Environmental policy integration: towards an analytical framework

As discussed in Chapter 3, our analysis of environmental policy integration (EPI) into sectors combines several approaches. Chapter 4 examined the environmental outcomes of sector activities through a sector environmental analysis. This is a useful departure point for an EPI study as it helps us to characterize the problem. However, through the learning approach taken in this volume, EPI is not measured through impact analysis but is concerned with how policymakers incorporate aspects of environmental sustainability into their frames of reference through conceptual learning processes. The purpose of the present chapter is to analyse this policy framing and to what extent (and in what ways) environmental sustainability issues have become part thereof, based on the methodology outlined in Chapter 3. We examine the evolution of energy, agricultural and bioenergy policy in Sweden by way of three discussions. First, we present a content analysis of major policy bills to trace the emergence of the different environmental issues in government bills, covering the period from 1997 to 2004. Second, we identify the policy frames that coexist in each sector and their main features, including their relation to environmental policy, and which actors and organizations adhere to the different frames. And third, we discuss their evolution over time by way of learning and the ways in which they have shaped policy and policy preferences in different directions. The analysis addresses both the policy itself and the underlying argumentation and reasoning, covering the period from the late 1980s to the mid 2000s. But first, a broader contextual background will set the scene for the analysis.

Solutions to environmental problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and land and water resource degradation require long term integration of economic, social and environmental policies. This poses challenges to specialised, hierarchical public administration systems. The study reported here examined strategies, structures and processes to enable environmental policy integration in six Australian states and territories, and some federal arrangements. The study found that the most prominent success factors, barriers and gaps that affect environmental policy integration relate to leadership, long term embedding of environmental policy integration and implementation capacity. Factors deserving further research and policy attention include leadership, cultural change and capacity building; embedding sustainability in structures and processes; development of a long term evidence based approach; strengthening decentralised implementation arrangements; and evaluation of policy integration initiatives.

Environmental Communication Instruments for Environmental Policy IntegrationTwo public policy concepts - modernization of governance and environmental policy integration - serve as the basis for this work. The author links them up with environmental communication (EC) as an integration instrument approach, and tests application at the local level in Latvia. Totally 30 case studies were analysed and survey methods used to interview over 70 people. The article verifies driving forces affecting the internal and external integration of environmental policy, explicates EC instrumentality for integration by assessing policy instruments and stakeholders. The final conclusions affirm that, in order to integrate environmental management into municipal development, it is necessary to establish a complementary set of policy instruments, what might be enabled by wise use of all EC components in their interactivity. The complementarity of EC instruments and stakeholder group efforts forms synergy and enhances better environmental policy integration.

The integration of environmental issues into sectoral policies is also known as environmental policy integration (EPI), a concept that can be described as a process of learning across frames. The article examines the role of intersectoral policy coordination for the outcomes from EPI in multisectoral issues. Through the application of thematic idea analysis, it explores the development of EPI in Swedish policies regarding agricultural bioenergy production—energy and agricultural policy—with specific focus on energy forest cultivation. Policies in both the sectors are then compared in a discussion of what role intersectoral policy coordination plays for the outcomes from EPI in multisectoral issues, exemplified by Swedish energy forest cultivation.

Economic and social development, the state of the environment and a propensity for disasters are closely intertwined. Therefore, environmental policy integration (EPI) across development and disaster management (DM) policies and plans is important. Pakistan as a country is highly vulnerable to climate-induced environmental changes and associated disasters. In this paper, the extent to which its national environment and climate change policy, disaster risk reduction (DRR) policy as well as disaster management (DM) plans are aligned is established, based on a review of government documents and expert opinions. In this context, a particular emphasis is put on China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that led the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Plan (CPEC; 2017-2030). While environmental assessment (EA) is currently not conducted for any DM policies and plans, DM and EA are well integrated into provincial environmental protection acts, in national as well as most provincial DM plans. It is concluded that a regulatory framework to guide EPI in DM for BRI and CPEC projects is needed.

Environmental policy integration (EPI) relates to the inclusion of environmental concerns in sectoral policies outside the conventional environmental policy domain. EPI has became a main concept in global environmental governance with the intention to link the incompatible objectives of economic competitiveness, social development and environmental protection with the concept of Sustainable Development (SD). Having to deal with the environmental concerns over, for example energy, is a necessity. There is an opinion that the environmental concerns of the energy chain are some of the most important drivers to influence European Union (EU) energy policy. Similarly, Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and energy efficiency created the stance for a sustainable energy system. The target for energy from RES (RES-E) in the gross final consumption in the Republic of Serbia is set to increase from 20.1% in 2014 to 27% in 2020. Each deviation from mandatory share of RES in gross final consumption in the Republic of Serbia would mean higher energy gross consumption than anticipated and more capacities for energy generation from RES. Analysis is required from the aspect of energy system possibilities, the impact on mandatory national goals for energy share from RES in total gross final energy consumption and long-term interest of the Republic of Serbia. Key words: Environmental policy integration, Sustainable Development, Renewable Energy Sources.

For about 30 years, the European Union (EU) has developed an increasingly comprehensive environmental policy. Although the EU has a primary commitment to building a common market, and may therefore be expected to focus on the removal of trade-inhibiting environmental regulations, EU environmental policy has proved to be quite resistant against such a 'race to the bottom' and actually improved the level of regulatory protection in many instances (Scharpf, 1998; Eichener, 1996). Despite these efforts, and despite the relatively high technological, financial, and administrative capacities in Europe, the actual impact of the EU environmental policy remains disappointing. Notwithstanding some success stories, such as measures for the protection of the ozone layer, the ecosystems in Europe and biodiversity remain threatened. In a recent publication, the European Environment Agency finds the European state of the environment 'far from satisfactory' (European Environment Agency, 1999).

The interdependent nature of environmental problems entails a number of challenges for policy-makers. Although sustainability has been a major policy goal endorsed all around the world, environmental problems have “sustained” and have not sufficiently been resolved. Problems behind this partial failure partly stem from policy implementation in a multilevel and interdependent policy environment. Prevalence of institutionalised ideas and discourses on environment and development contribute to a pattern of path dependence, which contributes to problems in the integration of environmental concerns into other policy areas. This paper aims to focus on environmental policy integration (EPI), a widely recommended but rarely implemented policy principle and aims to identify conditions of EPI at local level climate governance in Turkey. Departing from successful EPI experiences of certain Turkish municipalities’, this paper describes the conditions of local level EPI in a single country case. The existence of multiple dividends, availability of technological fixes and involvement of international players contribute to attainment of EPI despite prevalence of institutionalised barriers.

The article analyzes the process of adaptation of the national legislation to the European standards in accordance with the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. In particular, in the sector “Environmental management and integration of environmental policy in other sectoral policies”, the implementation of Directive 2001/42/EC on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programs for the environment and Directive 2011/92/EC on the assessment of the impact of certain public and private projects on the environment was considered. The influence of environmental management tools and the integration of environmental policy on other sectoral policies have been determined and their interrelation with the rest of the sectors in the field of environmental protection has been established. It has been established that environmental assessment is the main instrument for ensuring environmental considerations in the development of plans and programs and contributes to sustainable development through the promotion of environmental protection issues in economic and social development.The procedures of strategic environmental assessment and environmental impact assessment have been characterized; their subjects and objects have been clarified. The peculiarities of these procedures, stages and advantages of their application in the national practice of public environmental management are presented. The way of implementation of strategic environmental assessment and environmental impact assessment at the level of the European community is considered, and examples of their practical application at the level of the EU member states are presented.It is indicated that strategic environmental assessment and environmental impact assessment are procedural tools used to prevent any possible negative effects of economic activity on the environment and public health. A comparative analysis of these procedures was carried out and links and differences were identified. It has been proved that the effectiveness of strategic environmental assessment in preventing environmental hazards is significantly higher than environmental impact assessments. The problem aspects and perspectives in the field of practical implementation of legislation in the field of environmental assessment in Ukraine are highlighted.

Rather than taking a narrow definition of ‘environmentalist’ as meaning operating within the non‐governmental sector, a better perspective sees those with environmental concerns as operating in a variety of organisational contexts. Networking is thus a significant mechanism in moving towards an integrated environmental policy but, because of the resources and powers residing within local authorities and their potential for coordinating other bodies, local government retains a strategic role in local environmental policy. The discussion of local networking and enabling action by local authorities on environmental issues can hold out prospects for success in achieving local environmental policy goals. But organisational constraints in the different sectors, the enduring strategic role of local government in this policy area and the potential conflict between environmental and other policy goals, all can serve to limit achievement of those local environmental policy goals, and structure the advances that are...

The article aims to study whether the Bulgarian wine-manufacturing industry considers the ecological issues as an important prerequisite for breaking into both the European Union and the worldwide markets. A survey has been carried out in 17 companies producing wines in Bulgaria. A questionnaire has been designed with the intention to understand whether the managers have an interest in implementing environmental management system. The article points out that the integration of environmental policy and its benchmarking indicators is dependent only on a number of managerial and business factors. Some environmental issues are not considered in the process of making competitive decisions, while others are still under evaluation.

Contributing a new South American case study, this paper seeks to advance the research agenda on processes of policy integration by developing a better understanding of how nascent subsystems become integrated into mature ones and the role that changing beliefs of advocacy coalitions play in fostering policy integration. The paper examines environmental policy integration in Uruguay’s forestry sector since the 1990s and is based on an inductive qualitative analysis of policy documents, sector reports, parliament hearings and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. This demonstrates that environmental policy integration has increased continuously since the 1990s, accelerating particularly during the 2000s. We can derive three insights that specifically address this path of integration: a change in the policy beliefs of the dominant advocacy coalition, international salience of the minority coalition`s beliefs and participatory policy processes that foster interactions between opposing coalitions. Despite this, the two advocacy coalitions have crystallized with fundamentally different deep core beliefs about what a sustainable forestry sector should be. While one coalition argues that commercial tree plantations are sufficiently regulated in environmental terms, the other coalition maintains that the way that the pulp industry has developed in Uruguay is fundamentally unsustainable and therefore seeks to change the forestry sector as a whole.

Environmental taxes can be efficient tools for successful environmental policy. Their use, however, has been limited in many countries. This thoughtful book explores the scope of environmental pricing and examines a variety of national experiences in environmental policy integration, to identify the most effective use of taxation and policy for environmental sustainability.

An integrated approach to spatial planning and environmental policy has not yet been adopted by many national, regional or local administrations. However, such integration is likely to provide a better streamlined planning process incorporating the environmental improvements and the physical developments in the urban areas. Within Europe some attempts to integrate spatial and environmental planning can be found in western countries like the Netherlands. In this paper we review the local policy concerning spatial and environmental planning on the experience of the city of Rotterdam. We discuss two methods for an area-oriented planning approach which have been applied in Rotterdam.

Research into environmental policy integration (EPI) has focused very much on coordination issues associated with the preparation of policies at national and international levels. We instead examine some challenges in implementing EPI at the local level. We look at legal and policy frameworks relating to environmental governance and actual waste management decision making in five Swedish cities. We observe an implementation gap between the high-level policy ambitions relating to environmental governance of the waste sector, as expressed in national policy frameworks, and the local-level decision-making procedures and outcomes. Several discrepancies are identified: between national waste policy and the local decision premises, between local waste planning and project decision making, between knowledge gathering and project decision making, and between the legal mechanism in the development consent process and the national environmental quality objectives framework. Our study indicates that the governance frameworks at different levels are quite different, and at least partly incompatible, which causes important coordination problems across levels. Sectoral developments towards an industrial marketisation of waste have rendered frameworks such as local waste plans obsolete. We also find that the more traditional and coercive forms of governing the sector, such as consent, bans, and taxes, are the ones that have steering power, whereas new procedures, such as management by objectives, lack sufficient institutional and cognitive support structures to be effective.