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Achieving Environmental Ends: Policy and its Implementation

Achieving Environmental Ends: Policy and its Implementation. John Murlis UCL Department of Geography IUAPPA/BAEWAP Seminar S ão Paulo 22 October 2002. The story in summary. Our environmental problems arise from the way we satisfy consumer needs and wants

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Achieving Environmental Ends: Policy and its Implementation

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  1. Achieving Environmental Ends:Policy and its Implementation John Murlis UCL Department of Geography IUAPPA/BAEWAP Seminar São Paulo 22 October 2002

  2. The story in summary • Our environmental problems arise from the way we satisfy consumer needs and wants • This involves life cycles of processes, products and services • Present process- based systems for environmental management have served us well but how far will they take us towards our environmental aims? • In future gains are likely to be slow and costly • Eventually we will need new approaches, spread over life cycles, involving producers and consumers • There are immediate opportunities to build towards these new approaches in addressing current problems

  3. Policy and its Implementation • What we aim to achieve • How we aim to achieve it • Working with different interests • In complex societies

  4. Trends in Environmental Policy and Implementation

  5. Being Clear about ends • How do environmental aims sit in a context of sustainable development? • Can we describe the environment to which we aspire? • Can we measure the gap between where we are and where we wish to be? • Can we understand what has to happen to close the gap?

  6. Approaches to environmental Policy and its Implementation • Precaution • Technology • Effects • Market Instruments • Co- management

  7. Precautionary Approach

  8. Technology Based Approaches

  9. Effects Based Approaches

  10. Market Instruments

  11. Co-Regulation

  12. Taking Stock: How far have we come? • Local Air Quality: greatly improved but some targets elusive and transport growth threatens gains • Waste: where we have targets, they seem unattainable • Regional Environmental Protection: may be half way toward critical loads for acidity in Europe by 2010 • Climate Change: fragile agreement in Kyoto, but targets do not match the scale of the problem • Control of persistent micropollutants barely begun

  13. What are the Drawbacks of our current Approaches? • Progress is slow: science and policy analysis are contested • Solutions are incomplete: intermediate targets the norm • Policy is reactive: damage is done before action can be taken • Progress is fragile: other government and public priorities • Inefficient: Little opportunity for innovation or environmental leadership

  14. Life Cycles: Where to intervene? • Marketing and Design • Collecting Materials • Manufacture • Distribution and Sales • Use • Reuse and recycle • Disposal of residuals

  15. New Policy Approaches • Move down the chain from process to product to service • Spread the responsibility to producers and consumers • Take advantage of market leadership and innovation

  16. Example: Product Policies • Aim : “minimising burden of consumption over whole life cycles” • Standards guide, but do not constrain • Results come from market leadership and innovation

  17. Product-Focused Policies Implemented through: • environmental design and marketing • eco-labelling • taxes and charges • product regulation • producer responsibility

  18. Product Policies • Address main environmental threat • Treat whole product life cycle • Responsibility for change is shared amongst actors • Innovation released • Market can reward leaders • Opportunities for social learning • Connect to other dimensions of sustainable development

  19. The Environment as a business issue • Return on Investment • Legislative timetables and business cycles • Certainty • Level playing field • Environmental Markets and Consumer Choice

  20. Partnerships in compliance • Understanding capacity: what is Possible? • Understanding costs • Linking to business or economic cycles • Focussing on ends • Agreements, compacts and covenants

  21. What we need to know • How much can a products policy deliver towards targets? • What are the transaction costs? • What regulatory controls will still be needed?

  22. Conclusions • Policy focus has moved from means to ends • Regulatory regimes have yet to follow • The next steps will be hard and a challenge to rule-driven regulation • Cooperation is needed to reveal costs and options • Role of regulator may be challenged by emerging environmental strategy in businesses • Partnership in achieving ends may prove most effective common strategy

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