Environmental policy refers to the commitment of an organization to the
laws, regulations, and other policy mechanisms concerning environmental
issues. These issues generally include air and water pollution, solid waste
management, biodiversity, ecosystem management, maintenance of biodiversity,
the protection of natural resources, wildlife and endangered species.
Policies concerning energy or regulation of toxic substances including pesticides
and many types of industrial waste are part of the topic of environmental
policy. This policy can be deliberately taken to direct and oversee human
activities and thereby prevent harmful effects on the biophysical environment
and natural resources, as well as to make sure that changes in the
environment do not have harmful effects on humans.
Definition It is useful to consider that
environmental policy comprises two major terms: environment and policy.
Environment refers to the physical ecosystems, but can also take into
consideration the social dimension and an economic dimension. Policy can be
defined as a "course of action or principle adopted or proposed by a
government, party, business or individual". Thus, environmental policy
focuses on problems arising from human impact on the environment, which
retroacts onto human society by having a impact on human values such as good
health or the 'clean and green' environment.
Environmental issues generally addressed by environmental policy include air and
water pollution, waste management, ecosystem management, biodiversity
protection, the protection of natural resources, wildlife and endangered
species, and the preservation of these natural resources for future
generations. Relatively recently, environmental policy has also attended
to the communication of environmental issues.
Rationale The rationale for governmental
involvement in the environment is market failure in the form of forces beyond the
control of one person, including the free rider problem and the tragedy of
the commons. An example of an externality is a factory that engages in
water pollution in a river. The cost of such action is paid by society-at-large,
when they must clean the water before drinking it and is external to the costs
of the factory. The free rider problem is when the private marginal cost of
taking action to protect the environment is greater than the private marginal
benefit, but the social marginal cost is less than the social marginal benefit.
The tragedy of the commons is the problem that, because no one person owns
the commons, each individual has an incentive to utilize common resources as
much as possible. Without governmental involvement, the commons is overused.
Examples of tragedies of the common are overfishing and overgrazing.
Instruments, problems, and issues Environmental policy instruments are
tools used by governments to implement their environmental policies.
Governments may use a number of different types of instruments. For
example, economic incentives and market-based instruments such as taxes
and tax exemptions, tradable permits, and fees can be very effective to
encourage compliance with environmental policy.
Bilateral agreements between the government and private firms and
commitments made by firms independent of government requirement are examples of
voluntary environmental measures. Another instrument is the implementation
of greener public purchasing programs. Several instruments are sometimes
combined in a policy mix to address a certain environmental problem. Since
environmental issues have many aspects, several policy instruments may be needed
to adequately address each one. Furthermore, a combination of different
policies may give firms greater flexibility in policy compliance and
reduce uncertainty as to the cost of such compliance.
Government policies must be carefully formulated so that the individual
measures do not undermine one another, or create a rigid and cost-ineffective
framework. Overlapping policies result in unnecessary administrative costs,
increasing the cost of implementation. To help governments realize their policy
goals, the OECD Environment Directorate collects data on the efficiency and
consequences of environmental policies implemented by the national governments.
The website, www.economicinstruments.com, [1]
provides database detailing countries' experiences with their environmental
policies. The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, through UNECE
Environmental Performance Reviews, evaluates progress made by its member
countries in improving their environmental policies.
The current reliance on a market-based framework is controversial, however, and
many environmentalists contend that a more radical, overarching approach is
needed than a set of specific initiatives, to deal with the climate
change. For example, energy efficiency measures may actually increase energy
consumption in the absence of a cap on fossil fuel use, as people might drive
more fuel-efficient cars. Thus, Aubrey Meyer calls for a 'framework-based
market' of contraction and convergence. The Cap and Share and the Sky Trust are
proposals based on the idea. Environmental impact assessments are
conducted to compare impacts of various policy alternatives. Moreover, it is
assumed that policymakers make rational decisions based on the merits of the
project. Eccleston and March argue that although policymakers normally have
access to reasonably accurate information, political and economic
factors often lead to environmentally destructive decisions in the long run.
The decision-making theory casts doubt on this premise. Irrational decisions
are reached based on unconscious biases, illogical assumptions, and the desire to
avoid ambiguity and uncertainty. Eccleston identifies and describes five
of the most critical environmental policy issues facing humanity: water
scarcity, food scarcity, climate change, the peak oil, and the population
paradox. Research and innovation policy
Synergic to the environmental policy is the environmental research and
innovation policy. An example is the European environmental research and
innovation policy, which aims at defining and implementing a
transformative agenda to greening the economy and the society as a whole so to
achieve a truly sustainable development. Europe is particularly active in this
field, via a set of strategies, actions and programmes to promote more and
better research and innovation for building a resource-efficient, climate
resilient society and thriving economy in sync with its natural environment.
Research and innovation in Europe are financially supported by the programme
Horizon 2020, which is also open to participation worldwide.
History The 1960s marked the beginning of modern
environmental policy making. Although mainstream America remained oblivious to
environmental concerns, the stage had been set for change by the publication
of Rachel Carson's New York Times bestseller Silent Spring in 1962. Earth
Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing
the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California.
Administrator Ruckelshaus was confirmed by the Senate on December 2, 1970, which
is the traditional date we use as the birth of the agency. Five months
earlier, in July 1970, President Nixon had signed Reorganization Plan No. 3
calling for the establishment of EPA in July 1970. At the time, Environmental
Policy was a bipartisan issue and the efforts of the United States of America
helped spark countries around the world to create environmental policies. During
this period, legislation was passed to regulate pollutants that go into the
air, water tables, and solid waste disposal. President Nixon signed the
Clean Air Act in 1970 which set the USA as one of the world leaders in
environmental conservation. In the European Union, the very first
Environmental Action Programmed was adopted by national government
representatives in July 1973 during the first meeting of the Council of
Environmental Ministers. Since then an increasingly dense network of
legislation has developed, which now extends to all areas of environmental
protection including air pollution control, water protection and waste
policy but also nature conservation and the control of chemicals, biotechnology
and other industrial risks. EU environmental policy has thus become a
core area of European politics. Overall organizations are becoming more
aware of their environmental risks and performance requirements. In line with
the ISO 14001 standard they are developing environmental policies
suitable for their organization. This statement outlines environmental
performance of the organization as well as its environmental objectives. Written
by top management of the organization they document a commitment to continuous
improvement and complying with legal and other requirements, such as the
environmental policy objectives set by their governments.
Environmental Policy Integration The concept of Environmental Policy
Integration refers to the process of integrating environmental objectives
into non-environmental policy areas, such as energy, agriculture and
transport, rather than leaving them to be pursued solely through purely
environmental policy practices. EPI is widely recognised as one of the key
elements of sustainable development. More recently, the notion of ‘climate
policy integration’, also denoted as ‘mainstreaming’, has been applied to
indicate the integration of climate considerations into the normal activity
of government. Environmental policy studies
Given the growing need for trained environmental practitioners, graduate
schools throughout the world offer specialized professional degrees in
environmental policy studies. While there is not a standard curriculum,
students typically take classes in policy analysis, environmental science,
environmental law and politics, ecology, energy, and natural resource management.
Graduates of these programs are employed by governments, international
organizations, private sector, think tanks, universities, and so on.
Due to the lack of standard nomenclature, institutions use varying
designations to refer to academic degrees they award. However, the degrees
typically fall in one of four broad categories: master of arts, master of
science, master of public administration, and PhD in environmental
policy. Sometimes, more specific names are used to reflect the focus of the
academic program. For example, the Middlebury Institute of International
Studies at Monterey awards master of arts in international environmental
policy to emphasize the international orientation of the curriculum.
See also Chemical leasing
Climate policy Environmental governance
Environmental politics Environmental Principles and Policies
Harris School of Public Policy Studies List of environmental degree-granting
institutions Tellus Institute
Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey
References External links
GreenWill Global nonprofit initiative offering free environmental policies
worldwide Envirowise UK Portal Government funded
site offering environmental policy advice
Responding to Climate Change Climate Change organization publishing annually
since 2002. Resources for the Future A nonprofit and
nonpartisan organization that conducts independent research—rooted primarily in
economics and other social sciences—on environmental, energy, and natural
resource issues. EEA/OECD Environmental Policy and
Natural Resource Management database US National Environmental Policy Act
Environmental Policy and Planning Career Info Including sample careers, education
requirements, and salary comparisons. Schelling, Thomas C.. "Greenhouse
Effect". In David R. Henderson. Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Library of
Economics and Liberty. OCLC 317650570, 50016270 and 163149563
[2] In December 1997 Pakistan Environmental Protection Act was signed
and promulgated by the President of Pakistan. It provides for the
protection, conservation, rehabilitation and improvement of the environment, for
the prevention and control of pollution, and promotion of sustainable
development. PEPA'97 covers nearly all issues from pollution generation to
pollution prevention, monitoring to confiscation, compliance to violation,
and prosecution to penalization. However, results of this legislation are
subjected to virtuous and unadulterated implementation.
Burden, L. 2010, How to write an environmental policy,