ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
have adopted a more strategic approach that at least genuflects in the direc-
tion of (very weak) sustainable development. The plethora of institutional
and administrative reforms intended to improve integration and planning,
and to encourage a wider democratic dialogue around the concept of sus-
tainable development, have undoubtedly led some policymakers to consider
environmental issues more routinely. In short, there is evidence of a gradual
shift away from the traditional paradigm. However, progress towards envi-
ronmental governance is slow: most reforms are still in their infancy and
have exerted only a limited impact on the way government actually operates.
In particular, the weakness of environmental ministries, agencies and green
plans has hampered efforts to improve the co-ordination of cross-sectoral
environmental initiatives across government. It seems that, as Chapter 7
showed, there are many deep-seated obstacles to the successful implemen-
tation of sustainable development. Not least, with the political salience of
environmental issues remaining low, few governments have been willing
toprovide strong, sustained leadership. Without such political leadership,
sustainable development may promise to end the economy/environment
trade-off but, in practice, policy continues to emerge from a sectoral
administrative structure where economic growth is the priority, producer
interests prevail and environmental considerations too often remain an
afterthought.◗ Further reading and websites
The Brundtland Report (WCED 1987 )isagood place to start reading about
environmental governance, after which move on to Dryzek ( 1987 , 2005),
Jansen et al. ( 1998 ), Durant et al. ( 2004 )and Paehlke and Torgerson ( 2005 ),
which cover many of the issues and mechanisms discussed in this chap-
ter.Lafferty and Meadowcroft (2000a)provide a comparative assessment of
progress in nine OECD countries towards implementing Agenda 21. On envi-
ronmental policy integration, see Lenschow ( 2002 )and Lafferty and Hovden
(2003). Smith ( 2003 )provides an excellent theoretical and empirical analysis
of the relationship between democracy and the environment.
Information about all aspects of EU environmental policy can be found
on the Environment Directorate website (http://www.europa.eu.int/pol/env/
indexen.htm). The European Environmental Agency website (http://www.
eea.eu.int/) provides excellent links to national environmental ministries,
agencies and institutions in most European nations and detailed infor-
mation about the state of the environment in Europe. For the USA,
consult the EPA (http://www.epa.gov), and, for Canada, Environment Canada
(http://www.ec.gc.ca/envhome.html).NOTES
1 Detailed accounts of the institutional arrangements for environmental policy in
various developed countries can be found in Hanf and Jansen ( 1998 ), Lafferty and