Long term perspectives

on environmental policy instrumentation

 

 

Tutorial  given by

Gjalt Huppes

29 May 2000

Budapest

 

 

 

The aim of the tutorial is to give a long term sustainability perspective on policy instrumentation  in environmental policy, within a broad, also strategic, evaluative framework.

 

To arrive at integrated insight, the basic function of policy instruments is discussed: why do you need them at all. It comes out that it is not at all clear how policy instruments can be classified and described. Nor is it clear how a consistent evaluation of policy instruments can be set up.

 

One basic problem in discussions on policy instruments is that not only their effects but also their function is context dependent. This implies that for basic, long term decisions on policy instrumentation general structural, cultural and economic tendencies have to be taken into account.

 

Within these vague and fluid boundaries, practical guidelines are given for policy development at a case level. A text is provided as study material. This will become a chapter in a forthcoming book on environmental science, to be published by Kluwer by the end of the year 2000. The authors of the chapter are Gjalt Huppes, CML at Leiden University and Udo E. Simonis, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin.