Environmental Problems and Policies

Public authorities have developed environmental policies for the prevention of natural resource degradation and elimination and prevention of pollution.

Environmental policies have been designed to intervene and regulate almost every sectoral activities, ranging from transportation, energy, and agriculture to industry and production and consumption relations that cause problems

United Nations Conference on Human Environment took place in Stockholm in 1972. It was the first high-level conference that comprehensively discussed environmental and developmental issues, though there had been previous forums where certain environmental issues had been discussed. The Stockholm Declaration, which outlined 26 principles, elevated environmental issues to the top of the international agenda and marked the start of a discussion between industrialized and developing countries about the connection between global economic development, pollution of the air, water, and oceans, and human well-being. Representatives of developed and developing nations participated at the Stockholm Conference with their own agendas. In the Stockholm Conference, developed countries proposed stringent environmental standards and population control measures, while developing countries favoured development over the environment. This dichotomy characterised the environment and development debates of the 1970s that assumed a negative sum relationship between economic development and environmental protection.

“React and cure” and the ‘polluter pays’ were the main policy principles of first-generation environmental policies.

Sustainable development is an environment and development discourse that started to rise in the post-1980 period and came to the fore in the face of problems created by the first-generation environmental policies. Sustainability and sustainable development discourses unified the policy ideas against the prevailing environmental policy paradigm, arguing that environmental protection and economic growth can be seen as complementary and not necessarily conflicting goals. This approach has risen to a dominant position . Sustainable development has become a policy principle, an objective itself, and a novel policy idea that has influenced policymakers who are trying to solve problems concerning the environment and development.

The commission aimed to “re-examine the world’s most pressing environmental and development issues and provide workable solutions to ensure that human progress would be continued via development without depleting the resources of future generations.

The MDGs are; Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, Achieve universal primary education, Promote gender equality and empower women, Reduce child mortality, Improve maternal health, Combat HIV/AIDs, malaria, and other diseases.

End poverty in all its forms everywhere; End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture; Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages; Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all; Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls; Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all; Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all; Promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all; Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation; Reduce inequality within and among countries; Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable; Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns; Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts; Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development; Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss; Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

Besides the regulatory approach, the market approach, and the participatory approaches, awareness raising and education as well as participatory approaches was taken as a new category, titled engaging public in this chapter.

Since one policy instrument cannot address all environmental problems, the repertoire of policy instruments has widened in the meantime to solve increasingly complex environmental problems, along with health related problems and natural resource depletion problems.

According to Sterner and Coria Environmental Policy Instruments are based on four categories of “using markets, creating markets, environmental regulations, and engaging the public”.

Administrative regulations, also labelled as command and control policies, refer to environmental policy that relies on regulation (permission, prohibition, standard setting, and enforcement) as opposed to financial incentives, that is economic instruments of cost internalisation.

First-generation environmental policies rely on administrative regulations including standards, bans, permits, quotas, zoning as well as licences, liability bonds, performance bonds, and enforcement policies and penalties.

Market-based economic and financial instruments aim to change people’s behaviour towards desired policy objectives by imposing certain burdens, offering incentives, or creating new markets.

Engaging the public category includes environmental policy instruments of information disclosure, participatory planning, labelling and certification, community participation in environmental or natural resources management.

Market-based economic and financial, instruments could be categorised under two headings: using markets and creating markets.

The Slow Food initiative is a good example of awareness-raising mechanisms. It is a global, grassroots movement that was established in 1989 to stop the loss of regional food cultures and traditions, to fight the spread of fast living, and to combat people’s waning interest in the food they consume, by providing information about the origins of their food and explaining how their dietary decisions influence the globe. Since its inception, Slow Food has expanded into a worldwide movement with millions of supporters in more than 160 nations, aiming to ensure that everyone has access to wholesome, ethical, and sustainable food. According to the Slow Food movement, there are numerous ties between agriculture, politics, culture, the environment, and other facets of existence. We may collectively transform the globe by influencing the cultivation, production, and distribution of food through our food choices.

Environmental problems are complex problems and require a holistic and integrated approach. Environmental policy instruments do not have a mutually exclusive character. Policymakers always need to use all instruments in an integrated manner to solve complex environmental problems.

Circular economy encourages concepts such as resource efficiency, recycling, industrial symbiosis, life cycle, cradle to cradle in economy; It is an approach that implements production/consumption relations by constructing them cyclically rather than linearly.

Permaculture is an agricultural and social design model that imitates or directly uses the patterns and features observed in natural ecosystems. It aims to preserve the diversity, stability and flexibility of natural ecosystems, and meets the food, energy, shelter and similar needs of the soil and the people living on it in a sustainable and harmonious manner.