Lysbilde 1

1
Governmental Initiatives for Environmental Policy
Integration A Further Specification of
Benchmarks and Normative Standards William M.
Lafferty Programme for Research and
Documentation for a Sustainable Society
(ProSus) Centre for Development and the
Environment (SUM), University of Oslo and Centre
for Clean Technology and Environmental Policy
(CSTM) University of Twente Plenary address to
the 2004 Berlin Conference on the Human
Dimensions of Global Environmental
Change Greening of Policies Interlinkages and
Policy Integration The Freie Universität Berlin,
3-4 December 2004
2

• Two major approaches to sustainable development

• Within the discourse initiated by the World
  Commission on Environment and Development (WCED
  The Brundtland Commission, 1983-1987), and
  carried through politically by the UN, EU, OECD,
  etc.
• The Political Discourse
• Within the discourse initiated by (mainly)
  critical academics at the launch of the
  Brundtland Report (1987).
• The Academic Discourse
• There is considerable overlap between the two
  discourses but also considerable conflict
  between the two as to
• - the desirability and legitimacy of the
  political discourse
• - the correctness of the Brundtland
  understanding of SD inherent in the political
  discourse.
• While the political discourse seeks consensus
  and practical results within a context of
  governance the academic discourse pursues
  consensus and change within a context of academic
  science

3
The political (Brundtland) definition (in
full) Sustainable development is development
that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs. It contains within it two
key concepts - the concept of needs, in
particular the essential needs of the worlds
poor, to which overriding priority should be
given and THE CHALLENGE FOR ACADEMIC AND
APPLIED SCIENCE ELIMINATING POVERTY WITHIN THE
LIMITS OF NATURE - the idea of limitations
imposed by the state of technology and social
organization on the environments ability to meet
present and future needs. THE CHALLENGE FOR
SOCIO-TECHNICAL INNOVATION ACHIEVING THE
TRANSITION TO SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION AND
CONSUMPTION
STRATEGIC RESEARCH FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
4

• SD within the political discourse A normative
  programme for change with high moral-political
  legitimacy (in Europe)

• UN Rio Declaration, Agenda 21, Climate
  Convention, Biodiversity Convention, Declaration
  on Implementation of Agenda 21 from Rio 5 (New
  York, 1997), Millennium Goals from WSSD
  (Johannesburg, 2002), the Global Compact, etc,
  etc
• EU Treaties of Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice the
  5th EAP Towards Sustainability the
  Gothenburg Strategy for Sustainable
  Development the Cardiff Process numerous
  directives and lesser agreements.
• Nordic Council Strategy for A Sustainable
  Nordic Region, with indicators and targets for
  SD.
• Norway Numerous parliamentary decisions,
  governmental White Papers, National Strategy for
  Sustainable Development and the National Agenda
  21 Action Plan for Sustainable Development

? An integrated multi-level strategic programme
for promoting SD
5

• Introduction to the EPI problematic

• Decoupling is an essential task for achieving
  sustainable development in high-consumption
  societies (A top priority of the UN, EU, and
  OECD).
• Environmental Policy Integration (EPI) is a
  crucial instrument for achieving decoupling
  with a strong legal-political mandate
• EPI has both instrumental implications within the
  political discourse (governance for
  sustainable development) and scientific
  implications within the academic discourse (EPI
  as a topic for policy analysis and implementation
  theory).
• Within the political discourse of SD, EPI must be
  clarified as to both its normative and
  operational characteristics with the former
  anchoring guidelines for the latter
• Within the academic discourse of SD, EPI can be
  analyzed as to the conditioning factors
  (variables) influencing the functionality and
  substantive quality of its outputs and outcomes

6
The mandate for EPI within the political
discourse
The Brundtland Report The ability to choose
policy paths that are sustainable requires that
the ecological dimensions of policy be considered
at the same time as the economic, trade, energy,
agricultural, industrial, and other dimensions
on the same agendas and in the same national and
international institutions. That is the chief
institutional challenge of the 1990s.
(WCED 1987 313)
Article 6 of the Treaty of the European
Community Environmental protection
requirements must be integrated into the
definition and implementation of the Community
policies and activities referred to in Article 3
listing the full range of Community activities
in particular with a view to promoting
sustainable development.
7
EPI as interpreted by academic science
Liberatore (1997 107) The relevance for
moving towards sustainable development is
straightforward if environmental factors are not
taken into consideration in the formulation and
implementation of the policies that regulate
economic activities and other forms of social
organization, a new model of development that can
be environmentally and socially sustainable in
the long term cannot be achieved. Lenschow
(2002 6-7) . . . EPI represents a
first-order operational principle to implement
and institutionalize the idea of sustainable
development. . . . It implies that policy
makers in non-environmental sectors recognize the
environmental repercussions of their decisions
and adjust them when they undermine sustainable
development. . . . In the absence of clearly
defined policy goals, indicators and timetables,
however, there remains ample room for sectoral
policy makers to evade such substantive
environmental responsibilities. The integration
process currently faces the challenge of ensuring
that substance follows from procedure.
8
EPI as political goal in Norway
Norways Prime Minister Through the action
plan, the Government wishes to ensure that
sustainable development is given a permanent
place on the political agenda. The Government
considers it important to link the sustainable
development effort to central political processes
and economic policy documents. Source Preface
to Norways Action Plan for Sustainable
Development (2003) The Constitution of the
Kingdom of Norway Article 110b Every person
has a right to an environment that is conducive
to health and to natural surroundings whose
productivity and diversity are preserved. Natural
resources should be made use of on the basis of
comprehensive long-term considerations whereby
this right will be safeguarded for future
generations as well.
9

• A definition of EPI designed to accommodate both
  issues
• Lafferty (2004)
• Environmental policy integration implies
• the incorporation of environmental objectives
  into all stages of policymaking in
  non-environmental policy sectors, with a specific
  recognition of this goal as a guiding principle
  for the planning and execution of policy. SD
  processes and policy outputs
• This should be accompanied by
• an attempt to aggregate presumed environmental
  consequences into an overall evaluation of
  policy, and a commitment to minimize
  contradictions between environmental and sectoral
  policies by giving priority to the former over
  the latter. promoting substantive SD outcomes

10
I. Governing mechanisms for achieving EPI
(process and outputs) Vertical (VEPI)
and Horizontal (HEPI) dimensions
Pro SD policy Responses for decoupling/recoupling
Drivers ? Pressures
? Impacts ? States
11
Each group should help to answer a key policy
question (see Box 0.1).
EPI as governing mechansim for decoupling DPSIR
model
Recoupling
Environmental Policy Integration (EPI)
Policy output
Governing process
Decoupling
Substantive SD outcomes
Source EEA Environmental Issue Report No. 12
TERM 2000
The indicator set is s
12
EPI research to date

• Environmental Policy Integration involves
• a governing process
• designed to produce integrated policy outputs
• which aim to achieve discernable SD outcomes.
• Considerable progress on the understanding of EPI
  has been made within both the political and
  academic discourses
• Lenschow (et al.) (2002) basic text
• Lafferty (2001 2004) Lafferty and Hovden
  (2003) Nilsson and Persson (2003)
  normative-conceptual analysis
• Jordan (2002 2004) in-depth empirical analysis
• Persson (2004) conceptual-analytic state of
  the art
• European Environmental Agency (2004) strategic
  state of the art

13
The analytical model of EPI Nilsson and Persson
(2003)
Background variables
Independent variables
Dependent variable
Problem character
Assessment processes Policy-making rules
EPI
Policy outcomes
Political will
Benchmarks for EPI governing mechanisms
Priority principles for resolving trade-offs
International policy context
Two key features of the political-strategic
discourse The ProSus Approach
14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
II. Promoting SD outcomes The issue of
trade-offs and priorities
Economic concerns
Economy-welfare trade-offs
Social-welfare concerns
Economy Welfare Ecology
Outcomes for sustainable development
Economy-ecology trade-offs
Welfare-ecology trade-offs
Ecological concerns
17
Guidelines for EPI as - a first-order
operational principle (Lenschow 2002) -
designed to achieve legal normative closure
(Nollkaemper 2002) - as a governing mechanism
for sustainable development

• SD policy integration implies a trade-off
  between
• Principles and criteria for policies designed to
  (A) satisfy the essential needs of the worlds
  poor South and North present and future
  generations (the social dimension)
• Principles and criteria for policies designed to
  (B) achieve stable economic performance adequate
  to achieve (A) (the economic dimension)
• Principles and criteria for achieving (A) and (B)
  without damaging the long-term functionality
  (sustainability) of natural life-support systems
  locally, nationally, regionally and globally
  (the environmental/ecological dimension).
• Governed by a regulatory principle
• The principles and criteria of (3) constitute a
  proviso (sustainability), for making
  judicious decisions on (1) and (2)
  (development)

Lafferty and Langhelle (1997), Towards
Sustainable Development Macmillan
18
Application of EPI as regulatory principle
implies an alternative canon for practical
judgement for resolving SD trade-offs

• Strengthen the ecological premises for
  sustainable development as constitutional-legal
  priority
• Clarify and apply a scientific understanding of
  tolerance levels for natural life-support
  systems
• Clarify and apply a normative-analytic
  understanding of reasonable standards for
  essential needs
• Develop lexicographic rules/procedures for
  applying the regulatory principle determine
  the meta-rules for trump
• Provide specific safeguards against irreversible
  damage to life-support systems through the
  precautionary principle
• Acknowledge and institutionalize external
  judicial review of the application of the
  canon

19
For greater detail on the approach
Panel sessions 3C and 4A
Edward Elgar 2004 www.e-elgar.co.uk