Environmental Policy Convergence in Europe: The Impact of International Institutions and Trade

leondumoulin.nl: Environmental Policy Convergence in Europe: The Impact of International Institutions and Trade (): Katharina Holzinger.
Table of contents

• Environmental Policy Convergence in Europe : the impact of international institutions and trade
• The Impact of International Institutions and Trade on Environmental Policy Convergence
• 6 editions of this work
• Files in this item

In the same period, the policy gap change rate increased from 0. While the general trends are clear, some interesting features are worth emphasizing. First, stronger convergence is found in the s than in the s and s. Second, convergence is most prominent for the adoption of certain environmental policies as such, e.

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Although still clearly visible, convergence is less notable for the adoption of certain policy instruments obligatory standards, taxes, liability schemes, etc. Three factors related to globalization can be expected to be responsible for the observed convergence of environmental policies: Apart from this, domestic factors, such as environmental problem pressure, the presence and activity of green parties or the level of income might also contribute to the convergence of policies. In order to determine which of these factors best explain the observed convergence a statistical analysis of both policy similarity sigma-convergence and the direction of convergence delta-convergence was carried out.

This analysis yielded the following results: First, international harmonization contributes most to the explanation of convergence. Somewhat surprisingly, accession to and membership in the EU seems to be less effective for convergence than accession to other international environmental institutions. However, this result can be explained by the fact that, seen over the whole period , EU members form only a minority of the entire sample of 24 countries.

Second, the overall effects of transnational communication on environmental policy convergence are almost as strong as the effects of international harmonization. This is surprising, as intuitively one might have expected harmonization to be a more powerful mechanism of convergence than communication.

And indeed, the effect of transnational communication on convergence is particularly pronounced with respect to non-obligatory policies, i. As soon as a harmonized policy is put in place, there is not much room left for transnational communication to influence further convergence. Third, the explanatory potential of the mechanism of regulatory competition is much lower than that of international harmonization and transnational communication.

Moreover, the impact of trade is not more pronounced for trade-related policies than for those not directly related to trade. Fourth, domestic factors also contribute to the explanation of environmental policy convergence. Six policy case studies, each conducted in The Netherlands, France, Hungary and Mexico, aimed to increase our understanding of the precise dynamics of international harmonization, communication, regulatory competition and relevant domestic factors. They also strove to reveal mechanisms that explain some of the surprising results of the quantitative analysis such as the limited evidence for regulatory competition.

The selected policy cases feature varying characteristics. We looked at standard settings, policy instruments and policy principles. In addition, both obligatory and nonobligatory policies were included. The four countries differed with respect to their embeddedness in international institutions and markets. Hence, the 24 stories 6 x 4 allowed us to focus on a range of potential convergence mechanisms from a comparative perspective.

Three general findings deserve to be highlighted: First, while international harmonization leads to notable policy change and accounts for growing policy similarity in all countries, it is often only the final step in a longer convergence process.

Regulatory competition and transnational communication between countries frequently precede the decision to harmonize policy and - more importantly - tend to produce initial policy adaptation on the national level. In other words, countries begin moving towards common policies much prior to the decision for an obligatory international policy or standard. International harmonization, however, succeeds in bringing on board the remaining policy laggards.

Second, transnational communication already proved highly relevant for policy convergence in the quantitative part of the project. The case studies add to this insight by relating different patterns e. The Netherlands were shown in various instances to initiate transnational discussion and promote a policy model. France, by contrast, was less prone to use international institutions or networks as a platform for promoting its own ideas and it appeared resistant to such foreign promotion.

Hungary and, outside the EU, Mexico responded rather quickly to transnational as well as bilateral stimuli mainly as a means for gaining international legitimacy. Third, considerations of international competitiveness do matter in national environmental policy making, although these concerns need not necessarily result in international policy convergence. Hence, environmental policy that relates to production processes may be perceived as costly and endangering the competitiveness of domestic industry, but it may also be seen as a useful framework to make future investment decisions more calculable and to attract foreign investors.

Such different framing depends on domestic factors problem pressure, environmental awareness, economic development as well as issue characteristics environmental risk, potential to externalize environmental harm. Even in cases where environmental policy is perceived as too costly, countries may adopt strict standards acquiescing national and foreign stakeholders and gaining international acceptance. Under those conditions, they tend to react to competitive pressures only at the implementation stage, where domestic industries may benefit from lax enforcement.

In short, patterns of regulatory competition are both more complex and less visible than the theory predicts.

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For the overall story of convergence in environmental policy the case studies succeeded in connecting international and domestic factors and highlighting interaction effects that could not be modelled in the quantitative part of the research. In doing so, they managed to shed more light on the often neglected micro-processes of cross-national policy convergence. The case traces the development of limit values for industrial discharges into surface waters, focusing on chromium, copper, lead and zinc as well as Biological Oxygen Demand BOD in four countries: France, Hungary, Mexico and the Netherlands.

These process standards were selected because they are not regulated at the international level2, which allows us to observe the impact of transnational communication and trade effects on convergence patterns in the absence of international harmonization. All four countries converged to the top over the observation period Figure 1 shows the example of limit values for chromium. Embeddedness in international markets and international institutions appeared to be relevant for all four countries, yet to a varying degree and with different impact over time.

In France, the power of the industrial sector and a well-established system of effluent charges and subsidies prevented an early convergence to the sample. However, since the s, the indirect, but growing impact of European regulation led to stricter limit values and improved enforcement, entailing a convergence to the top.

In the Netherlands, high problem pressure led to a strong demand for water protection and strict limit values, which counterbalanced possible effects of regulatory competition. International institutions did not have a notable impact on Dutch policy before the late s but were rather used as a platform for promoting domestic standards at the international level.

In Hungary, the powerful water quality sector was responsible for the early start of the policy and the increasing stringency of standards. Regulatory competition could not work in the closed communist market. After regime transition, the overriding effect of EU accession pushed regulatory competition to the background. After accession to the North American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA , the specific combination of domestic factors stronger environmental interest and continuing international pressure led to a relaxation of certain standards, aiming at better i.

6 editions of this work

The impact of international aspects increased over time in all countries, whereby institutions like the EU or NAFTA were regarded as a motor and leverage for domestic actors to pursue environmental interests. Interaction effects between international economic and institutional integration as well as domestic factors prevented a downward shift of regulation. Hardback Looking for an inspection copy? This title is not currently available on inspection.

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