Chapter 5- Basics of Environmental Policy Instruments

Question 1

what are the 7 types of environmental policies?

Answer 1

Poluter pays, precautionary, principle of prudence, substitution, integration/horizontal, cooperation, sustainability

Question 2

What is the polluter pays principle? + how is it imbedded in german laws?

Answer 2

The originator has to bear the costs for
avoidance, removal, and compensations
for environmental pollution.

• wastewater levy,
• extended producer responsibility (EPR)
• Voluntary actions such as eco-audits

Question 3

What are some problems of the polluter pays principle?

Answer 3

hard to identify polluter because of globalisations, bc originators may not face legal action. some pollutions are caused by more than one person.

Question 4

What is a negative reason for the polluter pays?

Answer 4

preventing success of employment and Carbon leakage refers to the situation that may occur if, for reasons of costs related to climate policies, businesses were to transfer production to other countries with laxer emission constraints. This could lead to an increase in their total emissions, also high effort for monitoring by federal authorities

Question 5

Whats the Precautionary/principle of prudence?

Answer 5

avoid pollution from the outset ,

avoid damage to cultural and economic goods, conservation of landscape fauna and flora

Question 6

How is the principle of prudence different?

Answer 6

worse case precautionary principle, (ill get an explanation later)

Question 7

Whats the Principle of substitution

Answer 7

• Replacement of hazardous substances if there is

an environmental friendly substitute material.

Question 8

What is the Principle of integration / horizontal principle

Answer 8

• Environmental protection is also an issue of other policy

areas such as transport policy or agricultural policy

Question 9

What is the Cooperation Principle

Answer 9

This principle is targeted at consensual

realization of environmental goals

Question 10

Who participates in the Cooperation Principle

Answer 10

• Citizens
• NGOs
• Trade unions
• Industry members
• Government

Question 11

What is the aim of the cooperation principle

Answer 11

Strengthening environmental awareness
• Competent suggestions
• Intensification of environmental efforts

Question 12

What is the Sustainability Principle

Answer 12

Derived from the vision of sustainability

“avoidance of the depletion of natural resources”

Question 13

What are the 3 rules of the sustainability principle?

Answer 13

Degradation of renewable resources should not exceed regenerative .
• Amount of emissions should not exceed the absorption capacity

• Consumption of not renewable resources have to be balanced out e.g. by increase of effectiveness.

Question 14

What is formal law

Answer 14

(Formal) law: instrument that has passed in a formal act a (national or
federal) parliament and is published in a (national or federal) law gazette

Question 15

what are three things formal law does

Answer 15

 Provide general guidance, e.g. standards, precautionary principle following state of technology
 instruments like levies etc.
 Pass compentencies to enact ordinances and regulations to executive bodies

Question 16

whats an ordinance and what the purpose

Answer 16

legal regulation enacted by the government or an executive
body - its mostly about things like what munich cant use fireworks at new years- so it doesnt apply to everyone and its rather a thing that local things decide on things that they have power to (so probably not about abortion that needs a paarliament)

Question 17

what is an administrative regulation

Answer 17

provide rules for the enforcement of a law,

Question 18

What are competing legislative proccesses in germany?

Answer 18

> Federal states (Bundesländer) are authorized in the field of competing legislative processes enact laws
when the national government has not used its power to do so.
(Bavarian Waste Management law_ waste_trash_whos_responsible_avoid_waste_recover_waste)

> National government is empowered to enact laws in order to establish equal
living conditions in Germany or to ensure unity with regard to law and economy
(Circular Economy National Law - Reuse_aviod_waste_only_use_plastic_if_necessary_)

Question 19

What is an example of a EU regulation?

Answer 19

EU-Eco-Regulation on organic production and labelling of organic products (so if you say its EU eco it contains circular economy things and well sourced, wash up liquid is non-toxic etc.)

Question 20

Example of EU directive?

Answer 20

IED directive

regulating pollutant emissions from industrial installations

control and reduce the impact of industrial emissions on the environment

Question 21

What is a EU regulation ?

Answer 21

Regulations are immedietaly enforcable in all member states

Question 22

What is a EU Directive?

Answer 22

Directives require member states to achieve a particular result without dictating
the means of achieving that result

Question 23

What is an Example of a Regulative law as a type of environmental policy instruments

(information / notification / report)

Answer 23

European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register-

When emission thresholds and waste amounts are reached the regulation
demands for a public disclosure on
 Emission of pollutants into air, water and soil,
 Disposal of wastes,
 Disposal of pollutants in waste water fed into external waste water plants

(and the threshold is super low so basically whenever you are a company you have to do it)

Question 24

Example of an Environemtnal Impact Studies?

Answer 24

US National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) - Applies to federal actions such as
• construction projects, plans to manage and develop federally owned lands, and
• federal approvals of non-federal activities such as grants, licenses, and permits

Question 25

What does NEPA do

Answer 25

Anytime a governmental anything (Federal agencies) do anything they have to tell the public and find out if the economy, environment, social cultural things will be effected, and they have to consider the publics comments

“the gov has to study their env. impact if they construct anything and involve the public”

are required to determine and consider environmental
effects of actions comprising impacts on social, cultural, and economic
resources, as well as natural resources

Question 26

What is an example of a authorisation procedure that is a EU regulation?

Answer 26

EU chemicals Directive (REACh)

Question 27

what is a cap and trade

Answer 27

A cap is set on the total amount of certain GHG that can be emitted by installations covered by the system. The cap is reduced over time so that total emissions fall. Within the cap, companies receive or buy emission allowances, which they can trade with one another as needed. They can also buy limited amounts of international credits from emission-saving projects around the world. The limit on the total number of allowances available ensures that they have a value

Question 28

what is mitigation measures

Answer 28

the action of reducing the severity, seriousness, or painfulness of something. Mitigation measures are means to prevent, reduce or control adverse environmental effects of a project, and include restitution for any damage to the environment caused by those effects through replacement, restoration, compensation or any other means.

Question 29

mitigates =

Answer 29

the action of reducing the severity, seriousness, or painfulness of something.
“the identification and mitigation of pollution”

Question 30

cap and trade

Answer 30

the ghg are capped at a level, and usually go down over the years, and then all the factories have incentive to switch to eco friendly things, and the certificates they dont use they can sell to other factories that havents rreduced their emmisions. . makes sense, if costs of reducing emisions are below the price of a certificate, so they win.

Question 31

what does the EUTS (european unionn emission trading schema do

Answer 31

limits emissions from more than 11,000 heavy energy-using installations (power stations & industrial plants) and airlines operating between these countries
covers around 40% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions.
reduces 2% per year

Question 32

in what trading period are we now (EUTS) and what are the goals

Answer 32

in the 4th, 2021-2030, 1.8 billion in 2021, 2.2% lower.

Question 33

what is water bed effect

Answer 33

here pressing down prices in one part of firms’ operations causes another set of prices to rise

Question 34

what is water bed effect

Answer 34

This waterbed effect is not an (unpleasant) side effect of having a cap-and-trade system, but it belongs to the heart of such a system[3]. Because of the trade component, the participants are given the option to trade in order to reduce the costs of emission reductions. If the same participants are also given subsidies to reduce their emissions, the rational response by the producers is to sell their permits. Hence, in order to define effective policy measures to realise an energy transition, the waterbed effect needs to be taken into account

Question 35

The right to information about the environment , is a instrument of indirect behavioural influence and an example is …

Answer 35

EU directive on public access to environmental information, that guarantees acess held by public authorities. Transparency so you can find deficits.and acess upon request. and makes info spread and can help impact studies, punlic more aware and democratization of environemtn. they must make available and you dont have to give a reason. they also have to actively “dissiminate” so publish, go to conventions and tell about it etc.

Question 36

example of information duties in eu

Answer 36

Information on the fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions of new cars

Question 37

what are two examples of environmental officers (by government influence a job)

Answer 37

like a job opening by a private company that looks at how the company can decrease their carbon footprint,

or job positions that are demanded by german law , like one that is aware of the trash, one of water emissions

Question 38

example of disclosure of corporate env information

Answer 38

the chemical company basf, used the english nonprofit cdp to publish env information. BASF reached a A- score, and CDP said they are trying to reduce emissions, and sustainable management.

Question 39

What is grandfathering in EU trading scheme?

Answer 39

you get certificates based off of previous emisions that your factory did , so now instead of grandfatheringwe do best available techniques which is

During Phase I, most allowances in all countries were given freely (known as grandfathering). This approach has been criticized as giving rise to windfall profits, being less efficient than auctioning, and providing too little incentive for innovative new competition to provide clean, renewable energy

Question 40

what was the problem of the first trading period of the trading scheme

Answer 40

grandfathering

allowances were given freely (based on historical emisions) so allowances were not a scarce resource, but this was strategic to not schock the industry with too harsh things, stepwise reduction of this problem. now they have reduced the amount of allowances by 40m.

Question 41

Good effects of ETV (environmental technology verification)

Answer 41

want to make sure people are doing new technologies well and the environment is also a positive aspect, so if you use this new tech in a market that it also helps the trading scheme (testing and verification system) provide trustworthy info to users and authorities. its a system to test env info of the technologies. helps sales bc more trustworthy, less risk in buying wrong technology, authorities approve it right away, investors more security bc its been approved. helps NGO bc by promoting some technologies someone has had a look at it

Question 42

What are voluntary commitments

Answer 42

assosciations or companies voluntarily in regards to environemtnal protection . they do this to avoid stricter regulations in law or ordinaces, if the companies commit themselves then the national authorities do not enact sharper regualtions. since its not that strict , the economy is more flexible, HOWEVER it hasnt gone to plan. companies commited but didnt achieve the results because they were not forced to do so. like car bund to reduce emisions in late 90s, didnt work

Question 43

what is civil law, criminal law and public law

Answer 43

citizien to citizen(contracts and compensation), state to citizen(prosecution umweltstraffrecht), citizen to state. public law is service for citizens and publc infrastructure

Question 44

whats the principle names where REACH is motivated form?

Answer 44

Precautionary principle, try to avoid all potential risks by registering and seeing if its safe.

Question 45

cons of cooperation principle?

Answer 45

high complexity due to multiple partners, diverging point of views, time consuming

Question 46

example of a EU directive

Answer 46

packaging and packaging waste)

The Directive aims at providing a high level of the environmental protection while ensuring the functioning of the internal market by avoiding obstacles to trade and distortion and restriction of competition. In line with the waste hierarchy, its first priority is the packaging waste prevention, followed by reuse and recycling, and other recovery.

Question 47

example of national level

Answer 47

Federal Circular Economoy Law (“Kreislaufwirtschaftsgesetz“)

Question 48

legal regulation example of federal states level (Bundesländer)

Answer 48

Bavarian Waste
management law (“Bayerisches Abfallwirtschaftsgesetz“)

Ordinance on the Bavarian Waste Management Plan

Question 49

district/municipality/bylaws level law

Answer 49

waste management and fee constitution of straubing

Question 50

What does REACh mean?

Answer 50

Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, Restriction of Chemicals

Question 51

What is the CDP (Carbon Disposure Project)

Answer 51

its a charity that runs a disclosure for investors,cities, states to mange their environmental impacts, I think they just make data available to anyone who needs its.

Example Disclosure of Corporate Environmental
Information

Question 52

How does the Disclosure of Corporate Environmental Information help ? Is it helpful by uncovering deficits of their environmental activities? And if the CDP (p.56) is a non-governmental organisation, why is it part of the environmental policy instruments?

Answer 52

CDP is an NGO aiming at facilitating and stipulating corporate environmental information. The disclosure of corporate information itself is part of the company/managerial environmental policy instruments and can be helpful for informing your stakeholders about your environmental performance. Environmental policy and the related instruments can also be implemented on the corporate level and does not automatically stem only from governmental actors.

Question 53

Could you explain how the price of emission allowances link to the reduction of emissions? (In the emission trading part)

Answer 53

As long as the price of emission allowances is lower than the marginal costs of mitigating emissions, no emissions are reduced. On the other hand, actors reduce their emissions as long as the marginal costs of mitigating emissions are below the price of an emission certificate.

Question 54

What is the market stability reserve? (It was not clear when I looked it up online)

Answer 54

A surplus of emission allowances has built up in the EU emissions trading system (ETS) since 2009. The European Commission is addressing this through short- and long-term measures. The surplus of allowances is largely due to the economic crisis (which reduced emissions more than anticipated) and high imports of international credits. This has led to lower carbon prices and thus a weaker incentive to reduce emissions. To counteract this development and as a long-term solution, a market stability reserve began operating in January 2019. It aims to provide carbon price stability for the EU emissions trading system. The regulations for the market stability reserve stipulate that the supply of allowances is adjusted annually to the surplus situation in the emissions trading market: If the surplus quantity exceeds 833 million allowances, the auction quantity for the respective year is reduced by 24 percent of the surplus. Conversely, the annual auction volume is increased by 100 million allowances if the calculated surplus falls below 400 million allowances or if there are sharp price jumps.

Question 55

What are planning instruments in the types of environmental policy instruments?

Answer 55

Planning instruments are for example waste management plans or land-use plans.

Question 56

Am I correct to understand that this example “GG Art. 74 (1), lists the areas Waste management, air emission, and noise mitigation, nature protection, spatial planning, water management” are areas where the federal governments can decide and pass ordinances on, as opposed to the National government? So can each state decide what to do on these topics?

Answer 56

Yes, the federal states are authorized to enact laws in the named fields but only as long as the national government has not used its power to do so (according to the principle of competing legislation).

Question 57

What is the difference between the principle of prudence and the precautionary principle? The sentence “in case of defective risk assessment operations or development can be prohibited” is not very clear to me.

Answer 57

WAIT FOR ANSWER

Question 58

Could you explain further what this statement means “Adverse impact on employment, e.g. carbon leakage” when talking about the problems of the polluter pays principle? Like how employment is affected, and how can companies get away with carbon leakage?

Answer 58

An adverse impact on employment (e.g. people loosing their job resulting in an increase in the unemployment rate) can result from carbon leakage.
In general, carbon leakage describes the increase of GHG emissions in one country due to another country’s strict climate policy (e.g. implementing the polluter pays principle) in which therefore emissions are reduced. The implementation of the polluter pays principle can be very costly for companies leading to job cuts in one country and resulting in job creation (and thus higher levels of emissions) in another country.

Question 59

who is usually responsible for assessing industrial plants?

Answer 59

subordinate authorities like (administrative districts and urban communes)

Question 60

what are urban communes and administrative districts

Answer 60

städtische gemeinden like grünwald , thats just bezirke like countries

Question 61

What do landratsamt do

Answer 61

He is responsible for rescue services and fire and disaster control, health and food monitoring. Further tasks are the control of animal diseases and animal welfare, driving licenses, vehicle registration and the construction and maintenance of the district roads

Question 62

What does the Oberster Rechnungshof do

Answer 62

Its task is to review the budget and economic management of the Free State of Bavaria, including its state-owned companies, special assets, holdings in commercial enterprises and legal entities under public law in the state

Question 63

what is a levy

Answer 63

impose (a tax, fee, or fine)

Question 64

what is waste water

Answer 64

Sewage is wastewater that comes from domestic activities. That includes houses, public toilets, restaurants, schools, hotels and hospitals.
or industrial water like water used to cool metal, water in food (pig guts or vegetable washing)

Question 65

what is the extended producer responsibility

Answer 65

a policy approach under which producers are given a significant responsibility – financial and/or physical – for the treatment or disposal of post-consumer products. Assigning such responsibility could in principle provide incentives to prevent wastes at the source, promote product design for the environment and support the achievement of public recycling and materials management goals

Question 66

difference between IED and the cap and trade by the EU

Answer 66

The industrial emissions directive (IED) regulates pollution from around 50,000 large industrial installations in Europe. The legislative tool requires industries to meet performance-based pollution limits, which are periodically reviewed to take into account innovation and progress.

The IED aims to prevent pollution from industrial activities. All relevant environmental impacts should be taken into consideration: emissions to various environmental media (land, water and air), the use of resources such as water, energy, material or chemicals, waste prevention and general production efficiency, accident prevention, etc. This integrated approach is meant to achieve a high level of environmental protection as a whole.

However, while protecting the environment, the IED does not address greenhouse gas pollution and climate impacts directly. This is a major shortcoming in the current legislation.

Instead, the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions is left to the EU carbon market (or emissions trading system – ETS). However, with more than 90% of industrial greenhouse gas emissions covered by free allowances, this scheme provides virtually no incentive to energy-intensive industries to decarbonize.

Question 67

. In the sentence on p.58 “Subordinate authorities are usually responsible for the appraisal of industrial plants” Does it mean they are responsible to enforce the policies in the plants in their district?

Answer 67

If you want to build an industrial plant, you will need to get permissions etc. by subordinate, local authorities (e.g. building division, district administration etc.).