Voluntary approaches in environmental policy : effectiveness, efficiency, and usage in policy mixes.

Foreword......Page 5
Table of Contents......Page 7
1. Summary, Conclusions and Policy Recommendations......Page 11
1.1. Summary......Page 12
1.2. Conclusions......Page 15
1.3. Policy recommendations......Page 17
2. Introduction......Page 19
Box 2.1. Industry’s view on Voluntary Approaches......Page 23
Notes......Page 25
3. New Case Studies......Page 29
Box 3.1. Canada – The “Accelerated Reduction/Elimination of Toxics” Program and the environmental agreement with the steel company “Dofasco Inc.”......Page 30
Box 3.2. Denmark – The agreement scheme on industrial energy efficiency......Page 33
Box 3.3. Japan – Pollution Control Agreements in Yokohama City and Kitakyushu City......Page 36
Box 3.4. United States - The agreements with Intel Corporation and Merck Pharmaceuticals in Project XL......Page 38
4. Environmental Effectiveness of Voluntary Approaches......Page 43
4.2. Have the environmental targets been set at an appropriate level?......Page 44
4.3. Have the existing environmental targets been met?......Page 45
Box 4.2. United States – The 33/50 program......Page 46
Box 4.3. Germany – The climate protection declaration of German industry......Page 47
Figure 4.1. Estimated carbon equivalent emission reductions compared to program goals in United States......Page 48
Box 4.4. The Netherlands – The base metals covenant......Page 49
Figure 4.2. NOx emissions at Corus Staal......Page 50
4.4. To what extent have the realised achievements been due to the voluntary approach?......Page 51
Figure 4.3. Aggregate emissions of organic hazardous air pollutants from Intel’s Project XL plant......Page 53
Table 4.1. Change in emissions of key substances and energy use at Dofasco Inc.......Page 54
Figure 4.5. Estimated energy savings due to the Dutch energy efficiency benchmarking covenant......Page 57
Figure 4.6. Estimated impacts of programs to reduce methane emissions in United States......Page 58
Figure 4.7. Specific energy consumption of the non-ferrous metals branch in Germany......Page 59
Table 4.2. Summary of King and Lenox’ findings on the Responsible Care program......Page 62
4.5. Conclusion......Page 64
Notes......Page 65
5. Economic Efficiency of Voluntary Approaches......Page 67
5.2. Are marginal abatement costs equalised?......Page 68
Figure 5.1. Static efficiency in pollution abatement......Page 69
5.3. Are firms given (increased) flexibility to find less expensive abatement possibilities?......Page 71
5.4. Are there impacts on the structure of an industrial sector?......Page 73
5.5. What are the impacts on technology diffusion and technology development?......Page 74
Notes......Page 75
6. Administration and Transaction Costs......Page 77
6.1. Costs of negotiating the agreements......Page 78
Table 6.2. Project XL Proposal characteristics by cost category......Page 80
6.2. Costs of operating the voluntary approach......Page 82
Notes......Page 83
7. Implementation Issues......Page 85
7.1. Free-riding......Page 86
7.3. Monitoring......Page 87
7.5. Evaluation, revision and adaptation......Page 88
Notes......Page 89
8. Comparison of Voluntary Approaches and Tradable Permit Systems......Page 91
8.1. The setting of targets......Page 92
8.3. Economic efficiency - Equalisation of marginal abatement costs......Page 93
8.5. Trading within voluntary approaches......Page 94
8.7. Conclusions......Page 95
Notes......Page 96
9. Introduction......Page 101
Figure 9.1 Analysing the use of voluntary approaches in policy mixes......Page 103
Notes......Page 106
10. Voluntary Approaches Used in Combination with Environmental Permit Systems......Page 107
Notes......Page 110
11. Voluntary Approaches Used in Combination with Environmentally Motivated Subsidies......Page 111
Notes......Page 113
12. Voluntary Approaches Used in Combination with Taxes or Charges......Page 115
12.1. Introduction and background......Page 116
Table 12.1. Levels of CO2- and energy taxes in Denmark, 1996-2000......Page 118
12.3. The Climate Change Agreements in United Kingdom......Page 119
12.4. The Intention Agreement on SO2 emission reductions in Norway......Page 120
Box 12.1 Norway – Reduction of sulphur emissions from industry......Page 121
12.5. The Load Reduction Agreements in New South Wales, Australia......Page 122
Box 12.2 New South Wales, Australia – The Load-based Licence Fee and the Load Reduction Agreements......Page 123
12.6. Conclusions......Page 125
Notes......Page 126
13. Voluntary Approaches Used in Combination with Emission Trading Systems......Page 129
13.1. Voluntary adherence to trading systems......Page 130
Table 13.1. Incentives for adherence to voluntary tradable permit schemes......Page 131
Figure 13.1. Costs and benefits from voluntary compliance in a tradable permits system......Page 133
13.2. Emission trading as elements of voluntary approaches......Page 134
13.3. Accounting for voluntary approaches in permit allocations and baseline estimation......Page 135
13.4. Conclusions......Page 136
Notes......Page 137
References......Page 139