Environmental policy

Environmental policy is any [course of] action deliberately taken [or not taken] to manage human activities with a view to prevent, reduce, or mitigate harmful effects on nature and natural resources, and ensuring that man-made changes to 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 primarily refers to the ecological dimension (ecosystems), but can also take account of social dimension (quality of life) and an economic dimension (resource management). 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 (negative) impact on human values such as good health or the 'clean and green' environment.

Environmental issues generally addressed by environmental policy include (but are not limited to) air and water pollution, waste management, ecosystem management, biodiversity protection, and the protection of natural resources, wildlife and endangered species. 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 externalities, 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.

Voluntary measures, such as bilateral agreements negotiated between the government and private firms and commitments made by firms independent of government pressure, are other instruments used in environmental policy. Another instrument is the implementation of greener public purchasing programs.

Often, several instruments are combined in an instrument mix formulated to address a certain environmental problem. Since environmental issues often have many different aspects, several policy instruments may be needed to adequately address each one. Furthermore, instrument mixes may allow firms greater flexibility in finding ways to comply with government policy while reducing the uncertainty in the cost of doing so. However, instrument mixes must be carefully formulated so that the individual measures within them do not undermine each other or create a rigid and cost-ineffective compliance framework. Also, overlapping instruments lead to unnecessary administrative costs, making implementation of environmental policies more costly than necessary In order to help governments realize their environmental policy goals, the OECD Environment Directorate studies and collects data on the efficiency of the environmental instruments governments use to achieve their goals as well as their consequences for other policies. The site www.economicinstruments.com [1] serves as a complementary database detailing countries' experience with the application of instruments for environmental policy.

The current reliance on a market based framework is controversial, however, with many prominent environmentalists arguing that a more radical, overarching, approach is needed than a set of specific initiatives, to deal coherently with the scale of the climate change challenge. For an example of the problems, energy efficiency measures may actually increase energy consumption in the absence of a cap on fossil fuel use, as people might drive more efficient cars further and they might sell better. Thus, for example, Aubrey Meyer calls for a 'framework based market' of contraction and convergence examples of which are ideas such as the recent Cap and Share and 'Sky Trust' proposals.

Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) are often prepared to assess and compare the impacts of various policy alternatives. Moreover, it is often assumed that if policymakers will make rational decisions based on the merits of the project. Eccleston and March report that even though policymakers often have access to reasonable accurate information political and economic factors often lead to long-term environmentally destructive decisions. Yet decision-making theory casts doubt on this premise. Irrational decisions are often reached based on unconsciousness biases, illogical assumptions and premises, and the desire to avoid ambiguity and uncertainty.

Eccleston identifies and describe 5 of the most critical environmental policy issues facing humanity: water scarcity, food scarcity, climate change, Peak Oil, and the Population Paradox.

History

The 1970s marked the beginning of modern environmental policy making. On January 1, 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). 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 United States of America as one of the world leaders in environmental conservation.

In the European Union, the very first Environmental Action Programme 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. Environmental policy has thus become a core area of European politics.

Environmental Policy Studies

Given the growing need for trained environmental policy practitioners, graduate schools throughout the world have begun to offer specialized professional degrees in environmental policy studies. While there is not a standard curriculum for these programs, students typically take courses in policy analysis, environmental science, environmental law and politics, ecology, energy, and natural resource management. Graduates of these programs are usually employed by governments, international organizations, private sector, think tanks, universities, and a host of other parties.

Due to lack of standard nomenclature, institutions use varying names and designations to refer to the environmental policy degrees they award. However, these degrees typically fall in one of four broad categories: Master of Arts in Environmental Policy, Master of Science in Environmental Policy, Master of Public Administration in Environmental Policy, or PhD in Environmental Policy. Sometimes, more specific names are used to reflect the particular focus of a degree program. For example, the Monterey Institute of International Studies uses Master of Arts in International Environmental Policy (MAIEP) to emphasize the international-orientation of its curriculum.

See also

• Environmental science
• Environmental governance
• Environmental politics
• Environmental Principles and Policies (book)
• Harris School of Public Policy Studies
• Tellus Institute
• Monterey Institute of International Studies
• Chemical Leasing

External links

• Envirowise UK Portal Government funded site offering environmental policy advice
• Responding to Climate Change Climate Change organisation publishing annually since 2002.
• Green Policy Canadian organization focused on the collection, analysis and continuous improvement of companies green policies.
• 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
• [2] In December 1997 Pakistan Environmental Protection Act (PEPA'97) 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.