ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND SOCIETAL AIMS

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND SOCIETAL AIMS

STUDIES IN ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS VOLUME 2

Environmental Policy and Societal Aims edited by DENIS REQUIER-DESJARDINS Centre d'economie et d'ethique pour V Environnement et le Developpement, Universite de Versailles-St. Quentin, France CLIVE SPASH Cambridge Research for the Environment, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom and JAN VAN DER STRAATEN Department of Leisure Studies, Tilburg University, European Centre for Nature Conservation, Tilburg, The Netherlands KM If SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.

A CLP. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-94-010-5928-2 ISBN 978-94-011-4521-3 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-011-4521-3 All Rights Reserved 1999 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1999 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1999 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.

PREFACE Denis Requier-Desjardins, Clive L. Spash and Jan van der Straaten Many books and articles have been published about the ecological economic dimension of various environmental problems. In most cases, authors pay particular attention to approaches which fmd their origin in economic theory. Sustainable development and environmental improvement are often regarded as of value in themselves as given phenomena and as a result the policy process by which these goals are to be achieved fails to receive full attention. Our belief is that ecological economics should be addressing the institutional and policy making aspects of environmental problems and so covering a broad socioeconomic research agenda which differentiates it from mainstream economic approaches. This can be compatible with research conducted by environmental economists or natural scientists but goes beyond the limitations of a positivist approach, is open to multiple perspectives on the same issue, sees conflict resolution as a social process and accepts the need for research addressing political economy. In this book, the aims of society itself are given a high profile. We are convinced that an in-depth analysis of the policy process is necessary to understand the pitfalls and barriers which society will confront in the process of sustainable development. This means the chapters of this book discuss topics which are commonly regarded as more or less exogenous to the mainstream defmition of economic process. The book starts by dealing with issues related to local development and environmental policy. Environmental policy is seen to be more than a national or international concern, and in particular modem environmental concepts, such as sustaining robust ecosystems, are recognised as having numerous implications for local development. In the following chapters v

VI Preface the relationship between environmental policy and other policy goals is discussed. Next, attention is given to the process of technological change, and, fmally, environmental policy tools and the process of decision-making are examined. All the papers in this book were presented at the Inaugural Conference of the European branch of the International Society for Ecological Economics entitled 'Ecology, Society, Economy, in Pursuit of Sustainable Development' held at the University of Versailles, St Quentin-en-Yvelines, France, 23-25 May 1996. The conference was a great success with a wide representation of individuals and institutions from across Europe. There were many interesting presentations at this conference, enabling us to compose a collection of articles which address the topic of this book in a variety of ways. In particular, the chapters of this book have been chosen so as to communicate areas and topics which we believe will be of importance to future research. The editors of this book commented in detail on the first drafts of the papers, which gave authors the opportunity to revise and improve their contributions. The process of feedback and revision with multiple authors in numerous countries made the project of producing this book more complex than most edited volumes. The secretariat of the European Society for Ecological Economics, located at the Centre d'economie et d'ethique pour l'environnement et Ie Developpement at the University of Versailles, St.Quentin-en-Yvelines, gave substantial support to achieving the fmal product. In particular the work of Sarah Dwyer and Miguel Lopez deserves special mention for production and editorial assistance. We hope that this book will stimulate the discussion between policy-makers on the one hand, and ecological economists on the other. Such debate is necessary if we are to clarify the specific areas of research which need to be explored further in order to facilitate goals such as environmental improvement, ecosystem maintenance and sustainable development. Denis Requier-Desjardins Clive L. Spash Jan van der Straaten May 1998

CONTENTS Preface D. Requier-Desjardins, C. Spash and J. van der Straaten v Environmental Policy and Societal Aims 1 D. Requier-Desjardins, C. Spash and J. van der Straaten Industry Preferences for Instruments of Environmental Policy 13 B. Dijkstra and A. Nentjes A CarbonlEnergy Tax for Sustainable Development 35 N. Gouzee and S. Willems The Use of National Savings in Sustainability Analysis 63 A.C. Hansen Sustainable Development and Ecological Modernisation 103 M.J. Cohen Localized Technical Change and the Efficient Control of Global Warming 129 F. Ferrante Do Local Authorities Have a Part to Play in a Sustainable Development? 155 S. Krarup Sustainability and Civic Participation in Environmental Local Auditing. Contributions from the Experience in Catalonia 169 M.A. Alia, x. Kendall and S. Laredo Local Sustainable Development: How Can Equity Issues Be Examined at the Local Level? 191 J. Corbett and H. Voisey

V111 Contents Cultural Empowerment: (Re)Building Locality and Facilitating Collective Vision as Interventions Toward Sustainable Rural Development 213 N. Mack Qualitative Growth - Employment: A Revised Relationship 247 L. Grimal and C. Kephaliacos From the Expected to the Desired Future of Passenger Transport. A Stakeholder Approach 279 S.A. Rienstra and P. Nijkamp Sustainable Development and Social Justice: The Tool of the Reduction in Income Inequalities 307 1.M. Harribey Subject index 311