Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Boxes
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Glossary
- 1 INTRODUCTION
- PART I THEORY: THINKING ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT
- PART II PARTIES AND MOVEMENTS: GETTING FROM HERE TO THERE
- PART III ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY: ACHIEVING A SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY
- 7 THE ENVIRONMENT AS A POLICY PROBLEM
- 8 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND ECOLOGICAL MODERNISATION
- 9 INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS
- 10 GREENING GOVERNMENT
- 11 POLICY INSTRUMENTS AND IMPLEMENTATION
- 12 CONCLUSION
- References
- Index
11 - POLICY INSTRUMENTS AND IMPLEMENTATION
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Boxes
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Glossary
- 1 INTRODUCTION
- PART I THEORY: THINKING ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT
- PART II PARTIES AND MOVEMENTS: GETTING FROM HERE TO THERE
- PART III ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY: ACHIEVING A SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY
- 7 THE ENVIRONMENT AS A POLICY PROBLEM
- 8 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND ECOLOGICAL MODERNISATION
- 9 INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS
- 10 GREENING GOVERNMENT
- 11 POLICY INSTRUMENTS AND IMPLEMENTATION
- 12 CONCLUSION
- References
- Index
Summary
KEY ISSUES
What are the main environmental policy instruments?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of regulatory and market-based instruments?
How do national regulatory styles differ?
Why are there so few market-based instruments?
What policy instruments can be used to prevent climate change?
Chapter 10 assessed progress towards sustainable development by examining various ways in which governments have tried to build environmental considerations into the policy-making process. Another way of judging progress towards sustainable development is to examine the policy outputs that emerge from that process. A key element in the policy-making and implementation processes concerns the choice of policy instrument, or levers, by which a government tries to achieve its policy objectives. Policy instruments should be enforceable, effective and educative: they should change the behaviour of target groups, achieve the stated policy objectives and help spread environmental values throughout society. It is conventional to distinguish four broad types of policy instrument available for a government to use in pursuing its environmental objectives: regulation, voluntary action, government expenditure and market-based instruments (MBIs). Trends in the use of different policy instruments provide some clues about progress towards sustainable development and ecological modernisation. A distinguishing characteristic of the traditional environmental policy paradigm was its reliance on regulatory, or ‘command and control’, instruments. During the 1970s and 1980s, new environmental legislation created an extensive regulatory framework in most countries, but as many environmental problems continued to worsen despite this growing regulatory ‘burden’, the use of regulation was increasingly criticised, particularly by economists, industrialists and right-wing politicians.
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- The Politics of the EnvironmentIdeas, Activism, Policy, pp. 284 - 314Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001