‘New’ instruments of environmental governance? National experiences and prospects

Abstract:

The implementation of environmental controls was for many years based on a regulatory principle of 'command and control'. It understandably required a major bureaucratic resource, which in recent years has given way to more market-based instruments such as eco-taxes, voluntary agreements and eco-labels. This work looks at the new range of instruments in use and provides fresh analysis by way of case study and comparative assessment of environmental politics.

The volume is organised in three parts. The introduction presents a comprehensive background to the evolution of NEPIs with detailed study of the various types and the differing national attitudes to their adoption, before introducing the eight countries which are featured in the case histories. In part two, National Experiences, the featured countries represent a broad selection of EU states and the addition of Australia provides a broadly comparable non-EU state. The EU states include Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Part three comprises a set of comparative conclusions addressing such issues as the drivers and barriers influential in the development of NEPIs in particular countries, the overall pattern of use across different countries, comparison of the new NEPIs with the former practices of national environmental policies and to relate the overall pattern of use to popular theories of comparative politics and public policy-making.

The work will interest scholars, students, policy researchers and practitioners engaged in the fields of environmental law, public policy, environmental sciences and environmental economics.

Andrew Jordan is Manager of the UK ESRC's Programme on Environmental Decision-Making at the University of East Anglia.