Environmental policy implementation during the economic crisis: an analysis of European member state ‘leader-laggard’ dynamics

ABSTRACT

The long-standing debate on environmental policy ‘leaders’ and ‘laggards’ lends itself to a new analysis following with the advent of the 2008 economic crisis. This paper, therefore, asks the question to what extent do European Union (EU) member states have the capacity and willingness to implement EU environmental policy amid austerity, budget cuts, and rising costs over the period 2008–2014. Building upon previous studies, 26 interviews with European, Greek and United Kingdom participants and records of environmental infringements, the paper provides a contemporary picture of the environmental policy ‘leader-laggard’ dynamic in Europe. The findings demonstrate that the impact of the economic crisis seems contestable and varies amongst member states, while the reduction in environmental infringements appears to have a link with the decrease in economic activity. Although environmental policy ‘leaders’ maintain patterns of strong implementation, the improved implementation performance of some ‘laggards’ reflects a shift in their implementation patterns amid a period of intense political and economic controversies.     

European environmental assistance to the region of Pskov in northwest Russia: sustainability,effectiveness and implications for environmental governance

The paper explores the impact and sustainability of environmental assistance coming to Russia from EU-based public and private foundations, and its implications for environmental governance. Geographically, the study ’encompassed all the assistance projects awarded in 1991–2016 involving beneficiaries from Pskovskaya Oblast’. This region is potentially an important target for EU investments in environmental infrastructure, due to its location by the EU border and high value of natural capital. The study demonstrates how the assumptions offered by the international aid literature (mostly derived from the global South) apply to Russia. We found major limitations to the assumption that co-financing provided by recipients ensures project effectiveness (demonstrating the acceptance of the donor's agenda) or sustainability (providing interest to the maintenance of outputs). Tangible assets are normally co-financed only if the investment was in agenda anyway (and therefore the donor gets only time gains, although this can be a valid purpose too); soft outputs (plans, surveys, policies, etc.) are usually co-financed in-kind, and therefore cannot secure any additional commitment. Likewise, physical infrastructure often ends up mismanaged due to low or no maintenance budgets available, while maintenance of soft outputs is too much dependent on contextual factors beyond the co-finance paradigm.     

Diversity in sub-national EU implementation: the application of the EU Ambient Air Quality directive in 13 municipalities in the Netherlands

This paper offers an analysis of the implementation performance of the EU Ambient Air Quality directive in the Netherlands. It provides a systematic evaluation of the implementation of a procedural provision – the obligation to design air quality policy. It draws on original data on air quality policy measures that have been collected in 13 medium-sized Dutch municipalities. The analysis of differences in the implementation performance was performed using a novel three-dimensional conceptual framework. The findings illustrate great differences in the implementation performance between the municipalities. The focused comparison allowed establishing very precisely where the implementation performance is poor or even lacking, and which municipalities take their EU implementation task more seriously than others. Most puzzling, environmental problem pressure turned out not to act as a sufficient trigger for municipalities to take far-reaching air quality measures. In contrast to previous research, a more nuanced picture is painted when it comes to the concepts of ‘compliance’, ‘non-compliance’ and ‘over-compliance’. A careful dissection of the implementation performance based on the aspects of the conceptual framework produces hands-on recommendations to municipalities seeking to improve their air quality policy.     

POST-GRADUATE TRAINING AND RESEARCH IN APPLIED SCIENCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE CASE OF MINERAL EXPLORATION

If a developing country decides to devote scarce human and material resources to post-graduate training and research in an applied science - based on a realistic assessment that the potential benefits from such an investment are likely to exceed the benefits from alternative investments - several approaches exist. The authors examine these alternatives as they apply to mineral exploration. They argue that if recourse is made to overseas training, programmes should be restricted by aid agencies to universities that will provide applied research subjects in the trainees' own countries. 'Twinning' arrangements between institutions in developing and developed countries may be useful if faculty in the developed country university are interested in and available for overseas work and if university administrations are aware of potential problems. The authors also discuss the provision of short-term non-academic fellowships in applied research, an approach which has not been used to extent it deserves.     

Effective EU and Member State policies for stimulating CCS

Although CO₂ capture and storage (CCS) is widely recognised as an option to mitigate climate change, consistent and effective EU policies to advance CCS are still absent. This paper discusses policy instruments for advancing large-scale deployment of CCS in the European Union, and evaluates them in a multi-criteria analysis. The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) is a cost-effective instrument for limiting greenhouse gas emissions, but it is questionable whether its currently limited time horizon and short-trading periods will lead to substantial CCS diffusion. Complementary policies at the EU and the Member State level may repair this and provide sufficient incentives for CCS. Potential policies include financial instruments such as investment subsidies, a feed-in scheme, or a CO₂ price guarantee, as well as a CCS mandate or a low-carbon portfolio. These policy options differ with respect to their environmental effectiveness, possible interaction with the EU-ETS, costs and financial risk involved, and their competition with other mitigation options. Interactions between Member State policies and the EU-ETS are smaller in scope than those of EU-wide policies, but they are more likely to lead to displacement of financial resources from other low-carbon technologies. In addition, national policies may pose a significant part of the financial risk of CCS operations with Member States, reducing the operator's incentive to innovate. Overall, structural policies at the EU level, such as a mandate or a low-carbon portfolio standard would be more conducive for realising large-scale deployment of CCS across the EU as well as more acceptable to environmental organisations.     

Policies towards proposals for large-scale natural resource projects: Attenuation versus postponement

The authors examine the problem of dealing with the environmental impact of uranium mining in Australia and consider its wider implications. Government, faced with unknown environmental and social damage from the initiation of uranium mining in northern Australia, has initiated an environmental impact assessment procedure. This requires the appellant company to provide information about the proposed project and its alternatives and is often followed by a period of ‘postponement’. This is compared with an alternative procedure, ‘attenuation’, allowing the project to proceed on a reduced scale in order to obtain information. Comparisons are made between the information which might be obtained by the two alternative procedures and the expected relative benefits and costs from a postponed project and an attenuated project.     

California households' willingness to pay for ‘green’ electronics

Concerns about rapid increases in the volume of electronic waste (e-waste) and its potential toxicity have sharpened policy makers' interest for extended producer responsibility to encourage manufacturers of consumer electronic devices (CEDs) to ‘design for the environment’. This paper examines consumer willingness to pay for ‘green’ electronics based on a 2004 mail survey of California households. Using ordered logit models, it was found that significant predictors of willingness to pay for ‘greener’ computers and cell phones include age, income, education, beliefs about the role of government for improving environmental quality, as well as environmental attitudes and behaviors, but neither gender nor political affiliation. Although most respondents are willing to pay only a 1% premium for ‘greener’ CEDs, innovation and EU directives may soon make them competitive with conventional CEDs.     

The meaning of BATNEEC: interpreting excessive costs in UK industrial pollution regulation

The paper examines how the concept of ‘excessive costs’ has been interpreted in the implementation of industrial pollution control in the UK. Since 1984, industrial air pollution regulation in the EU has been guided by the framework concept of Best Available Technology Not Entailing Excessive Costs (BATNEEC). With the introduction of the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive in 1996, this has been replaced by the concept of Best Available Techniques (BAT). Despite the absence of the NEEC qualification, IPPC BAT includes excessive costs in its definition of ‘available’. Both concepts require interpretation and both devolve potentially controversial decisions to the level of the individual site regulator. A central issue in interpreting ‘excessive costs’ is the relative importance of environmental cost–benefit analysis versus the ability of a sector to ‘afford’ environmental improvements. Also important is how such concepts can be operationalized by regulators who lack resources and depend upon industry for information. The paper provides a historical account of how these issues have been dealt with in the UK and argues that the key difficulties are far from being resolved. The paper concludes by assessing the implications for the future implementation of IPPC. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

'People, planet and prosperity': The determinants of humanity's environmental footprint

Environmental or ‘ecological’ footprints have been widely used in recent years as indicators of resource consumption and waste absorption on the basis of biologically productive land area required per capita with prevailing technology. Such footprints represent a partial measure of the extent to which the planet, its regions, or nations are moving along a sustainable development pathway. They vary between countries at different stages of economic development and varying geographic characteristics. The determinants of environmental footprints in some 113 countries from around the world have been evaluated. Dimensional analysis techniques from engineering and the physical sciences are employed to determine the relative significance of population density, economic wealth, and intensity of pollutant emission. Variations about the resulting ‘power‐law’ correlation suggest the extent to which individual nations are currently frugal or profligate in terms of their resource use and environmental impacts. The scatter associated with footprints, or closely related parameters, also indicates the uncertainty inherent within the international datasets needed to compute them, as well as differences in local climate and terrain. Nevertheless, national footprints alert humanity to the necessity of living within the regenerative capacity of the biosphere in order to ensure ‘environmental sustainability’.     

Electric power and the environment: an analysis of pollutant emissions at Argentine state-owned electric power stations

This paper describes the impact on particulate and 'greenhouse gases' emissions of substitution policies implemented by Argentine state-owned electric power stations. Those policies involve the substitution, on the one hand, of hydroelectric and nuclear energy for conventional thermal energy and, on the other hand, of natural gas for fuel oil, diesel oil and coal. As additional investments are required in conventional thermal power stations to prevent environmental pollution, the investment savings generated by substitution policies have been calculated. While the environmental impact of hydroelectric, nuclear and natural gas facilities is locally significant and is experienced in geographical areas away from cities, there can be no doubt that the substitution policies implemented in the Argentine electricity sector have overall both ecological and economic benefits.     

Local Environmental Investments and Sustainable Development: The evaluation of environmental projects in Scotland supported by the European Agriculture Guidance and Guarantee Fund

In the UK for the period 1994-99, a broad range of environmental projects were given financial support through the European Agriculture Guidance and Guarantee Fund under the Objective 1 and Objective 5b programmes. This paper is concerned with the ex-post evaluation of these projects set within a Sustainable Development framework. The aim was to identify project types or characteristics that offered the greatest return on investment. A classification of six broad project types was adopted. The evaluation revealed that there were significant differences between individual projects with respect to the type and scale, and temporal and social distribution of the benefits they delivered. In particular, as well as delivering environmental and economic benefits, many projects made a significant contribution to the development of human and social capital. The paper concludes that it is possible to improve the basis for future project selection in order to maximise the returns on environmental investments in the context of sustainable development.     

Assessing the value of CO2 capture ready in new-build pulverised coal-fired power plants in China

Making new plants CO₂ capture ready (CCR) would enable them to retrofit to capture CO₂ at a later date at lower cost when the appropriate policy and/or economic drivers are in place. In order to understand the economic value and investment characteristics of making new plants CCR in China, a typical 600 MW pulverised coal-fired ultra-supercritical power plant, locating in Guangdong province, was examined. Combined with an engineering assessment, costs were estimated for different CCR scenarios. To analyze CCR investment opportunities, the paper applies a cash flow model for valuing capture options and CCR investment. Results were obtained by Monte-Carlo simulation, based on engineering surveys and an IEA GHG CCR study, as well as plant performance information and expert projections on carbon prices, coal prices and electricity prices.CCR investments are justified by factors such as higher retrofitting probabilities, lower early closure probabilities and fair economic return. However, the economic case for CCR largely depends on two factors: (a) whether the original plant is retrofittable without CCR; and (b) the type of investments made, for example, investments essential to CCR tend to be more economic than additional non-essential CCR features such as clutched low pressure turbines. The carbon price and discount rate were found to have significant impacts on the economics of CCR. Overall, it appears that the value of the ‘capture options’ that CCR generates for retrofitting CCS is significant, and so could justify a modest CCR investment, even assuming the original plant is retrofittable without CCR. It was also found the value of CCR might be significantly understated if the range of potential retrofitting dates is artificially constrained.     

An objective and practical model for economic evaluation of environmental investment projects

Summary The problems faced by business as a result of the growth of the environmental agenda are described. The consequence this has on investment decisions is outlined and the trend, largely induced by present day investment appraisal techniques, for adopting end-of-pipe rather than Clean technology solutions is explained. A solution to this reactive investment approach is described by way of the Paras model. This adopts a holistic and practical approach and considers the special nature of environmental investments throughout all stages of the analysis. By objectively incorporating a measure for uncertainty within the analysis it adds considerable value and rationality to the decision-making process. The collaborative research project between the University of Surrey and Paras Ltd is described. This is run under the Engineering Doctorate programme and aims to develop a multicriteria decision tool to support the parallel quantification of the environmental and financial performance of investment projects.Graham Earl is a research engineer with the Engineering Doctorate (EngD) programme and is sponsored by the University of Surrey and Paras Ltd. Tuula Moilanen is a senior consultant with Paras Ltd at 120A, High Street, Newport, Isle of Wight, P030 ITP, UK. Paras are a technology and engineering consultancy and the developers of the Paras financial model for the evaluation of environmental investments. The authors are currently actively seeking companies who would be interested in contributing to further research through a test case, be it in the form of past or planned environmental investment decision.     

Modeling the impact of revegetation on regional water quality: A collective approach to manage the cumulative impacts of mining in the Bowen Basin,Australia

In this paper we quantify the additional water quality benefits that can be achieved through coordinated cumulative impact management. To do this we simulate coordinated and un-coordinated revegetation investments and compare their impact on achieving regional water quality goals. Our results show that coordination between multiple mining companies achieves additional benefits since prioritization is enabled across a broader range of investment opportunities. Additionally, when coordinated investment is permitted beyond the boundaries of coal mining leases, results show that additional benefits are greatly enhanced since these regions provide more rewarding investment opportunities. Results illustrate (a) how regional coordination may influence reputational benefits of investments, and (b) that coordination is beneficial when investment opportunities are unevenly distributed across the landscape. When additional benefits are achievable, we suggest that mining companies should develop collective investment projects with an understanding of how coordination influences project costs. Similarly, investment projects should be developed with an understanding of investment tradeoffs and how these may adversely impact on regional stakeholders and hence industry reputation. The mining industry has significant potential to contribute to regional wellbeing; however, land management policies must be flexible and promote incentives to enable companies to invest beyond compliance.     

我国环保产业关联效应的投入产出分析

本文通过对比2007年与2012年投入产出表中环保产业与国民经济42个产业部门间的关联程度及结构的变化,分析得出环保产业的发展现状及产业关联结构有所优化。"环保产业不环保"的现状已有一定的改善,而"环保产业不服务于环保"的现象仍有碍于环保产业投资效率的进一步提升,大部分环保投资仍在中间生产过程中被消耗,产业生产效率水平较低。因此,政府应通过扩大环保技术投资、强化环境规制等政策打好产业组合拳,促进社会资本投资在加强环保产业内部竞争方面的综合作用,从而提高环保产业自身的价值创造能力,促进环保投资效率的提高。     

Environmental capital: an information core to public participation in strategic and operational decisions—the example of river ‘Best Practice’ projects

Sustainable development and solutions to existing environmental problems depend heavily on information and its translation into usable knowledge. Increasingly, affected communities are being drawn into environmental decision‐making, both in the development of strategy (plans) and in the delivery of plans through management and operations. Variants of the ‘natural capital’ theme are popular amongst those who see an effective dialogue between the sciences of ecology and economics as the most promising interdisciplinary context for environmental decision making by empowered communities. A decision‐making framework is vital in practical, community‐based schemes (wider than ‘stakeholder platforms’) which have become popular for promoting ‘best practice’ in managing river basin units. The EU Water Framework Directive renders use of interdisciplinary techniques within a participatory framework a statutory requirement. A final practical need for communities and professionals involved with such schemes is the creation of a system of adaptive (rather than reactive) management, supported by ongoing research and monitoring to detect, and adjust to, ever‐changing physical and social contexts for both strategies and operations.

This paper describes the authors' experience in applying the ‘Environmental Capital’ (also known as ‘Quality of Life Capital’ (QoLC)) approach to information management in two headwater catchments in northern England: the Wharfe and the Coquet. In the case of the Upper Wharfedale Best Practice Project (UWBPP) the components of basic environmental survey, consultation, strategy formulation and the use of the strategy are illustrated to guide immediate and longer‐term actions. In contrast, the Coquet application of the technique, whilst socially more pervasive, was less successful for a number of reasons: geographical, institutional, project and participatory.

As a proposed development of the methodology based on the authors' experiences, extending public participation through monitoring activity, together with formal application of environmental economics to the perceived elements of ‘natural’ and ‘human’ capital in the two catchments would appear desirable. Conclusions are also drawn regarding the demands of the EU Water Framework Directive for ecological, economic and participatory approaches to river basin planning and management.     

Local Environmental Investments and Sustainable Development: the evaluation of environmental projects in Scotland supported by the European Agriculture Guidance and Guarantee Fund

In the UK for the period 1994-99, a broad range of environmental projects were given financial support through the European Agriculture Guidance and Guarantee Fund under the Objective 1 and Objective 5b programmes. This paper is concerned with the ex-post evaluation of these projects set within a Sustainable Development framework. The aim was to identify project types or characteristics that offered the greatest return on investment. A classification of six broad project types was adopted. The evaluation revealed that there were significant differences between individual projects with respect to the type and scale, and temporal and social distribution of the benefits they delivered. In particular, as well as delivering environmental and economic benefits, many projects made a significant contribution to the development of human and social capital. The paper concludes that it is possible to improve the basis for future project selection in order to maximise the returns on environmental investments in the context of sustainable development.     

Framing Dynamics and Political Gridlock: The Curious Case of Hydraulic Fracturing in New York

‘Fracking’ was on New York's agenda since 2008, yet no decision was made about it until late 2014. The gridlock is an intriguing puzzle given that the Marcellus shale is considered a ‘world class’ energy supply, and development has been aggressive in other US states. While policy scholars typically conceptualize gridlock as policy stability, this paper examines it as a dynamic process by which competing discourse coalitions engage in interactive framing processes that (re)structure the discussion. This suggests that the interaction between contending coalitions influences gridlock. Yet, we lack knowledge about interactive framing between competing coalitions during policy controversies. Our main finding is that a central mechanism of gridlock is the production of conflict through interactive framing dynamics that deny a shared discursive space capable of ushering in a consensus, or reasoned agreement. In New York, this contest evolved from a policy consensus about the economic benefits of fracking to policy negotiation that incorporated environmental threats, and to prolonged policy controversy in which competing discourse coalitions contested notions of fracking in relation to energy production, environmental protection, public health, economic development, and governance. While a ban has been instituted, the failure to bridge discourse coalitions suggests that controversy will persist unless meaning disputes are resolved.     

A study of total beta specification through symmetric regression: the case of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange

A topic of recent interest is risk management in equity investments from emerging markets. One traditional measure for systematic risk of an asset is beta, which is constructed through ordinary least squares (OLS) regression between historical returns on an individual asset and an index representing the overall market. OLS regression assumes all the error lies within the asset returns. Tofallis (Eur J Oper Res 187(3):1358–1367, 2008) made the case for constructing a systematic risk measure through symmetric regression, where error is assumed to be present in the returns of both the asset and the index. In this paper, we construct a systematic risk measure using symmetric regression for the case of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). This paper makes the case that the so-called ‘total beta’ parameter provides a more realistic and stable estimator for market-related risk and return. The total beta estimate, explicitly allowing for error in both variables, is less likely to underestimate the magnitude of the beta parameter.     

The importance of the will to improve: how ‘sustainability’ sidelined local livelihoods in a carbon-forestry investment in Uganda

This paper describes a ‘win–win’ discourse on local sustainable development and global climate change mitigation regarding Kachung, a Swedish–Norwegian climate forestry investment in Uganda certified under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). In many ways, this investment is a typical example of how private interests and capital accumulation are prioritised over local concerns in natural resource management under neoliberalism. This study, however, indicated that investors had genuine intentions of creating mutual benefits for the global environment and local people. Drawing on Li (2007), we show that this ‘will to improve’ was nevertheless constructed in ways that resulted in prioritisation of global climate change mitigation over local context-specific concerns.

We identify three core factors making the win–win discourse around Kachung plantation especially resilient: (i) the perceived urgency of climate change mitigation, (ii) the apolitical framing of ‘sustainability’ as an environmental issue that can be fixed through external technical interventions and (iii) the devaluation of local and context-specific knowledge. We end by suggesting that research on the neoliberalisation of nature focus more on analysing the rationales behind specific interventions. This would leave us better equipped to suggest how such interventions should be modified to produce true wins for local contexts.