1.3.1 Instruments to Enforce Environmental Policy (planning)

Environmental policy has developed in the industrialised countries primarily as a reaction to the highly intensive growth of the environment industry at the beginning of the 1970s into special government departments. At first policy confined itself mainly to the activity of the state. Over the years, however, more and more protagonists with any interests in the environment field (so-called ‘stakeholders’) are being called to account on environmental matters. In particular, the responsibility of the producer of (potential) environmental problems is becoming increasingly significant. There is also a need to exert eco-political goals and strategies in other departments, for example, in policy for energy, transport and industry, agriculture, and building and construction. ‘Hard’ eco-political instruments (such as laws and regulations) exist side by side with the ‘soft’ methods of behavioural control (such as education of engineers concerning environmental awareness), for example, in the case of projects that involve many private stakeholders or the public.

Besides environmental law, environmental planning forms are a central set of tools to the extent that environmental policy tries to operate not only as a regulatory but also as a formative instrument. Environmental planning can be regarded as the development of sustainable environmental strategies to facilitate the achievement of regional or sectoral environment protection goals within a certain time-frame, for example, the reduction of CO2 emissions by 25% within the next ten years. In the 1980s the implementation of national environmental plans in Denmark, Netherlands and Finland played a pioneering role in this. We will, therefore, first expand on the possibilities of environmental planning.

To enforce environmental policy principles and objectives two instruments (according to Knopp 2008) are implemented in the legal framework of many states within the EU:

•   Different types of environmental planning

•   Different measures for regulating environmental behaviour

Environmental planning provides an important means of precautionary protection. Planning takes place as a multi-stage process, involving registering the current situation and forecasting future developments; moreover, it has to take into account possible conflicts of interests.

Plans can take the form of laws, statutory regulations, statutes, administrative regulations or administrative acts, each of which has different legal consequences. In addition, environmental planning may involve comprehensive planning or sectoral planning. Two forms of environmental planning are dominant:

•   Comprehensive planning. The task of comprehensive planning is ‘to determine, while exercising foresight, land use for residential, economic and leisure purposes for a certain area, irrespective of any specific project and not limited to any specific sector’ (Knopp 2008: 51);

•   Sectoral planning. By contrast, sectoral planning serves to establish environmental protection plans for specific sectors, chiefly landscape, clean air, noise abatement, water conservation and waste management, all of which require additional enforcement measures.

Another important instrument for enforcing environmental policy demands is environmental impact assessment (EIA). The primary objective of this instrument is ‘to inform the administration comprehensively and in good time about the environmental impacts of environmentally significant projects’ (Knopp 2008: 52). EIA is used to identify, describe and assess all of the direct and indirect impacts of a planned project on the environment, including ecological interactions, in good time, thus allowing precautionary measures to be taken across all media and sectors, and involving the public.