Key issues

1. ◗ What are the main environmental policy instruments?

2. ◗ What are the strengths and weaknesses of regulatory and market-based instruments?

3. ◗ How do national regulatory styles differ?

4. ◗ Why are there so few market-based instruments?

5. ◗ How can policy instruments be used to prevent climate change?

Chapter 11 assessed progress towards sustainable development by examining various ways in which governments have tried to build environmental considerations into the policymaking process. Another aspect of judging progress towards sustainable development is to examine the policy outputs that emerge from that process. A key element in the policymaking and implementation process 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). 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. Consequently, there has been growing support for MBIs as a more efficient and effective alternative to regulations.