Environmental policy: strategy, instruments and enforcement
Environmental policy is mainly a question of influencing behaviour. Environmental problems are caused because producers and consumers do not consider environmental issues sufficiently in the choices they make. Taxes, private-law measures and social regulation could influence their behaviour, but it is important that measures are taken at the appropriate administrative level, the WRR says in its report Environmental policy: strategy, instruments and enforcement (Report no. 41, 1992).
Download "Summary of WRR Report no. 41: Environmental policy: strategy, instruments and enforcement"
Public-law and private-law instruments are more effective than compulsion
Up to now the government has addressed environmental problems mainly through compulsion. Not only has this led to an accumulation of tasks for the government, with all the ensuing problems with enforcement, but changes in public behaviour cannot be imposed by decree. The WRR recommends making better use of the potential of instruments targeted at transactions and persuasion.
Choose the appropriate administrative scale
A very important factor for effective and efficient environmental policy is that instruments are deployed on the appropriate administrative scale (local, national or international). The WRR presents proposals for achieving this on an international scale by means of active environmental diplomacy. Environmental policy should also be regarded as a learning process − the relationship between objectives, timescales and the instruments to be used should be regularly reviewed.
The WRR published this report about the relationship between the environment, the economy and governance at the request of the government.