ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
Governments’ general response to the speed and scale of global changes has
been a reluctance to recognise sufficiently the need to change themselves...
Those responsible for managing natural resources and protecting the envi-
ronment are institutionally separated from those responsible for managing
the economy. The real world of interlocking economic and ecological systems
will not change; the policies and institutions concerned must.
[The Brundtland Report] (WCED 1987 :9)In the final two chapters the focus moves down to the nation state where
most environmental policy is made and implemented: Chapter 11 is con-
cerned with the way governments build environmental considerations into
the policymaking process and Chapter 12 examines the policy instruments
that governments use to implement policy. An underlying theme is the
emergence of ‘environmental governance’, in which governments increas-
ingly work collaboratively with other actors, including business, NGOs and
individual citizens, to achieve sustainable development.
Sustainable development, even in its weaker forms, has major implica-
tions for the way government works. Environmental governance means
that institutions, administrative procedures and decision-making processes
all need to be overhauled. Policy elites have to rethink the way they
perceive the world so that environmental considerations are integrated
across government and penetrate routine policymaking processes within
every sector. In short, to achieve the environmental policy integration
necessary for sustainable development, government must first transform
itself.Environmental impact assessment:A
systematic non-technical evaluation, based
on extensive consultation with affected
interests, of the anticipated environmental
impact of a proposed development such as
a dam or road.
Risk assessment:An evaluation of the
potential harm to human health and the
environment from exposure to a particular
hazard such as nitrates in drinking water.This chapter assesses the shift towards greener
government by examining progress towards the
implementation of three core principles of sus-
tainable development: integration, planning and
democracy. The opening section distinguishes
two broad mechanisms for achieving greater
integration:first, through organisational reforms
such as the creation of new environment min-
istries and agencies; secondly, through the use of
administrative techniques, notablyenvironmental
impact assessment,risk assessmentand cost–benefit analysis. Thenext sec-
tionevaluates efforts to improve policy co-ordination through better strate-
gicplanningof sustainable development at European Union, national and
local levels of government. To complement the discussion of democracy in
terms of theindependence of the sovereign state in Chapter9,thefinal
section analyses the role ofdemocracyin environmental decision-making
within the nation state by assessing the contribution of public inquiries
and other democratic or participatory mechanisms to advancing sustainable
development.