ENVIRONMENT POLICY

WHAT IS POLICY? It is widely acknowledged that policy is a term that evades precise and agreed definition. (describing an elephant). Most definitions refer to policy, in one way or the other, as agenda setting combined with action. Dictionary definition : A course of action - a programme of actions adopted by a person, or group. Or govt, or set of principles on which they are based. POLICY VS PROGRAM VS PLAN One useful way of representing policy is by establishing its relation to other aspects of decision making and action, as in the following hierarchical arrangement:

Policy the setting of direction and broad intent, objectives (e.g., an objective to reduce greenhouse gas emissions); Program a strategy and management framework for achieving policy (e.g., to achieve the policy by reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from industry); and Plan a specific element or aspect of a program (e.g., encourage emissions reductions by providing subsidies to implement energy efficiency in industry).

WHAT IS ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY CHANGING PARADIGMS OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY PRIMARY STAGE

From these early days and through until about the late 1980s, the impetus came from concerns for environmental degradation at national and regional scales and almost all of the environmental policy and legislation that came into force was, accordingly, regional and national in its origins and scope. MAIN STAGE Environmental policy entered the main stage in the late 1960s and early 1970s, following the publication of a number of influential works that documented the extent and severity of environmental degradation around the world. Rachel Carsons 1962 book, Silent Spring, which documented the use and effects of agricultural chemicals is often held to have been the first of these significant contributions. (Others of note include The Population Bomb by Paul Ehrlich, Barry Commoners The Closing Circle and Garret Hardins famous essay The tragedy of the commons.)

Amidst a precipitous rise in social concern about the environment, governments were pressured to respond through the development of environmental policy and its enactment through legislation and environmental management strategies.

National to Internationalization of Environmental Policy

The history of international agreements on the environment can be traced back to the 1940s. The United States Environmental Policy Act was a landmark piece of legislation, followed rapidly by essentially similar regulations throughout much of the Western world. However, from about the 1980s, interest began to shift from environmental change that was nationally scaled to observed changes in environmental quality that are transnational or have global reach.

Acid deposition, depletion of the ozone layer, and human induced climate change are the archetypes in this regard. Post 1980 the number of agreements, treaties, and conventions proliferated, led to the internationalization of environmental policy. NATURE OF INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT POLICY International policy in any domain can be difficult since, as Timothy ORiordan (1995) pointed out, it requires nations to surrender, in some measure, their national sovereignty that is, the freedom to act as a sovereign state must be circumscribed by an obligation to respect the legitimate interests of other sovereign states. In order for this to occur, he suggests that three conditions must be met: 1. Mutual advantage, which requires recognition by all states that cooperation and compliance is better than if one or more states does not observe the collective agreements; 2. Credible threat, suggesting that there is accepted science in regard to the environmental threat and that noncompliance is not in the interest of nations individually nor collectively; and 3. Credible enforcement, being recognition among nations that compliance will be enforced and non compliance will be penalized. This concise structure helps us to comprehend why, at a simple level, it has been easier to get international agreement on some issues than others. In the case of ozone depletion, for example, the science was relatively unequivocal (credible threat), and it is reasonably clear that most nations were at risk to some degree from the further enlargement of the holes in the ozone layer (mutual advantage). In contrast, there was equivocation for a long time about the science of human induced climate change, and even now there is an acknowledgment that some nations will benefit in some ways from global warming (e.g., some Northern Hemisphere nations, such as Canada and Russia). These two ambiguities go a long way in explaining why it has been so difficult to achieve international agreement on limiting greenhouse gas emissions. The issue of enforcement is a persistent concern in terms of international environmental policy and regulation, and there is widespread acknowledgment that compliance is essentially voluntary there is little in a material way that the international community can do to penalize noncompliance. Even so, international influences on policy relating to the environment have increased markedly over the last three decades; with so many of the major threats to environmental quality being sourced internationally and having global consequences, the environmental policy agenda will inevitably remain an important expression of globalization.

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT From Government to Governance

Environmental policy, conservation, and the management of natural resources were once the function of appointed officials in the public sector. More recently, environmental policy and management has been constructed as a broader project, requiring the direct involvement of communities, individuals, nongovernment organizations, and the corporate sector. Thus, a tendency has emerged for responsibility for environmental protection and management in support of the public interest to be assigned more broadly. Changes in the role of government as regards environmental policy have occurred in response to social, economic, and technological changes that societies have undergone in the past several decades. This includes a shift from government defined strictly by the nation state to a more inclusive concept of governance which recognizes the contributions of various levels of government (global and transnational/regional/local) as well as the roles of the private sector, nongovernmental actors, and civil society. The nature of global governance on a range of issues, including the environment, is today best understood not only as what states do but also as a combination of that which the state, civil society, and markets do, or do not do.

The concept of sustainability has raised many questions about the traditional development model and the relationship between society, economy, and the environment. It has also raised questions about the suitability of the traditional government model to meet the demands of managing the environment and economy sustainably. Thus, responsibility for environ mental management has been shifted upward to international bodies and to transnational companies, and downward to local governments, businesses, and resource users. In addition, individuals play a greater role in the environment as consumers, private owners of land, and participants in the policy discourse, as does civil society. The more prominent role that businesses and civil society groups have played in governance has not been without controversy. While the roles, responsibilities, and powers assigned to the respective actors remain a contested subject, it is widely acknowledged that the responsibility for the environment and sustainability has become a much broader project, no longer primarily the preserve of governments, but one involving civil society, the private sector, and the state. Thus, success in achieving environmental policy objectives and sustainable development depends on the institutional capability of people in all arenas the state, the market, and the community.

Environmental Policy and Sustainability

In the time since the term sustainable development achieved widespread exposure through the publication of the Brundtland Report Our Common Future environmental policy almost everywhere has been aligned with this term. the natural step, a framework for organizations to orient their activities in support of sustainable development, establishes four system conditions for sustain ability: do not mine materials faster than they replenish, do not produce substances faster than they can be broken down by natural processes, do not harvest renewable faster than they are replenished, and human needs must be met fairly and efficiently.

'Policy judgements comprise reality judgements, value judgements and instrumental judgements' [Geoffrey Vickers]. Elucidate.