IEL and EUEL - regulatory approaches

Question 1

What are the different regulatory approaches used in IEL?

Answer 1

• direct regulation: command-and-controll, states instructs environmental protection or pollution control bodies to adopt and apply standards that are generally applicable in a uniform manner to their addressees (licence, control), different standards (product, emissions, environmental quality, process)
• economic instruments: using the market to provide incentives to guide human behaviour towards being more environmentally friendly, several categories (charges, taxes, tradable permit scheme, deposit-refund systems, subsidies, enforcement incentives, liability and compensation for damage, trade measures, investment incentives) and voluntary approaches (agreements on environmental performance)
• intergrated environmental management: prescribes a code of practice for ensuring that environmental considerations are fully integrated into all stages of the development process in order to achieve a desirable balance between conservation and development (ex. risk assessment, emission limits)

Question 2

What are the different regulatory approaches used in the EUEL?

Answer 2

• direct or command-and-controll techniques (1970-): the primary EU approach, state authorities set standards and enforce them (fines, revocation of license, other sanctions, criminal charges), the principal tools are permits, band/restrictions, BATs, control by authorities, public
  
  • flexible direct regulation (newer trend): impact-based regulation, not behaviour-based (Water framework directive)
  • procedural direct regulation (newer trend): EIA and SEA directive, Aarhus principles
• marked-based instruments, incentive- or marked-based (1990-): used to provide incentives to guide behaviour towards environmentally favourable outcome, emphasis on charges and fees (pricing pollution), environmental liability, tradable permit scheme (climate change)
• network-based approaches: voluntary techniques (guidelines, codes of conduct, ISO standard, ECO-labelling) and economic, social and governance (ESG)