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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Environmental policy'
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Wiesmeth, Hans, and Dennis Häckl. "Integrated environmental policy." Sage, 2017. https://tud.qucosa.de/id/qucosa%3A35548.
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Holistic environmental policies, which emerged from a mere combination of technical activities in waste management some 40 years ago, constitute the most advanced level of environmental policies. These approaches to environmental policy, among them the policies in integrated waste management, attempt to guide economic agents to an environment-friendly behaviour.
Nevertheless, current holistic policies in waste management, including policies on one-way drinks containers and waste electrical and electronic equipment, and implementations of extended producer responsibility with further applications to waste electrical and electronic equipment, reveal more or less severe deficiencies – despite some positive examples. This article relates these policy failures, which are not necessarily the result of an insufficient compliance with the regulations, to missing constitutive elements of what is going to be called an ‘integrated environmental policy’.
This article therefore investigates – mostly from a practical point of view – constitutive elements, which are necessary for a holistic policy to serve as a well-functioning allocation mechanism. As these constitutive elements result from a careful ‘integration’ of the environmental commodities into the economic allocation problems, we refer to these policies as ‘integrated environmental policies’. The article also discusses and illustrates the main steps of designing such a policy – for waste electrical and electronic equipment and a (possible) ban of Glyphosat in agriculture. As these policies are dependent on economic and political stability with environmental awareness sufficiently developed, the article addresses mostly waste management policies in highly industrialised countries.
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Aleksandruk, M. "International environmental policy." Thesis, Sumy State University, 2016. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/45254.
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Humanity constantly faces a lot of problems which need to be solved as soon as possible. The growing impact of human activities causes environmental changes: air and water pollution as well as natural resource depletion on a global scale. These disturbances in ecosystem inflict considerable harm on all living creatures, including humans. Despite the rapid scientific and technological development, the role of natural and anthropogenic factors that cause emergencies and constitute a threat to the world ecological safety is constantly growing. Common environmental problems force countries to unite in order to protect the environment and conduct international environmental policy.
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Serra, Barragán Luis A. "Essays on environmentally friendly behaviour and environmental policy." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2013. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/57935/.
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The thesis consists of three chapters of self-contained studies. In Chapter 1, I examine the decision of individuals to secure the provision of an environmental service under a Psychological Games framework. Since environmental services are considered public goods, there is an ongoing depletion of natural resources. While standard economic theory predicts the introduction of a PES is supposed to correct the associated externality by establishing a market which offers a monetary compensation to owners of vital natural resources as a recognition of their effort in providing the environmental services, this chapter argues such intervention might backfire: a motivation crowding-out arises if individuals believe others reciprocate friendly behaviour solely to receive the monetary compensation, ultimately decreasing total environmental protection. Even if environmental protection does take place, the motivation of individuals to secure the provision of the environmental service becomes commodified by the PES. Finally, awarding the PES only to a subset of individuals will also have negative effects on environmental protection, since those not receiving the PES will not want to do for free something that others are being paid to do. Environmental policy implications of this economic instrument are further discussed. In Chapter 2, a sample of the World Values Survey dataset is analyzed to show there are substantial behavioural differences between immigrants and native-born regarding pro-environmental action. In particular, while neither native-born nor immigrants are more willing to sacrifice money to save the environment, immigrants actually engage more on activities like choosing products that are better for the environment, recycling, and reducing water consumption. The engagement in proenvironmental behaviour of immigrants is region-specific and depends on their source region. Moreover, such relatively higher actual engagement in environmentally friendly behaviours can be explained by their high socio-economic status and their high education level, i.e. “selective immigration”. When the behaviour of immigrants by their length of residence in the host country is analyzed, no differences in proenvironmental attitudes or pro-environmental behaviour are found, a result which suggests they do not develop a “sense of belongingness” to the host country. Finally, in line with the standard finding in the literature of acculturation in environmental behaviour, this chapter finds that immigrants conform through time to some of the proenvironmental actions of native-born. In Chapter 3, I investigate the indirect effects on norm activation produced by monetary environmental policy instruments which introduce a situational cue that fosters a change of identity among individuals with potential negative consequences on their pro-environmental behaviour. For that purpose, a two-period identity selection model based on self-verification theory is developed. In each period there are two types of selves an individual can adopt: selfish and pro-environmental. The process of identity selection is driven by the desire of individuals to be consistent across the two periods in order to avoid social disapproval due to self-change. Results show that the monetary environmental policy introduces an asymmetry in the identity selection process that produces a failure of norm activation: while selfish agents preserve their selfish identity after the policy is implemented, pro-environmental agents might change their identity despite they experience social disapproval due to a reduction in the cognitive benefits of keeping such identity produced by the monetary component of the policy. Implications for environmental policy design are discussed.
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Gawn, Mark Carleton University Dissertation International Affairs. "Donor agencies and the environment: CIDA's environmental policy." Ottawa, 1985.
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Khodun, T. "Evaluating environmental policy instruments." Thesis, Видавництво СумДУ, 2004. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/23461.
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XU, Jing. "Essays on Environmental Economics: Environmental Compliance, Policy andGovernance." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/96489.
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Esta tesis doctoral estudia distintos problemas de economía medioambiental, con un énfasis en la regulacción medioambiental (incluyendo políticas, aplicación y gobernanza) y en su cumplimiento por parte de las empresas. Consta de tres capítulos, unidos por el tema de regulación ambiental, específicamente, la visión desde los niveles internacional, nacional y de empresa.
El primer capítulo estudia los acuerdos internacionales en materia de medio ambiente, siendo el aspecto innovador la toma en consideración de múltiples contaminantes con efectos correlaciondos y la secuencia de la negociación. Se muestra que una cooperación en la primera fase puede facilitar las negociaciones posteriores. Además, excepto para países simétricos, la secuencia de la negociación afecta a los resultados respecto a acuerdos, haciendo de la secuencia otro instrumento para aumentar la participación.
En el segundo capítulo se analiza, en un marco en que la política medioambiental viene predeterminada, cómo debería distribuirse el poder para imponer la aplicación de las normativas en una estructura de aplicación centralizada, descentralizada o mixta. El capítulo se relaciona con la literarura sobre federalismo ambiental al incorporar una nueva perspectiva sobre los problemas relacionados con el cumplimiento de las normativas. Los sacrificios que deben hacerse al elegir entre centralización y descentralización recaen en la internalización de externalidades negativas y la consideración de la heterogeneidad entre regiones. Además, si las preocupaciones ambientales locales y centrales no coinciden, podrían surgir contradicciones donde cada nivel jurisdiccional prefiere lo opuesto como estructura de aplicación superior.
En el tercer capítulo de la tesis me centro en otro aspecto del cumplimiento de las normativas medioambientales por parte de las empresas. Me centro en el estudio de cómo las características de una compañía, y en particular las de su gobierno corporativo, afectan al comportamiento de ésta con respecto al cumplimiento de la regulación medioambiental. Además del efecto disuasorio general de la regulación medioambiental, en este trabajo proporciono un nuevo aspecto que puede ayudar a entender la heterogeneidad que se observa en el comportamiento de las empresas en el terreno medioambiental. Propongo un modelo teórico que luego estudio empíricamente, y llego a la conclusión de que el impacto del gobierno de la compañía en el grado de cumplimiento con las normativa medioambiental presenta una forma funcional en U invertida, lo que explicaría que no se haya encontrado una relación significativa en la literatura empírica previa. Este hecho indica por tanto que además de las expectativas convencionales de que la mejora del gobierno corporativo debería reducir sus incumplimientos en materia medioambiental, puede darse también el efecto inverso.This doctoral thesis is generally on environmental economics, with a slight focus on environmental regulation (including policy, enforcement and governance) and firm’s compliance. It consists of three essays, linked by the theme of environmental governance, specifically, the governance on the international, national and firm level. The first essay studies international environmental agreement, with its innovation in taking into account multiple pollutants with correlation effect and the negotiation sequence. It turns out that a cooperation in the first stage can facilitate later negotiations. And except for symmetric countries, the negotiation agendas matters for the membership outcome, which makes the sequence another instrument to possibly enlarge the participations. In the second essay, it analyzes when the environmental policy is predetermined, how the enforcement power should be distributed under centralized, decentralized or a mixed enforcement structure. The chapter brings the environmental federalism literature to a new perspective of compliance problems. The tradeoff between centralization and decentralization lies in internalizing negative externalities and accounting for heterogeneity across regions. Besides, if the environmental concern of the central and local agencies does not coincide, disagreements may arise where each jurisdictional level prefers the opposite as to the superior enforcement structure. The research then shifts to the environmental governance within the firm level in the third essay. I study whether and how a firm’s characteristics, in particular its corporate governance, affect the environmental compliance behavior. Besides the general deterrent effect of environmental regulation, this essay provides a novel angle in explaining the heterogeneity of corporate environmental performance. By both theoretical and empirical means, I find that the impact of firm’s corporate control on the degree of environmental violation exhibits an inverse-U trend. The failure to discover a significant relationship in previous empirical literature can thereby be explained. Hence, additional to conventional expectation that an improvement of a firm’s corporate governance should lessen its environmental incompliance, the reverse effect can also take place.
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Zobel, Thomas. "Environmental management systems : policy implementation and environmental effects." Doctoral thesis, Luleå, 2005. http://epubl.luth.se/1402-1544/2005/32.
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Chalmers, Helen. "Developing the Environment Agency's policy position on addressing environmental inequalities." Thesis, Middlesex University, 2006. http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/6463/.
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Background and drivers of the project In the UK there is growing interest in the relationship between environmental quality and social equity. Recent research has shown that the most socially and economically deprived people live in the worst environments. This presents difficult challenges to government and its agencies in delivering sustainable development, but also an opportunity to better integrate social and environmental policy and deliver a better environment and quality of life for everyone. This project arose out of the Environment Agency's interest in understanding these issues, and its social responsibilities in improving and protecting the environment. This report provides a reflective and critical analysis of a work-based project between September 2002 and September 2004 to develop the Environment Agency's policy on addressing environmental inequalities. Research objectives The overall aim of this project was to strengthen the Environment Agency's contribution to sustainable development by: • developing the Environment Agency's understanding of the relationships between environmental quality and social deprivation; • helping to clarify the Environment Agency's role, and ensure its policies reflect the need to address environmental inequalities; and • ensuring that others' strategies to tackle multiple disadvantage and promote sustainable development reflect the need to address environmental inequalities. Methodology and project activities An action research approach provided the overall framework for the project, in which cycles of action and reflection were used to develop evidence-based policy and wider organisational change. The project utilised a variety of research techniques, including quantitative statistical analysis, documentary research and collaborative inquiry with critical stakeholders. The data was triangulated to understand the relationships between environmental quality and social deprivation, the Environment Agency's role in addressing environmental inequalities, and wider policy options. A wide range of the Environment Agency's staff and its external stakeholders were involved in developing the research, making sense of the evidence, and developing and negotiating the policy solutions. Results The project established that: • While the quality of the environment is generally improving, the most socially and economically deprived communities tend to live in the worst environments. For example, those living in the most deprived wards in England experience the worst air quality, are most likely to live next to industrial sites and are most likely to live in tidal floodplains. In Wales, the picture is very different. Air pollution is generally better, the location of industrial sites show some bias towards affluent areas, and the link between flooding and deprivation is less clear. • The Environment Agency's role is to contribute to a better quality of life for everyone, by improving and protecting the environment and whatever their background and wherever they live. To inform its approach, the Environment Agency carries out research on environmental inequalities and works with others to develop the most effective ways of tackling them. It takes account of the social and economic impacts of its work whenever possible and includes the interests of disadvantaged communities in its work. The Environment Agency advises on the environmental impacts of planning decisions, and advises government on environmental inequality, • The Environment Agency is committed to doing what it can to address environmental inequalities and will ensure that it does not contribute to inequalities in the future. It will undertake further research on environmental inequalities and scrutinise its approach to modern regulation and flood risk management. It will carry out Strategic Environmental Assessment to assess the impact of its plans and programmes on people, and continue to provide information, and support processes that help people to make better decisions about their environment. • Work is also needed by government, business and society to address environmental inequalities at a national, regional and local level. The Environment Agency is calling for: a better understanding of environmental inequalities and the most effective ways of addressing them; government policy to promote a reduction in environmental inequalities; government to address environmental inequalities through tackling disadvantage; regional and local planning authorities to prevent further environmental inequalities; - communities supported and involved in decisions that affect their local environment. Project impact The Environment Agency's understanding of the relationships between environmental quality and social deprivation has developed considerably as a result of this project. New knowledge about environmental inequalities has led to increasing dialogue at different levels within ~ and outside the organisation about the Environment Agency's role in improving and protecting the environment in deprived areas. The project has laid the foundations for future changes in Environment Agency policy and practice. The project has provided leadership in championing these issues across government and has been instrumental in informing the commitments within the UK Sustainable Development Strategy. Through collaborative work with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Environment Agency has seen a shift in the government's thinking about the environmental dimensions of disadvantage and wider commitment to integrate environment and social justice across government policy. Recommendations The project developed specific recommendations for future research, policy and practice to address environmental inequalities. This report also makes recommendations for Ihe ways in which the Environment Agency should take these forward by: (i) continuing to shape and Champion research and policy to address environmental inequalities, but also demonstrating its commitment to this issue (as set out in its Environmental Vision and position Statement) by integrating environmental equality into its policies and processes, and through its corporate targets. (ii) undertaking practical pilots with local. regional and national partners to demonstrate the value of addressing environmental inequalities; (iii) placing greater emphasis on joining up the practical experience of its staff on the ground with the needs and views of the communities it works with, in the development of policy; (iv) supporting the use of social science and encouraging the inclusion of more diverse voices, particularly those that are most excluded, in the development of evidence-based policy; (v) continuing to promote the use of participatory approaches to support the development of science and policy; (vi) supporting greater opportunities for reflection, evaluation and learning from the experience of practice and policy – for example through work-based doctorates. learning sets. reflection, mentoring. and secondments.
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Harrigan, Brian. "Government environmental policy in Brazil." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/9881.
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Brazil is not a homogeneous mix of peoples or ecological traits and its regions are in fact characterized by widely divergent cultures, beliefs, perceptions and attitudes reflected in a wide array of social and political structures. This thesis posits that there are underlying characteristics which form the foundation of the Brazilian governments' environmental policies, and that fundamental trends have emerged from this policy process. Part 1 attempts to hone the meanings of both the environment and policy, and presents the elements which form the environmental policy framework, and provides the blueprint from which Brazil's environmental mapping is traced. Part 2 underlines Brazil's diversity alluded to previously, and which must constantly be contrasted with the admittedly simplifying policy instruments developed in Part 1 in order to more accurately reflect the country's diverse realities. Brazil's less than brilliant environmental reputation is also briefly described. Part 3 and, particularly, Part 4 form the nucleus of the thesis, and describe Brazil's historical formation viewed through its effect on the environmental policy framework elements, namely long and short-term forces, "environmental players", and the constituent parts of the policy process including: Agenda setting and policy formulation, and policy legitimization, implementation and evaluation. Nearly five hundred years of social, political and economic evolution and their effects on the environmental framework are sectioned into five periods, with relevant elements affecting Brazil's environmental policy arena concluding each historical section, and with particular analytical emphasis starting from the onset of the military regime in 1964. Finally, Part 5 is a retrospective overview which pulls together the analysis of the previous parts, and unfold Brazil's environmental policy map, identifying the clear characteristics and trends which have surfaced within the country's environmental evolution, thus reaching the thesis' objectives. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
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Wong, Hiu-Nga Daisy, and 黃曉雅. "Environmental quality and transport policy." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2001. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31945624.
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Vinokur, Leon. "Environmental policy and bounded rationality." Thesis, Queen Mary, University of London, 2010. http://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/1708.
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The Prospect Theory proposes to assess outcomes relative to a reference point (or benchmark). Although the literature recognises the relevance of dynamic benchmarks, most of the applications of Prospect Theory employ static reference points (or a status quo). This paper aims to develop a Prospect Theory framework for investment under uncertainty subject to a dynamic reference point, within the context of environmental policy making, where the distinction between a dynamic and a static frameworks is crucial. I evince that, in contrast to the static framework, in a dynamic framework the investor measures not only the absolute but also the relative risk premium (Sharpe ratio) of the investment opportunity, incorporating the risks and returns of a reference portfolio. I propose that there exists a relation between static and dynamic frameworks. Using the dynamic framework, I argue that in the environmental context international co-operation is the key to a successful environmental policy
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Дмитренко, Алла Олександрівна, Алла Александровна Дмитренко, Alla Oleksandrivna Dmytrenko, Євгенія Олексіївна Голишева, Евгения Алексеевна Голышева, and Yevheniia Oleksiivna Holysheva. "Conflicting approaches to environmental policy." Thesis, Видавництво СумДУ, 2006. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/8439.
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Bäcklund, Elin. "Environmental Policy and Market Structure." Thesis, Mälardalens högskola, Akademin för ekonomi, samhälle och teknik, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-54703.
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The question of how to design efficient environmental policies has become one of the most important questions of our time, but finding the answer it is not easy. Simple models of environmental regulation do not take into account the complexity of real markets. One aspect that is sometimes ignored is the market structure of the regulated industry. This critical review of the literature shows that market structure can both influence and be influenced by environmental regulation and that determining the optimal environmental policy is complicated.
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Ohyama, Atsuyuki. "Strategic environmental policy under uncertainty." Kyoto University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2433/136099.
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Wong, Hiu-Nga Daisy. "Environmental quality and transport policy." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 2001. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B23501777.
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Dunbar, Lada Kochtcheeva. "Institutional requisites for flexible policy instruments : envronmental policy in the United States and Russia /." view abstract or download file of text, 2005. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p3181096.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2005.Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 262-297). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.
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Shryock, Allison. "American Federalisms and Climate Policy." Ohio University Honors Tutorial College / OhioLINK, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ouhonors1618143242538514.
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Kraus, Christiane. "Import tariffs as environmental policy instruments /." Dordrecht [u.a.] : Kluwer Acad. Publ, 2000. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0821/00039111-d.html.
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Jonsson, Thomas. "Essays on agricultural and environmental policy." Doctoral thesis, Umeå, Sweden : Umeå University, 2007. http://www.econ.umu.se/ues/ues719.pdf.
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Mclauchlan, Anna. "Environmental justice as a policy objective." Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 2010. http://oleg.lib.strath.ac.uk:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=12840.
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Sturm, Daniel Marbod. "Environmental policy in an open economy." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.246969.
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Ferrante, Francesco. "Technical change and environmental policy modelling." Thesis, University of York, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.283539.
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Miltz, David. "Economic aspects of targeting environmental policy." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.235914.
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This thesis is composed of two parts; the first addresses theoretical aspects of the economics of targeting pollution control policy, whilst the second is an illustrative case study designed to embellish the more abstract insights of the first section.
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Montero, Juan-Pablo. "Topics on market-based environmental policy." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/17436.
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Gamman, John K. "Environmental policy implementation in developing countries." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/27977.
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Malcolm, Rosalind. "Environmental product policy : a legal perspective." Thesis, University of Surrey, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.654747.
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Production and consumption patterns in both industrialised and developing countries are continuing to cause increases in waste production and environmental impacts and current regulatory controls are failing in achieving wholesale material change in the nature of products and the way in which they are used. Therefore, other mechanisms must be sought to promote more sustainable product systems with regulation as the primary driver. Building legislation on a life cycle approach as part of a circular economy is radical and novel given that most environmental impacts are currently regulated on a vertical basis where legislation is linked to the process rather than the product. This thesis argues that it is necessary to establish an effective regulatory approach (a codex for the law relating to things - a codex rerum) both to ensure integration of environmental questions into every aspect of product development and to achieve harmonisation and standardisation leading to an efficient and effective approach to regulation. Regulation needs to be primaly with other instruments available to complement it and it needs to start with government policy and a government determination to achieve a framework in which environmental measures are seen as an integral and indispensable part of the economy in order to advance technological development and generate a thriving market for such developments. The ultimate concern is to achieve a system which is entirely harmonised with the needs of the environment; where an effective synthesis of economic, social and environmental factors is reflected in the means and mam1er of production, product life management and the behavioural aspects of consumption. This thesis proposes a fundamentally different legislative approach which addresses all phases of the life cycle from all dimensions - integrating process and product controls - and which would enable and encourage innovation, particularly in response to environmental needs.
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Belyakova, A. "Public involvement in the environmental policy." Thesis, Видавництво СумДУ, 2004. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/22756.
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Соколов, Микола Олександрович, Николай Александрович Соколов, Mykola Oleksandrovych Sokolov, Тетяна Володимирівна Ходун, Татьяна Владимировна Ходун, and Tetiana Volodymyrivna Khodun. "Evaluation criteria for environmental policy instruments." Thesis, Видавництво СумДУ, 2004. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/22943.
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Ohori, Shuichi. "Essays on environmental policy and privatization." Kyoto University, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/2433/145337.
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Kyoto University (京都大学)0048
新制・課程博士
博士(経済学)
甲第11214号
経博第202号
新制||経||197(附属図書館)
22823
UT51-2004-U420
京都大学大学院経済学研究科経済動態分析専攻
(主査)教授 植田 和弘, 教授 塚谷 恒雄, 助教授 依田 高典
学位規則第4条第1項該当
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Baker, Natalie. "Environmental Policy Evaluation: An Interdisciplinary Framework." Thesis, Department of Political Economy, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/14094.
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Nemati, Mehdi. "ESSAYS ON ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS AND POLICY." UKnowledge, 2018. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/agecon_etds/66.
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Environmental goals such as urban water conservation and pollution control regulations are typically achieved through price and non-price methods. This dissertation offers an analysis of the non-price approaches, including the rationing of water for particular users, installation of particular technologies, and adoption of particular certifications to achieve environmental goals. To begin, an analysis of California’s 2015 urban water conservation mandate was performed. Results indicate that the average welfare loss of the mandate is $6,107 per acre-foot of restriction in Northern California and $2,757 per acre-foot of restriction in Southern California. In terms of monthly household-level willingness-to-pay (WTP) to avoid the mandate, results illustrate that households have a WTP between $5 and $200 per month. Northern Californian utilities were generally in compliance with their mandated conservation targets, while Southern Californian utilities tended to fall short. The second essay focuses on analyzing how web-based Home Water Use Reports (HWURs) affect household-level water consumption in Folsom City, California. The HWURs under study, offered by the company Dropcountr (DC), share social comparisons, consumption analytics, and conservation information to residential accounts, primarily through digital communications. We found that there is a 7.8% reduction in average daily household water consumption for a typical household under treatment of the DC program. Results suggest that the effect of DC varies by the baseline consumption quintile, the number of months in the program, the day of the week, message type, and enrollment wave. Furthermore, we find that indicate these responses to DC program likely come from the information channel rather than moral suasion. The final essay studies the effectiveness of ISO-14001 on pollution reduction as a non-price pollution control approach. Manufacturers have been increasingly relying on environmental management systems (such as ISO 14001 based ones) to comply with government regulations and reduce waste. In this essay, we investigated the impact of ISO 14001 certification on manufacturers’ toxic release by release level. Results show that ISO 14001 had a negative and statistically significant effect on the top 10% manufacturing sites regarding the on-site toxic release, but it did not reduce off-site toxic release. Therefore, one should not expect ISO 14001 to have a uniform impact on manufacturing sites’ environmental performance. For large firms, encouraging voluntary adoption of ISO 14001 might be an effective government strategy to reduce on-site pollution.
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au, T. Wallington@murdoch edu, and Tabatha Jean Wallington. "Civic Environmental Pragmatism: A Dialogical Framework for Strategic Environmental Assessment." Murdoch University, 2002. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20040428.144248.
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Questions of uncertainty and value conflict are increasingly pervasive challenges confronting policy makers seeking to address the range of environmental problems generated by contemporary technological systems. Yet these questions are ultimately political and moral in nature, and require a framework of strategic environmental
assessment (SEA) that is marked by informed and democratic civic governance. Reflecting this, the original, civic purposes of environmental assessment (EA) embraced science and public participation as interdependent elements in the creation of more sustaining forms of human-nature interaction.
However, formal models of EA have forsaken meaningful democratic engagement to technique. Based on the instrumentalist assumption that better science automatically leads to better policy, EA has externalised the civic source of political energy that underpins its environmental expertise. Moreover, debates become polarised when science is uncritically imported into the adversarial forums of interest-based politics,so that environmental science is increasingly unable to support political action. I shall argue that the revolutionary potential of SEA to transform the policy process rests upon a recovery of its original, civic purposes.
My thesis is that a deeper understanding of the relationship between scientific knowledge and political action is required if SEA is to be rigorous, and also relevant to public concerns. Philosophical pragmatism contributes epistemological resources vital to this task. By situating knowledge in the context of practice, and by recognising the dialogical, judgmental nature of rationality, the practical philosophy of pragmatism reclaims the contextually embedded nature of inquiry. When science is embedded in a wider ethical context, the meaning and purposes of environmental knowledge become central questions of policy.
The procedural ethics of both liberal and Habermasian politics cannot address these questions, however, because they relegate questions of the public good to the realm of individual choice. Instead, I argue that public dialogue, guided by a praxisoriented virtue ethics, is required to recover objective environmental goods in the policy process. I also argue that Aristotlean rhetoric, with its focus on the credibility of expertise, is the mode of persuasive argument most appropriate for dialogical public forums. The public philosophy of civic environmental pragmatism is therefore presented as a richer theoretical framework for understanding the contribution of both experts and citizens in the development of environmental knowledge for policy. As a dialogical framework for SEA, civic environmental pragmatism constructively combines the critical/normative and instrumental/descriptive aspects of policy inquiry, both of which are required in the development of socially robust knowledge and politically feasible policy decisions.
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唐詠賢 and Wing-yin Viola Tong. "The role of environmental audit in environmental management." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1994. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31252965.
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Karjalainen, Timo. "The environment in contexts : environmental concern in the Komi Republic (Russia) /." Oulu : University of Oulu, 2006. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy1002/2007385920.html.
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Liko, Enerlida <1991>. "ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE: The role of environmental policy in directing technological change toward renewable energies." Master's Degree Thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/13154.
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Inaction to climate change implies costs to the society in terms of natural disasters, slowdown of world food production, increasing vulnerability and poverty, spread of diseases and others. Taking action against climate change by reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions also produces costs, since moving from a fossil-fuel energy system to a low-carbon one requires significant investments into green innovations. However, the costs associated with the abatement of GHGs gases emissions can be lowered if environmental policy is shaped in a way to influence the direction of technical change toward clean innovations. For environmental policy to be cost-efficient in reducing GHGs emissions and promoting a low-carbon energy system, it is important to understand how environmental policy affects technological change and which instruments of environmental policy are better in directing technological change toward clean innovations. These two topics have attracted a lot of attention in economic literature, providing significant insights on the relation between environmental policy and technological change. According to the literature, environmental policy does promote innovation in the context of renewable energy innovations. Besides the aggregate impact of environmental policies on renewable energy innovations, scholars agreed that different environmental policy instruments direct technological change toward different and specific types of clean innovations. The aim of the dissertation is to support these views in order to highlight the crucial role of environmental policies in promoting a low-carbon energy system.
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Lee, Caroline Worthen. "What difference does local participation make? contexts of engagement in regional conservation planning /." Diss., Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC IP addresses, 2006. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3207063.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2006.Title from first page of PDF file (viewed May 10, 2006). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 378-398).
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Conway, Thomas (Thomas John) Carleton University Dissertation Political Science. "The Marginalization of the Department of the Environment: environmental policy, 1971-1988." Ottawa, 1992.
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Söderberg, Charlotta. "Environmental policy integration in bioenergy : policy learning across sectors and levels?" Doctoral thesis, Umeå universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-42810.
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A central principle within UN and EU policy is environmental policyintegration (EPI), aiming at integrating environmental aspirations, targetsand requirements into sector policy in order to promote sustainabledevelopment. The focus of this study is EPI in bioenergy policy. Bioenergy isa renewable energy source of increasing importance in the EU and Swedishenergy mix. At the same time, it is debated how environmentally friendlybioenergy really is. Furthermore, bioenergy can be considered both a multisectorand a multi-level case, since bioenergy is produced in many differentsectors and bioenergy policy is formulated and implemented on differentlevels. Therefore, EPI in bioenergy policy is here analysed over time in twosectors (energy and agriculture) and on three levels (EU, national, subnational).A cognitive, policy learning perspective on EPI is adopted, tracingEPI through looking for reframing of policy towards incorporatingenvironmental objectives in policy rhetoric and practice. Furthermore,institutional and political explanations for the development are discussed.Paper I analyses EPI in Swedish bioenergy policy within energy andagriculture. Paper II analyses institutional conditions for multi-sector EPI inSwedish bioenergy policy. Paper III analyses EPI in EU bioenergy policywithin energy and agriculture. Paper IV analyses sub-national EPI in thecase of the Biofuel Region in north Sweden. The material examined consistsof policy documents complemented by semi-structured interviews. Together, the four papers provide a more complex and holistic picture ofthe EPI process than in previous research, which mainly has focused onstudying EPI in single sectors and on single levels. The study shows thatpriorities are different on different levels; that EPI has varied over time; butthat EPI today is detectable within bioenergy policy in both studied sectorsand on all levels. Policy learning in bioenergy is found to be mainly a topdownprocess. Furthermore, policy coherence between sectors and levels;long-term goals; and concrete policy instruments are found to be importantboth for the EPI process as such and for the outcomes from this process.However, when attempting to marry different goals, such as growth, securityand sustainability, in line with the three-tiered (economic, social, ecologic)sustainable development concept, environmental aspects risks not to beprioritised when goal conflicts arise. The study proposes that future researchboth continues the analysis of multi-sector and multi-level EPI, and furtherexplores to what extent ecological sustainability is improved by EPI.
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Mussared, Catherine. "Economic tools in environmental policy : carbon tax and Australia's greenhouse policy /." Title page, table of contents and abstract only, 1997. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ENV/09envm989.pdf.
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Grübmeyer, Sonja Felicitas. "Quiet Activists - Environmental Values and Value Adjustment in Environmental Policy Advisors." The University of Waikato, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10289/2369.
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In this thesis, I investigate the influence of environmental values on the work of environmental policy advisors in a regional council in New Zealand and the influence on the institutional values of their work environment on their personal environmental values. Values are relatively stable concepts of socially acquired beliefs and norms that influence the perception and behaviour of humans and are organised in interdependent and dynamic structures that can be changed through social experiences. Environmental values are partly responsible for environmentally friendly behaviour, which encompasses a variety of activities and even lifestyle choices. People, who have chosen to work in the environmental sector are exposed to environmental values through working for institutions that represent environmentally friendly principles. By working in an environmental context, environmental values can get changed by social interaction, which can lead to an adjustment or approximation to the dominant notion of environmental values within the workplace (Finegan, 2000) Although policy advice is expected to be a neutral and objective task, statements are still written by persons with an individual opinion that, although suppressed, represents the values of the writer (Heineman, Bluhm, Peterson, Keary, 2002). It is therefore likely that the whole process of evaluating information and preparing a policy recommendation is influenced by the values of the policy advisor. My findings indicate that environmental values of employees get adjusted to the institution's environmental values through their work. This happens through a merging of their private environmental values into their professional values, through processes of adjustment. This change not only results in identification with the job but also presents a way to circumvent possible value conflicts in the work environment. The policy process involves a number of stages where information is re-evaluated and discussed to fit the formal and structural requirements of policy making under the Resource Management Act, which is done in collaboration with others. This leads to a social construction of values that are represented in collaboratively developed policy recommendation. In my conclusion, I show that policy advisors at regional government level use. in New Zealand have environmental values, use them for environmental protection, and adjust them to work more efficiently for the environment within a public service organisation. The use of their environmental values by the participants show that they are environmentalists and do what environmentalists do, but in a quiet, unobtrusive way.
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Mahashabde, Anuja (Anuja Anil). "Assessing environmental benefits and economic costs of aviation environmental policy measures." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/62967.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-169).
Despite the recent global economic downturn, longer term growth is anticipated for aviation with an increasing environmental impact, specifically in the areas of noise, air quality, and climate change. To ensure sustainable growth for aviation, decision-makers and stake-holders need to be armed with information on balancing environmental and economic interests. The main objective of this thesis is to address key shortcomings in current decision-making practices for aviation environmental policies. This work demonstrates how the inclusion of environmental impact assessment and quantification of modeling uncertainties can enable a more comprehensive evaluation of aviation environmental policy measures. A comparison is presented between the conventional cost-effectiveness analysis and an illustrative cost-benefit analysis focused on assessing a subset of the engine NO, emissions certification stringency options under consideration for the upcoming eighth meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organization's Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection. The Aviation environmental Portfolio Management Tool (APMT) is employed to conduct the aforementioned policy assessments. Monte Carlo methods are adopted to explicitly quantify uncertainties in the modeling process. To enable the aviation climate impact assessment required by the policy analysis, a separate component of this work focuses on advancing the climate impact modeling capabilities within APMT. Major contributions towards assessing aviation climate impacts in APMT include: improved characterization of uncertainty for NO1-related effects and for aviation climate damages, introduction of a reduced-order methodology for assessing climate impacts of methane emissions from the processing of alternative jet fuels, and comparison and validation of APMT results with external sources. This work also discusses the importance of uncertainty assessment for understanding the sensitivity of policy analysis outcomes to input and model parameter variability and identifying areas of future work. An uncertainty analysis for the APMT Climate Module is presented. Radiative forcing from short-lived effects, climate sensitivity, damage function, and discount rate are identified to be the model parameters with the greatest contribution to output variability for the Climate Module for any given aviation scenario. Key contributors to uncertainty in the difference between policy and baseline scenarios are determined by the nature of the policy. For the NO, stringency analysis, the NO. radiative forcing and associated efficacies are significant contributors to uncertainty in analysis outcomes. Information based on model uncertainty assessment is also used for distilling and communicating key analysis results to the relevant stake-holders and policy-makers through the development of the lens concept. The lens, defined as a combination of inputs and model parameters representing a particular perspective for conducting policy analysis, is applied in conducting the engine NO, stringency policy assessment.
by Anuja Mahashabde.
Ph.D.
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Sipic, Toni 1981. "Political economy of environmental disasters and voluntary approaches in environmental policy." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/11581.
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xix, 187 p. : ill. (some col.)In Chapter II I analyze eco-labeling in the tourism industry, specifically the impact of the Blue Flag label for marinas and beaches on prices of marina slip rentals, weekly sailboat charter prices and hotel accommodation prices. The principal findings include that Blue Flag certified marinas appear to enjoy an average premium between 6.6% and 22% for their daily slip rental prices, between 40% and 49% for their monthly slip rental prices, and 23% for their yearly slip rental prices. Within the sailboat charter sector, vessels whose home marina is awarded the Blue Flag on average carry a price premium between 14% and 20% on a weekly sailboat rental. When it comes to hotel accommodation, hotels managing a Blue Flag certified beach enjoy a price premium between 45% and 270%. In Chapter III I employ a dataset on the global frequency of climate-change-related natural disasters to explain the probability of the start and occurrence, in a given year, of civil war and civil war durations during the last half of the 20th century. Extreme cold events are found to have a measurable positive effect on the probability of civil war starting in the affected countries, previous years' extreme heat events have a positive effect on the probability of a civil war occurring in a given year, and droughts have a positive effect on civil war duration. These findings can be used by policymakers as they contemplate climate change mitigation policies. In Chapter IV I investigate the determinants of ratification delay of a major oil pollution international environmental agreement, MARPOL. Importantly, I analyze the impact of oil spills, as well as various country characteristics, on the time a country takes to ratify MARPOL. The major contribution lies in the examination of impacts of environmental pollution events on international political decision making. I find that the amount of oil spilled decreases the time to ratify MARPOL. This is the first study that seeks to address this issue in a quantitative fashion. The results should inform policymakers by giving them insight into relevant determinants of legislative delay in ratifying treaties.
Committee in charge: Dr. Trudy Ann Cameron, Chairperson; Dr. Wesley W. Wilson, Member; Dr. Benjamin Hansen, Member; Dr. Ronald Mitchell, Outside Member
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Moela, Joyce Tshelong. "Environmental justice." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/78517.
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In 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by nations across the globe to eradicate poverty in all its forms, combat inequality, preserve the planet, create sustainable economic growth and foster social inclusion (United Nations [UN], 2015:5). Social workers are compelled to act on environmental injustices because of their ethical mandate to address social injustices (Erickson, 2012:184). This study adopted green social work (Dominelli,2012) as a theoretical framework.
The goal of the study was to explore and describe the role of social workers in promoting environmental justice for sustainable communities from a government perspective in the City of Ekurhuleni.
The study adopted a qualitative research approach, which had an exploratory and descriptive purpose (Fouché & De Vos, 2011). The case study design was an instrumental case study. The study sample was purposively selected and composed of ten social workers from three units of the Department of Social Development in the City of Ekurhuleni. Data was collected through one-on-one semi-structured interviews using an interview schedule. Data was analysed by using Creswell’s (2014) theme approach.
The findings of the study indicated that participants are aware of the environmental injustices in the City of Ekurhuleni. Furthermore, although participants understand the effects of these injustices on the lives of the poor, they believe they have little to offer to promote environmental justice. This is due to the specialised nature of the service delivery units of the Department of Social Development (DSD). The study concluded that participants need knowledge and skills in green social work. Furthermore, collaboration with relevant stakeholders and community engagement is essential in promoting environmental justice to contribute to sustainable communities.
The study recommends that the DSD adopts green social work as a practice model and that all the service delivery units of the DSD integrate an environmental justice focus. Furthermore, social workers in the DSD should be trained in the knowledge of and skills in green social work and how it relates to developmental social work and sustainable development.Mini Dissertation(MSW (Social development and policy))--University of Pretoria, 2020.
Social Work and Criminology
MSW (Social development and policy)
Unrestricted
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Wignell, Valentina. "Security Representations in Environmental Migration Policy : A Policy Analysis on Environmental Migration Policy in Central America from a Human and State Security Perspective." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-412840.
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The main objective of this study is to analyse problem representations within national and multilateral policy concerning environmental migration in Central America. The study mainly focuses on Mexico and Costa Rica’s national legal frameworks regarding environmental migration but also draws on bilateral as well as multilateral agreements ratified by the countries. In a two-step analysis, the perspectives of human security and state security are used to identify key representations, followed by an application of Bacchi’s (2016) post-structural policy analysis tool ‘What is the problem represented to be?’, allowing for an understanding of environmental migration policy in a wider context. The results of the study show how human security characteristics are most prevalent within environmental migration policy, albeit acknowledging the implicit prevalence of state security characteristics. The study makes attributions to the understanding of the discourse and conceptualisation concerning environmental migration and recommends further studies on efficient interlinkages between human and state security-oriented policies.
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McIntyre, Emma. "Evaluating the use of GIS by public participants in environmental decision-making processes a case study approach /." Access electronically, 2007. http://www.library.uow.edu.au/adt-NWU/public/adt-NWU20080616.132630/index.html.
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Rocchi, Paola. "Essays on atmospheric emissions and environmental policy." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/387214.
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The problem of atmospheric pollution is one of the major concerns about damaging effects of human activities on the environment. Some of the gases released into the atmosphere known as greenhouse gases (GHG) have a global effect, contributing to climate change. An increasing number of scientific studies seek to quantify and predict the possible effects of global warming, and they often conclude that these could be extremely serious. The risks associated to climate change clearly need an international effort to be faced. The aim of this thesis is to provide some empirical evidence to enrich the debate on the evolution of emissions and on the policy instruments that could reduce atmospheric pollution.
A first essay analyses the evolution of GHG emissions and acidification emissions for Italy, in the years 1995-2005. The aim is to highlight how different economic factors have driven the evolution of Italian emissions. The main factors considered are economic growth, the development of a technology allowing a more environment-friendly way of production, and the structure of consumption. The knowledge of the role of different determinants is helpful to figure out effective political instruments that would permit to reduce environmental pressures.
Essay two and three analyze a specific EU policy, the Energy Taxation Directive (ETD), an environmental taxation approved in 2003 that affects the price of energy products. In 2011, the European Commission proposed a new version of the ETD to increase the effectiveness of the instrument through higher rates and less exemptions. However, in May 2012 the European Parliament did not approve the Commission proposal. These studies simulate the effect that the reform would have had on the level of prices, if implemented. The aim is to shed light on the possible reasons that caused the attempt of improving this instrument to failure.
The last essay refers to the current debate regarding carbon-motivated border tax adjustment (CBTA). CBTA are tariffs applied to imports designed to avoid drawbacks of emission reduction policies when only one or few regions (the abating regions) implement them. Through CBTA the abating regions level out different treatment applied to domestic and imported products. Through a multi-region and multi-sector analysis we compute and compare two possible CBTA systems that the EU could implement to complement a hypothetical carbon tax applied to domestic products. Results at country and product level contribute to better understand the effects of this instrument and to add information to the political debate on it.El problema de la contaminación atmosférica es una de las preocupaciones principales sobre el daño de los efectos de actividades humanas sobre el entorno. Algunos gases liberados en la atmósfera sabida como gases invernaderos (GHG) tienen un efecto global, contribuyendo al cambio climático. Un número creciente de estudios científicos procura cuantificar y predecir los efectos posibles de calentamiento global, y ellos a menudo concluyen que estos podrían ser sumamente serios. Los riesgos asociados al cambio climático claramente necesitan un esfuerzo internacional para ser afrontado. El objetivo de esta tesis es proporcionar algunas pruebas empíricas para enriquecer el debate sobre la evolución de emisiones y sobre los instrumentos de política que podrían reducir la contaminación atmosférica. Un primer ensayo analiza la evolución de emisiones GHG y emisiones de acidificación para Italia, en los años 1995-2005. El objetivo es destacar como factores diferentes económicos han conducido la evolución de emisiones italianas. Los factores principales considerados son el crecimiento económico, el desarrollo de una tecnología que permite a un camino más ecológico de producción, y la estructura de consumo. El conocimiento del papel de determinantes diferentes es provechoso de entender los instrumentos eficaces políticos que permitirían para reducir presiones ambientales. El ensayo dos y tres analiza una política de la Unión Europea específica, la Directiva de Impuestos de Energía (ETD), los impuestos ambientales se aprobaron en 2003 que afecta el precio de productos de energía. En 2011, la Comisión Europea propuso una nueva versión del ETD para aumentar la eficacia del instrumento por tarifas más altas y menos exenciones. Sin embargo, en mayo de 2012 el Parlamento europeo no aprobó la oferta de Comisión. Estos estudios simulan el efecto que la reforma habría tenido sobre el nivel de precios, de ser puestos en práctica. El objetivo es deshacerse la luz sobre los motivos posibles que causaron la tentativa de mejorar este instrumento al fracaso. El último ensayo se refiere al debate corriente en cuanto al ajuste de impuesto de frontera de carbón motivado (CBTA). CBTA son tarifas aplicadas a importaciones diseñadas para evitar las desventajas de política de reducción de emisión cuando sólo una o pocas regiones (las regiones de disminución) los ponen en práctica. Por CBTA las regiones de disminución se nivelan el tratamiento diferente aplicado a productos domésticos e importados. Por una multiregión y el análisis de multisector calculamos y comparamos dos sistemas posibles CBTA que Unión Europea podría poner en práctica para complementar un impuesto hipotético de carbón aplicado a productos domésticos. Los resultados en el país y el nivel de producto contribuyen mejor entienden los efectos de este instrumento y añadir la información al debate político sobre ello.
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Grout, Timothy J. "Norwegian security policy and new environmental challenges." Thesis, Monterey, Calif. : Springfield, Va. : Naval Postgraduate School ; Available from National Technical Information Service, 1996. http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA307707.
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Barthel, Jens. "Essays on environmental policy in dynamic models /." Hamburg : Kovač, 2009. http://www.verlagdrkovac.de/978-3-8300-4767-4.htm.
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Tchórzewska, Kinga Barbara. "Essays on Environmental Policy and Green Investment." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/670051.
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This PhD thesis provides abundant empirical evidence on the effectiveness of environmental policy instruments alone and as a policy-mix, looking at its effect on green investment and employment. Finally, it also studies the social welfare outcomes of the implementation of the two environmental policy instruments – environmental taxes and public financing. The most direct and obvious conclusion that can be extracted from this thesis is that properly designed policy-instruments are necessary to incentivise firms to invest in green technologies, especially if we want to encourage investment in cleaner production technologies over pollution abating technologies, which is not an easy task to do.
I refer to the industrial and energy firms because on one hand, they contribute significantly to air pollution, waste pollution and address resource scarcity, making it even more important for them to invest in technologies that would significantly address the negative externalities. In this regard, this thesis contributes to the literature on causal evidence of environmental policy instruments on firm behaviour, as well as social welfare outcomes arising from different policy scenarios.
More specifically, the second chapter of this thesis contributes to the literature on social welfare outcomes arising from the different environmental policy scenarios. In the analysed model we are faced with the asymmetry of decision making. While the regulator favours green investment, which reduces the total pollution level, firms prefer to keep producing using their dirty technology in the symmetric scenarios. The question that arises, therefore, is how such an equilibrium can be induced? It might be the case that with more money being directed at R&D, technologies would become more efficient and cheaper, making it more desirable for firms. From the policy perspective, especially investment in private environment R&D is highly encouraged.
In the third chapter of this thesis, I contribute to the literature on drivers of eco-innovations by identifying crucial regulatory factors and firms’ organizational capabilities for encouraging enterprises to invest in green technologies. We observe differences between the drivers of investment in cleaner production and end-of-pipe technologies. In addition, we distinguish between investments with the purpose to reduce air pollution and energy consumption.
Firstly, environmental taxation in Spain seems to be rather ineffective at stimulating investment in greener technologies, both for end-of-pipe as well as for cleaner production technologies. We argue that in the Spanish context this might be caused by relatively low rates, environmental taxes might not be doing their task effectively. At the same time, firms react positively to investment subsidies and investment tax incentives. Tax credits seem to be especially successful at financing cleaner production technologies while subsidies are positively related to both EP and CP investments. The implication derived from these findings reveals that direct policies such as subsidies help firms to convert into greener companies, while tax credits lead to reductions in production costs for firms, that pursue a substantial transformation of their production process.
Additionally, we can conclude that organization capabilities matter for investment in green technologies. Admittedly, hiring green employees is a strong factor pushing each firm towards green investments, while the relationship between green procedures and certifications is not clear.
The fourth chapter of this thesis is aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of environmental taxes in Spain at different levels of taxation, in the absence and in combination with public finance - an equally important market-based instrument addressing the market failure of firms. The evaluation is performed with regards to whether the implementation of such environmental policy instrument in Spain is successful at encouraging adoption of green technologies among manufacturing firms.
Our results suggest that environmental taxation is effective at encouraging adoption of both types of green technologies. That being said, once we split our treatment to different categories, we find that low levels of environmental taxation do not induce further investments in process eco-innovations. Therefore, we show that the average treatment effect masks substantial heterogeneity across the taxation level groups. Results also consistently show that increasing the amount of taxation increases also the subsequent adoption of green technologies. In the sample of fully supported environmental tax payers, it seems to emerge that firms that are required to pay around EUR 2,500 per year already exhibit significantly higher investment in green technology than under lower amounts of taxation.
Additionally, our findings seem to suggest that even low levels of environmental taxation can be effective at inducing investment in green technology if combined with public financing. However, once again the effect is the largest when environmental taxation is at the medium level. That being said, if the regulator is reluctant to increase the taxation level in fear of hurting firms' competitiveness, even low levels of taxation can be effective in combination with public support. Large levels of environmental though very effective on its own, are not strongly encouraged with combination of public financing.
The fifth chapter of this thesis analyses, in turn, a large-scale national tax incentive program in Spain, which started in 1996 and finished in 2015. Due to data availability, I focus on the 2008-2014 time window. The findings seem to suggest that encouragement to eliminate the EI tax incentives from the Spanish Corporate Income Tax and fears that they were not successful enough was unwarranted. While it is true that the EI tax credit favoured pollution abating over energy efficient technologies, it did increase substantially investment – and even in the times of financial crises, when the capital market failure was particularly severe. The EI tax credit was found to have positive indirect effects on both number of green employees and private environmental R\&D, which could have additional positive spill-over effects. With regards to the policy change, which was aimed at disincentivizing financing of pollution abating technologies and encouraging – it was assessed as semi-effective. While it is true that it did discourage investment in end-of-pipe technologies, especially those aimed at air-pollution reduction, we could not observe investment in cleaner production technologies increasing as a result. This could suggest that tax incentives should be more clearly defined, as to avoid (1) technological lock-down in old technologies, (2) encourage technologies that do change the production process and result in smaller usage of natural resources e.g energy consumption. One of the caveats of the studied EI tax credit was the confusion it created not only with respect to eligibility criteria but also the definition of technologies that it aimed to finance. Lastly, it is quite comforting to observe, however, that the tax incentive seemed to have addressed the capital market failure of small firms for the investment in cleaner production technologies. The results from the heterogeneous analysis also point out to the fact that this positive effect exists in stark contrast to the reduction in the investment suffered by the big firms.
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Benson, Aaron George. "Essays in environmental and natural resource policy." Online access for everyone, 2007. http://www.dissertations.wsu.edu/Dissertations/Spring2007/A_Benson_041207.pdf.
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