1. Environmental Policy and Decision Making
Chapter 19
Environmental Policy and Decision Making

2. Environmental Policy and Decision Making

3. Outline New Challenges for a New Century
The Development of Environmental Policy in the U.S.
Environmental Policy and Regulation
The Greening of Geopolitics
Terrorism and the Environment
International Environmental Policy
It All Comes Back to You

4. International Environmental Policy
“If there must be a war, let it be against environment contamination, nuclear contamination, chemical contamination; against the bankruptcy of soil and water systems; against the driving of people away from the lands as environmental refugees. If there must be war, let it be against those who assault people and other forms of life by profiteering at the expense of nature’s capacity to support life. If there must be war, let the weapons be your healing hands, the hands of the world’s youth in defense of the environment.”
Mustafa Tolba
Former Secretary General
United Nations Environment Programme

5. New Challenges for a New Century
One major challenge of the foreseeable future will be controlling worldwide environmental impact as developing nations evolve economically.
Technological innovation is changing the ways in which we live, work, produce, & consume.
Knowledge has become the economy’s most important and dynamic resource.
It has rapidly improved efficiency as those who create and sell goods & services substitute info & innovation for raw materials.
The shift to a knowledge-driven economy has emphasized the positive connections among efficiency, profits, and environmental protection and helped launch a trend in profitable pollution prevention.
Many now understand pollution equates to inefficiency and increased costs.
In U.S. amt of E & natural resources used to make goods & services has dec as have many forms of poln.

6. New Challenges for a New Century
It is important to recognize that economic, environmental, and social goals are integrally linked and try to develop policies that reflect that interrelationship.
Thinking narrowly about jobs, E, transportation, housing, or ecosystem, as if they were not connected, create new problems even as it attempts to solve old ones.
To do so, we need new modes of decision making, & trend is toward more collaboration form of decision making.
This can be arduous & time consuming & requires that all players to change their costmary role.
Governments must use their power to convene and facilitate, shifting from prescribing behavior to supporting responsibility.

7. For their part, businesses need to build the practice and skills of dialogue with communities and citizens, participating in community decision making & opening their own values, strategies, & performance to their community & society.
Advocates, must accept the burdens & constrains of rational dialogue built on trust, & communities must create open & inclusive debate about their future.

8. New Challenges for a New Century
Trend is not destiny.

9. New Challenges for a New Century
For most people, it is not obvious who is in charge of env or how decisions r made about developing, using or managing ecosystem.
Governance is about decisions and how we make them.
Environmental governance is inevitably associated with organizations where official authority often resides.
Also encompasses oversight or advisory groups, corporate councils, and even advocacy groups that help to formulate policy.
Envl governance takes in the whole range of institutions and decision making practices that communities use to manage their env & control natural resources.

10. New Challenges for a New Century
Government is the set of institutions normally associated with political authority.
Laws establish legal mandates of government agencies with responsibility for environmental protection and resource management.
Environmental governance goes beyond official actions of governments.
Sometimes, corporations or individuals act in the state’s place to harvest or manage resources.
Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have become strong advocates for better & fairer envl decisions.

11. New Challenges for a New Century
Governance includes individual choices and actions when these influence large public policies or affect corporate behavior.
Things such as voting, lobbying, participating in public hearing, are typical ways individuals influence envl decisions.
Consumer choices can sometimes be as powerful as government regulations in tempering business decisions that affect the environment.

12. New Challenges for a New Century
For the past quarter century, the basic pattern of environmental protection in developed nations has been to react to specific crises.
Institutions have been established, laws passed, and regulations written in response to problems already posing substantial ecological & public health risk & cost.
EPA has traditionally focused almost exclusively on past and present problems, and ignored anticipated problems yet to arise.
There has been a continuing pattern of not responding to envl problems until they pose immediate & unambiguous risks.

13. New Challenges for a New Century
The accelerating rate of change is shrinking the distance between present and future.
Environmental effects of changes in global economic activity are being felt more rapidly by both nations and individuals.
Thinking about future is valuable also bec cost of avoiding a problem is far less than cost of solving it later. Ex hazardous waste disposal also preserve env for future generation.
By taking steps now, the present generation can minimize environmental and financial debts of later generations.

14. New Challenges for a New Century
Today we r facing new class of envl problems that r more diffuse & demand different approaches.
Since first Earth day 1970, Majority of significant point sources of poln have been controlled.
Most important remaining sources of pollution are diffuse and widespread.
We are recognizing that controlling pollutants alone, no matter how successful, will not achieve an environmentally sustainable economy.
Bec many of these problems are related to human popn & unequal distribution of resources.
We have new global envl problems of biodiversity loss, ozone depln, climate change, which require cooperative international responses.

15. New Challenges for a New Century
We are progressing from an environmental paradigm based on cleanup and control to one including assessment, anticipation, and avoidance.
In the long run, environmental quality is largely a function of behavior of individuals, families, businesses, & communities everywhere.
The extent of environmental awareness and the strength of environmental institutions will be critical factors driving future environmental quality.

16. New Challenges for a New Century
The next 50 years will see a world in which people are more crowded, more connected, and more consuming than ever before.
The natural environment in which people live will be stressed as never before.
However, rates of increase in the growth of human population suggest a transition toward a stable human population.

17. New Challenges for a New Century
This transition could fundamentally transform the challenges of environmentally sustainable human development.
It could allow people to focus, for the first time in modern history, on questions of sustaining increases in the quality, not just the quantity, of human life.

18. The Development of Environmental Policy in the U.S.
Public policy is the general principle by which government branches are guided in their management of public affairs.
Government Branches
Legislative (Congress): Declares and shapes national policy by passing legislation.
Executive (President): Directed to enforce the law.
Judiciary (court system): Interprets law.

19. The Development of Environmental Policy in the U.S.
Major agencies of the executive branch

20. The Development of Environmental Policy in the U.S.
When Congress considers certain conduct to be against public policy and the public good, it passes legislation.
Congress specifically regulates, controls, or prohibits activity in conflict with public policy and attempts to encourage desirable behavior.
Through legislation, congress regulate behavior, select agencies to implement new programs & sets general procedural guidelines; it declares & shape national envl policy.

21. The Development of Environmental Policy in the U.S.
Passage of a law

22. The Development of Environmental Policy in the U.S.
Many consider publication of Rachel Carson’s “silent Spring” 1962 beginning of modern envl movement.
1970s
The first Earth Day was held April 22, 1970 and put the modern environmental movement into high gear.
Much environmental legislation passed in the 1970s.
Immediate, obvious problems were relatively easy to address.
Environmental concerns faded when the energy crisis threatened the economy.
However brought forth Many tangible accomplishments in envl policy.
Expansion of protected areas.

23. The Development of Environmental Policy in the U.S.
During the Reagan administration, the environment was not a priority.
Resurgence in awareness by late 1980s, due in part to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. by late 80s a new envl awareness & concern began to surface as major political issue
1990s—today
1990’s images of toxic wastes washing up on the beaches, pristine water of Alaska covered w oil from Exxon Valdez spill made an impact on the public.
Environmental issues became major presidential campaign topics.
There was (and is still) a decline in membership of major environmental organizations, but an increase in grassroots organizations.
Business interests vs. original goals.
It is said politic always forged science, prioritization of issues & political will, determine where money will be spend.

24. The Development of Environmental Policy in the U.S.
The late 1980s saw the beginning of an anti-environmental movement.
The Wise Use Movement argues extinction is a natural process. & some species not meant to survive.
Tend to frame complex environmental and economic issues in simple scapegoating terms.
Jobs versus Owls; survival between spotted owls & family of workers involve in harvesting old-grown timber in Pacific Northwest.
Funding came from interest groups such as timber, oil, & coal industry, real state developers & ranchers.

25. Changing Nature of Environmental Policy
Public opinion polls over past four decades in the United States have revealed 80% of citizens in favor of maintaining or strengthening clean air and water laws.
Polls often reflect attitudes not activities.
Support stronger envl laws not mean purchasing envly friendly products or active recycling

26. Changing Nature of Environmental Policy
The 1990s witnessed decline in membership of major environmental organizations. Major problem was that:
Large environmental groups may have grown into large bureaucracies & lost trust of grass roots envly concerned indv.
Meanwhile Many smaller, local, grassroots groups are being created or expanding.
Estimated some 7,000 local active environmental organizations r active in U.S.

27. Environmental Policy and Regulation
Envl laws r not a new phenomenon. In US envl laws often evolved from ordinances passed by local government
Many of the US federal agencies that impact envl issues include EPA, Council on Envl Quality, the National Forest Service, & the Bureau of Land Management.
U.S. environmental law is governed by administrative law.
This area of law defines how government organizations develop and implement regulatory programs they are legislatively authorized to create.
It also applies to groups affected by agency actions— i.e., state programs.

28. Environmental Policy and Regulation
In 1969, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was enacted & signed into law by Nixon on 1970, New Year’ Day.
It is designed to institutionalize a concern for the quality of the environment within the federal government.
All actions of federal government fall under NEPA. NEPA has two purposes:
Advise the president on the state of the nation’s environment.
Create an advisory council called the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). The CEQ outlines NEPA compliance guidelines.

29. Environmental Policy and Regulation
Until 1970, most federal agencies acted within their delegated authority without considering the environmental impacts of their actions.
In 1970, the EPA was established by Congress to implement statutes.
Administrative functions empower EPA, the states, and private citizens to take responsibility for enforcing the various authorized programs.
These administrate functions not only shape envl law, also control daily operation of both regulated industry & agencies authorized to protect env.

30. Environmental Policy and Regulation
To date, much environmental law has reflected the perception that environmental problems are localized in time, space, and media (air, water, and soil).
Environmental regulation has focused on specific phenomena, and “command and control” solutions.
In this approach, highly specific legislation and regulation implemented by centralized authorities and are used to achieve narrowly defined ends.

31. Environmental Policy and Regulation
In 2004, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reported that societal benefits of EPA regulations significantly outweighed costs of environmental compliance between
Annual benefits of $146 - $230 billion.
Annual costs of $36 - $42 billion.
Majority of quantified benefits were attributed to the clean air rules issued by EPA.

32. The Greening of Geopolitics
Environmental or “green” politics have moved into mainstream political arenas.
Ecological degradation in any nation is now understood almost inevitably to impinge on quality of life in others.
Envl concern is a growing factor in international relation.
A sense of urgency and common cause about the environment is leading to cooperation in some areas.
China account for 21% of world popn, has 3th largest recoverable coal reserve.
If China’s current modernization continue, the boom will be fueled by coal to the possible detriment of plant as whole.

33. The Greening of Geopolitics
Developing world produce ¼ of all greenhouse gas emission & will be responsible for 2/3 by middle of next century, they are not prepare to slow down.
Where before poor nations never had a strategic advantage, they now may have an ecological edge.
Some developing countries may resist environmental action because they see a chance to improve their bargaining leverage with foreign aid donors and international bankers.
Ecologically, there could be more parity than there ever was economically or militarily.

34. The Greening of Geopolitics
National security may no longer be about fighting forces & weaponry alone.
It also relates increasingly to watersheds, croplands, forests, climate, & other factors rarely considered by military experts & political leaders
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has developed an Office of Scientific and Environmental Affairs bec watersheds, croplands, forest climate, r as important as military factor to nations security.
U.S. Department of Defense has created an Office of Environmental Security.
The most formidable obstacles may be entrenched economic and political interests of the world’s most advanced nations.
In the world today, a bilin people live in a degree of poverty that forces them to deplete env w/o regard to its future.
What may be needed is self-discipline on the part of the world’s haves and increased assistance to the have-nots.

35. Terrorism and the Environment
Environmental terrorism is the unlawful use of force against environmental resources to deprive populations of their benefits or destroy other property.
Releasing oil in Persian Gulf by Sadam (he was referred to as ecoterrorism)
Burning oil wells in Kuwait
Biological or chemical weapons such as mustard gas/nerve gas
Nuclear weapons

36. Terrorism and the Environment
Biological weapons are naturally occurring organisms that cause disease.
Anthrax bacteria produce spores that allow them to live in a dormant state in soil.
When used as a weapon, inhaled spores enter the lungs, where they are carried into the blood and the immune system.
The spores become active and release a toxin that is lethal to cells.

37. Terrorism and the Environment
Biological weapons have a long history.
Roman Empire used animal carcasses to contaminate water wells.
This practice was used into the 20th century.
Francisco Pizarro gave smallpox-contaminated clothing to South American natives.

38. Terrorism and the Environment
Chemical weapons are poisons such as mustard gas and nerve gases such as sarin.
Modern chemical weapons tend to be made with agents having much great power.
This means it takes a lot less of the chemical to kill the same number of people.
Many of them use the chemicals found in insecticides.

39. Terrorism and the Environment
In 1972, 103 countries signed the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), which prohibited development and use of biological and chemical weapons.
Allows research for defense, such as vaccines, against biological weapons. Such as Vaccines against biological weapons
Controlling a biological agent is the most troublesome part of using biological weapons and one of the most important reasons they have not been widely used.
Sufficient quantity, deliver to target, detonate it or spread it around to harm lots of people

40. International Environmental Policy
In the UN system, 21 separate agencies deal with environmental issues.
In addition to the UN, the World Bank and other institutions charged with economic development play an important role in the implementation of policies and projects that affect the global environment.
Institutions that deal with trade such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) also affect the global environment.

41. International Environmental Policy
Most global organizations have not been able to achieve significant progress in reversing global environmental degradation for several reason.
Some failed bec they r controlled by a disparate membership w Competing Interests unable to reach consensus on complex issues, ex UN Food & Agriculture Organization w limited progress dealing w global fishing & agriculture issues.
Only responsible for specific function or activities & unable to address whole issues on their own. Ex. World Bank can provide guidelines for dealing w air pollution or biodiversity preservation only for development projects that use World Bank funds.

42. International Environmental Policy
Over 150 global environmental treaties have been negotiated since start of 20th century.
At least 500 bilateral agreements in effect dealing with cross-border environmental issues.
These agreement generally address single issues & most lack in ambition or are framed in such a way that result in little action.

43. International Environmental Policy
There has been several successful international convention & treaties
Successful Efforts
1961: Antarctic Treaty: reserves Antarctic Continent for peaceful scientific research
1972: UN Conference - Stockholm, Sweden: 1st international conference specifically dealing w global environmental concern, & UN Environment Programm, a separate dept of the UN that deals w environmental issues, developed out of that conference.
1979: Convention on Long Range Trans-Boundary Air Pollution; 1st multilateral agreement on air poln & the 1st envl accord involving all the nations of Eastern and Western Europe and North America.

44. International Environmental Policy
1987, The objective of the Montreal Protocol was to phase out the manufacture and use of chemicals depleting the Earth’s protective ozone layer.
160 countries are now parties, representing 95% of the Earth’s population.
Developing countries ended production of CFCs in 1999, and phaseout is scheduled for 2010.
By the late 1990s, the concentration of some CFCs in the atmosphere had started to decline, and predictions are that the ozone layer could recover by the middle of this century.

45. International Environmental Policy
Among the many reasons for these achievements, three merit attention:
Global agreement on the nature and seriousness of the threat.
A cooperative approach, especially between developed and developing countries.
Policy based on expert and impartial advice.

46. International Environmental Policy
Why is the implementation of global envl agreements so difficult?
For most of these accords to function effectively, participation must be truly global.
It is difficult to reach meaningful agreement among the necessary participants.
Poorer nations’ lack of capacity to comply w international treaty requirements.
Some treaties have addressed this problem by offering financial assistance
Some agreements have established more relaxed timetables for compliance for these countries.
The challenge of developing accords that are both effective and fair has proved to be a major obstacle to progress.

47. International Environmental Policy
There is no international legislature with authority to pass laws, nor are there international agencies with power to regulate resources on a global scale.
An international court at the Hague in the Netherlands has no power to enforce decisions.
Nations can simply ignore the court if they wish.
However, a network is growing of multilateral environmental organizations that have developed a greater sense of their roles and a greater incentive to work together.
These include not only the UN Env Programme but also the Env Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development & the Senior Advisors on Envl Problems of the Economic Commission for Europe.
It is becoming increasingly evident that only decisive mutual action can secure the kind of world we seek.

48. International Environmental Policy
In June 1992, representatives from 178 countries, including 115 heads of state, met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the Earth Summit.
It was the largest gathering of world leaders ever held.
Officially, was titled the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), and it was the largest gathering of world leaders ever held.
The first Earth Summit had been held 20 yrs earlier in Stockholm, Sweden and divided planet into rival East and West blocs & was preoccupied w the perils of the nuclear arms race.
Today the more important division, especially on envl issues, is not East & West but between North (Europe, N America, Japan) and South (most of Asia, Africa, Latin America).
Major issues of Earth Summit:
The developed countries of the North have grown accustomed to lifestyles that are consuming a disproportionate share of natural resources and generating the bulk of global pollution.

49. International Environmental Policy
Many of the developing countries of the South are consuming irreplaceable global resources to provide for their growing populations.
The Earth Summit was intended to promote better integration of nations’ environmental goals with their economic aspirations.
Although the hopes of some developing nations for large commitments of new foreign assistance did not fully materialize, much was accomplished during the summit.
The Rio Declaration of Environment and development sets out 27 principles to guide the behavior of nations toward more envly sustainable patterns of development.

50. States at UNCED also adopted a voluntary action plan called Agenda 21, named bec it is intended to provide an agenda for local, national, regional, & global action into the 21 century. “the most comprehensive, the most far-reaching and, if implemented, the most effective program of international action ever sanctioned by the international community”
The third official product of UNCED was a “non-legally binding authoritative statement of principles for a global consensus on the management, conservation, & sustainable development of all types of forests.”

51. International Environmental Policy
“The environment knows no frontiers” was a slogan during the 1970s, when the EU began drafting its first environmental legislation.
Early laws focused on testing and labeling dangerous chemicals, testing drinking water, and controlling air pollutants from power plants and automobiles.
Many of the directives were linked to Europe’s desire to improve living and working conditions for citizens.
1987, single European Act gave these legislation a formal legal basis & set 3 objectives: protection of env, protection of human health, prudent & rational use of natural resources.

52. International Environmental Policy
The 1992 Maastricht Treaty formally established the concept of sustainable development in European Union law.
In 1997, the Amsterdam Treaty made sustainable development one of the overriding objectives of the EU.
It strengthened the commitment to the principle of the European Unions, that future development must be based on principle of sustainable development & high level of protection of env.

53. International Environmental Policy
Important lessons have been learned through the crafting of international environmental agreements:
Scientific community plays a crucial role:
Confirming links between human activities and global environmental problems.
Showing what could happen to human health and the global environment in the absence of action.

54. International Environmental Policy
Additional lessons:
Use incentives, not punitive actions.
2nd lesson: has to do w structure of international agreements & the elements that can contribute to an effective structure. In the case of Montreal Protocol, agreement Use incentives, not punitive actions & use results-oriented approaches
3rd: Every interested party must have an opportunity to participate as full partner & to voice concerns.
4th: Government action needs to be consistent and predictable; provide sufficient lead times; favor government-led incentives; and use flexible, market-based solutions where appropriate.
5th: Agreements mark the beginning of a process, not the end.
Scientists & non governmental organizations must continue to further global understanding of envl problems & communicate what they have learned to the public & policy makers.
Policy makers, in turn, must be flexible and respond to changing circumstances w new or modified policy solutions.

55. International Environmental Policy
Behind one example of new policy solutions is the concept of green consumerism, or the rational consumption of scarce resources for the benefit of the environment and future generations.
Ecolabels have been introduced in a number of countries to help consumers choose products with a proven environmental edge.
This is determined by the product’s choice of raw materials, production process, product life cycle, and associated disposal problems.

56. International Environmental Policy
Ecolabels

57. It All Comes Back to You
No policies, incentives, or amount of information can substitute for individual responsibility when it comes to ensuring for future generations a quality of life that comes from a quality environment.
Individuals must get involved in turning choices into action and be held accountable for their actions.
Average individuals must make choices on the basis of a broader, longer view of their self-interest.
They Must get involved in turning choices into action and be held accountable for their actions.
The combination of political will, technological innovation, and a very large investment of resources and human ingenuity in pursuit of envl goals has produced enormous benefits over the past two decades.
We must recognize that we will have to achieve more in the future for the sake of the future.

58. Summary Politics and the environment cannot be separated.
In the US, each of the three branches of government impacts environmental policy.
The late 1980s and 1990s was a new international concern about the environment in both the developed and developing nations of the world.
Environmentalism is seen as a growing factor in international relations.
International treaties have been successful, but ultimately, it is up to the individual to act in an environmentally responsible manner.