Principles

The Eastern Mediterranean in recent years has become an arena of growing activity of regional states causing tensions among them. The importance of this region from political and military point of view combined with its strategic value in the world energy markets underpins the growing involvement of the UAE, a non-regional actor that lately has become deeply engaged in the regional agenda. Due to the fact that the UAE has taken up a quite active foreign policy course outside of its traditional Gulf circle only recently - with the Eastern Mediterranean becoming a new area of Emirati activities - the volume and scope of Russian and foreign research on this topic is rather limited. The existing works that in some way cover issues of the UAE foreign policy do not reflect the increasing influence of this small Gulf state in the Middle East and North Africa and beyond. For this reason, there is a need for complex research on the matter. This paper is based on analysis of existing works on topics related to some aspects of Emirati foreign policy and tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as analytical articles and statistics. The dramatically increased interest of the UAE in the Eastern Mediterranean is part of significant transformations in the monarchys foreign policy that have been taking place since early 2010s. These transformations manifest themselves in new goals and purposes of Emirati foreign policy, its expanding scale and new instruments for its implementation. Not only is the UAE policy in the Eastern Mediterranean consistent with its general goal of containing Turkey and fighting the threat of Islamism, but it is also a part of realizing Emirati global ambitions of becoming a leader in energy and logistics and ensuring its international status as an influential actor.

Key Theoretical, Policy, and Implementation Experience Considerations for the Mexican ETS: Toward an Equitable and Cost-Effective Compliance Phase

This chapter presents a brief overview of the policy design and theoretical environmental economic principles that underpin the concept of emissions trading systems (ETS) as a policy approach to address climate change. It discusses basic environmental economic principles pertinent to the development of market-based solutions to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) and co-pollutants. The chapter serves as the technical basis for the broader discussion that this book as a whole presents on the launch of the pilot phase of the Mexican ETS on January 1, 2020. Understanding international program design experiences, theoretical principles, and implementing best practices is key to ensuring Mexico’s success in the transition from the pilot or learning phase to an operational ETS compliance system. This will ensure Mexico fulfills its national climate policy goals and nationally determined contributions (NDC) under the Paris Agreement in a cost-effective manner, while also providing compliance flexibility to the industrial sectors covered under the program. A well-designed ETS ultimately provides the right incentives for industrial carbon emission reductions to drive cost-effective abatement and clean innovation. Secondly, this chapter presents a more in-depth review of policy developments focusing specifically on key implementation lessons from the two most advanced ETS systems in operation to date: (1) the European Union ETS and (2) California’s cap-and-trade program. In short, this chapter outlines a set of key policy lessons and design parameters to support the transition from the pilot Mexican ETS to an operational compliance phase in a socially just, environmentally sound, and cost-effective manner.