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The interaction between science and policy in transboundary environmental regulation is dynamic. By elaborating on the concepts of boundary organisations and portable representations, I shed light on how science-based policy and policy-relevant science are co-produced. This perspective is then put to use in an analysis of the scientific representation and political regulation of two different environmental issues: ground-level ozone and biodiversity. Portable representations function as a link between experts and policymakers. By means of portable representations, nature is not only measured and represented but also made governable. Portable representations seemed to strengthen the credibility of both scientific assessments and policy. Science makes itself matter by formally separating itself from policy considerations, although the two are at the same time integrated through portable representations from boundary organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arctic Ocean is one of the last great frontiers for energy production. The prospect of oil development in the region raises deep questions about the threat of a major oil spill, like the one that affected the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. A growing body of legal scholarship has explored the problem of catastrophic risks, in contexts ranging from natural disasters to nuclear power accidents. However, few studies have considered this problem in a frontier environment or focused on government oversight of Arctic offshore oil drilling specifically. This Article fills the literature gap on the Arctic and addresses the more general problem of catastrophic risks in frontier environments. Using the lenses of principal-agent analysis and regulatory theory, this Article shows how the Arctic's profound uncertainties and lack of benchmarking opportunities challenge the efficacy of conventional regulatory models, such as the "risk-based" model that has seen application in other regulatory contexts. Addressing these problems requires greater transparency in government decision making, development of Arctic-specific regulations, and substantially delayed government approval-assuming it is not possible to ban oil drilling in U.S. Arctic waters altogether. The analytical framework and policy recommendations in this Article also offer insights for other risky industries operating at the technological frontier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the National Environmental Audit Program, a co-regulatory approach established by the Mexican government for the enforcement of its environmental laws. It examines the use and concept of environmental co-regulation. It says that co-regulation in environmental law usually comes forth in industrializing countries for various reasons.

The Environment Act of 1995 (Part IV) requires local authorities to review and assess air quality in their area of jurisdiction and to determine locations where concentrations of defined pollutants exceed. The ongoing review and assessment process is one of the largest locally based science policy and science consultation initiatives undertaken in the UK. Combining a questionnaire-based survey with in depth case studies has allowed an exploration of the process and the development of better practice guidance for such consultation initiatives. The research suggests that while there are no simple solutions to the dilemma of how best to engage the public in such consultations, there are steps that can be taken to improve consultation. Key factors that facilitate local community participation in such processes include a well-informed and adequately resourced local community and an explicit connection between participatory and decision-making processes. Although the research focused on local air quality management as a case study of consultation mechanisms, the outcomes will be relevant to other locally based environmental management issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, a multilateral environmental agreement, has successfully eliminated the use of most ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons. As a result, a number of observers have pointed to the possibility of transferring successes-and even linking regulations-between the Montreal Protocol and Kyoto Protocol, the international but stalled climate-change agreement. We argue that there is need for caution on this issue. The Montreal and Kyoto protocols are the outcomes of vastly different political contexts, from public civil society approaches to what we call 'the private turn': the current loss of faith in state sovereignty, the rejection of multilateralism, and an embrace of private knowledge about economic damage over public knowledge about the protection of citizens and natural resources. From this broader perspective we show that the differences between the Montreal and Kyoto protocols are therefore more than `command-and-control' versus `market-based' solutions. These differences also reflect an even deeper divide over what `counts' as knowledge in political decision-making processes. We illustrate these points through a case study of the current knowledge controversies around the phase-out of methyl bromide under the Montreal Protocol. We explain how the methyl bromide phase-out has stalled because the phase-out approach is incompatible with the current political regime, thus supporting the argument that neoliberal forms of governance cannot solve global environmental problems. This case, therefore, shows us that the challenges we face are more than atmospheric: to save the Earth we must create new ways to govern ourselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The causes for the failure in enforcement of environmental regulations at the Giap Lai pyrite mine in northern Vietnam are considered and the environmental impacts that are associated with this mine are evaluated. It is shown that sulphide-rich tailings and waste rock in the mining area represent significant sources of acid rock drainage (ARD). The ARD is causing elevated metal levels in downstream water bodies, which in turn, represent a threat to both human health and to aquatic ecosystems. Metal concentrations in impacted surface waters have increased after mine closure, suggesting that impacts are becoming progressively more serious. No post-closure, remediation measures have been applied at the mine, in spite of the existence of environmental legislation and both central and regional institutions charged with environmental supervision and control. The research presented here provides further emphasis for the recommendation that, while government institutions may need to be strengthened, and environmental regulations need to be in place, true on the ground improvement in environmental quality in Vietnam and in many other developing countries require an increased focus on promoting public awareness of industrial environmental issues. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

To deal effectively with environmental regulatory agencies and to better defend environmental claims requires a clear understanding of the regulatory agencies. This article examines some popularly held views about the environmental regulatory agencies that have little or no basis in fact and that can lead to greater costs and greater difficulty in dealing effectively with environmental issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the criminal enforcement of environmental regulations in the U.S., including information on its legal and economic theories. Several concerns involved in the implementation of environmental regulations are discussed, such as the interests of the government, society, and corporate officers. Information about the benefit-cost analysis of the decision-making process of the programs is presented. Elevated means area standards and tailored enforcement are two recommendations to improve the enforcement scheme of environmental laws.

This paper develops a scheme for characterizing variation in the structure of state environmental regulatory policy design. The rules, policy tools and incentives built into regulatory policies affect the manner in which policies are implemented, and, ultimately, the actions of target populations toward the ambient environment. Variation in state concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) regulation is examined as a specific case of subnational regulatory policy design. These operations can have substantial environmental impacts on local communities and large cumulative impacts on waterways. Using a content analysis of CAFO policy across states, the paper shows state policy designs to vary on three dimensions: scope, stringency and prescription. This research calls attention to the use of more detailed measures of environmental policy design rather than unitary measures typically used in environmental policy research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reform No. 5 of the Louisville Charter addresses the pervasive lack of publicly available information about the effects of many chemicals on human health and the environment. This lack of information persists for the majority of chemicals in commerce because the current laws in the United States do not systematically require it to be produced or motivate its voluntary production. These information gaps undermine the effectiveness of the existing environmental statutes, the liability system, the ability of the market to stimulate development of safer chemicals and, if they persist, complete realization of the other elements of the Louisville Charter. Therefore, this Reform calls for manufacturers of chemicals to be required to provide health and safety information as a condition for placing and keeping a chemical on the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two conditions establish the threshold for protective action in the presence of scientific uncertainty; 1. Credible evidence that a synthetic chemical can cause biological changes that are known to result in unintended harmful outcomes to human health or the environment in some cases; 2. The presence of such a chemical where it does not belong and where it can cause damage to biological systems (such as human bodies). Acting with foresight takes many forms. We must create and strengthen human health and wildlife monitoring programs to detect and predict harm; take steps to prevent, eliminate, and mitigate exposure when credible evidence of harm is found; monitor novel technologies; consider clusters of problems to be early warnings of harm; and open toxic tort records. All action taken must be based on precautionary definitions of "harm" and "credible evidence" and must include public participation. Significant precautionary actions may be taken on the state and local level in advance of a precautionary national chemicals policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors examine the implementation of environmental regulation and demonstrate that path dependency, created largely by resource constraints, narrows the range of options for implementing regulation. It also magnifies the impact of the institutional history of the regulatory body and the impact of the disciplinary commitments of those working within the regulatory body on the implementation process. It is shown that the result is that those involved in the implementation process are unable to consider all possible routes to implementation but, rather, only a relatively few 'manageable' options for the regulation of particular activities. The arguments are examined in the context of implementation of the Water Framework Directive 2000 (WFD) in Scotland. In particular the authors focus on the regulation of diffuse pollution under the WFD and on the role played by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency in that regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the paper released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office in June 2005 titled "Chemical Regulation: Options Exist to Improve EPA's Ability to Assess Health Risks and Manage Its Chemical Review." The report claims that the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) has failed to empower the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ensure the safety of chemicals being used by companies in the United States. However, many other experts have testified that the TSCA has mostly accomplished what it sought to do.

It has often been claimed that firms’ compliance to environmental regulations is higher than predicted by standard theory, a result labeled the “Harrington paradox” in the literature. Enforcement data from Norway presented here appears, at first glance, to confirm this “stylized fact”: firms are inspected less than once a year, detected violators are seldom fined, but still, serious violations seem relatively rare. However, at a closer look, the pattern seems less paradoxical: enforcement of minor violations is lax, but such violations do flourish; serious violations, on the other hand, are subject to credible threats of harsh punishment, and such violations are more uncommon. This seems quite consistent with predictions from standard theory. We argue that the empirical existence of the Harrington paradox is not well documented in the international literature. The claim that firms’ compliance with environmental regulations is generally higher than predicted by standard theory should thus be regarded as a hypothesis rather than an established fact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article cites a study that examines the impact of the European Union (EU) Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) on carbon dioxide emissions of the EU building stock. With the use of a model calculation, the effect of the EPBD on the emissions, which are associated with the heating energy consumption of the total EU 15 building stock, has been examined. The model calculations demonstrate that the main contributor, which is comprised of 77 percent, to the total heating related to carbon dioxide emissions from the EU building stock is the residential sector, while the remaining 23 percent originates from non-residential buildings. Based on the results, it has been concluded that carbon dioxide emissions could be reduced if the scope of the EPBD were to be extended to include retrofit of smaller buildings.

Today, actors in policy making and planning are often faced with demands of handling conditions characterized by increasing fragmentation, differentiation and complexity. In response to an apparent limited reach of traditional monocentric and top-down governing in dealing with those conditions, a range of deliberative and more interactive governance approaches have emerged. This article discusses the central role of interdependence and trust in such approaches, based on three cases, Aalborg (DK), Lund (S) and Groningen (NL), in which environmental objectives and strategies have materialized in local transport policy making and planning. The cases offer illustrative examples of policy processes and collaboration in which the development (or lack) of interdependence and trust have been decisive. In a concluding prescriptive endeavour, several aspects are tentatively suggested as being relevant in searching for new formats for collaboration and deliberative governance and, in particular, for generating trust among interdependent actors. The concluding remark holds that deliberative governance can illuminate conflicting relations and provoke or massage those early in policy and planning processes; conflicts that would have emerged and backfired on the process anyway. The early discovery in such processes of problems, imbalances and differences in interests and opinions may improve the chance to establish and implement workable compromises on goals and solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transposition and implementation of European environmental law by the Member States remains a significant concern, with both serious breaches in individual cases and general failures across the Member States to comply fully with obligations under directives. There are a wide range of reasons why Member States cannot, or will not comply fully with some obligations. These may result from the nature of the specific policy instrument that is generally preferred, the nature of the specific obligations, but also more general factors, which help to explain differences in compliance with obligations between, and within, Member States. Assessing compliance with obligations is a challenging task and there are some features of environmental policy which raise additional complexities. Whilst compliance with transposition and implementation obligations will remain a vital element in the effectiveness of policy interventions, over recent years there has been an increased focus on evaluating whether the obligations imposed are themselves a sufficient response to the relevant situation, and whether the effects of these have had the anticipated results. Understanding better why Member States fail to comply with some obligations, together with increasing attempts to evaluate the actual impacts of policy interventions, should help to improve the quality of European environmental regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We analyze the determinants of environmental policy when two industry lobbies can seek a laxer policy that would apply to both industries and loophole lobbying that provides benefits specific to one industry. We determine the properties of the lobbying equilibrium, including the resulting emissions level. In many cases, higher effectiveness of loophole lobbying is detrimental for industries and beneficial for environmental quality, as it exacerbates the free-rider problem in the provision of general lobbying by inducing industries to turn towards loophole lobbying. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

One of the problem-making tendencies in environmental policymaking has been an incremental approach to regulation and control. Either because the full dimensions of an environmental problem are not perceived or because political resistance compels step-by-step action, environmental controls tend to be applied progressively, beginning with nominal, largely ineffectual, retroactive declarations. Failing to meet objectives, laws are toughened and extended year by year until the severity of sanctions begins to defeat their intended effects. The fractionized state of environmental law, focusing on specific problems of pollution and subject to changes in interpretation, makes observance and enforcement difficult. The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 could have facilitated the unification of environmental policy; unfortunately presidents and congresses have not chosen to use it for this purpose. Meanwhile, because environmental protection per se is relatively new to public law and policy and has few roots in the common law, private citizens aggrieved by political obstruction of their expectations have appealed to the courts for relief and compensation. Conservative courts have granted this relief under the "taking" clause of the Constitution. Extraordinary measures in constitutional law may be necessary to resolve an impasse in public policy resulting from conflict between public interests and private rights as interpreted by the judiciary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the unforeseen problems of the new industrial age has been the disposal of increasing quantities of wastes many hazardous and toxic. Industrial chemistry has produced numerous products that, while useful, are alien to nature and resistant to biodegradation or detoxification. Growing public awareness of the possible hazards and risks involved in disposal of the residuals of industrial activities is arousing a popular demand for environmental protection. But this popular awareness depends upon public information and a degree of scientific literacy--conditions which vary widely among nations. Initial consequences are environmental regulations and restrictions respecting waste disposal in scientifically developed countries, and vulnerability among less developed countries to the export of hazardous wastes from the countries of their origin. A secondary consequence is the emergence of international waste trade as a national and international multidimensional policy problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the case of the Federal Republic of Germany beneath the surface of seemingly clear and authoritative regulatory standards the actual practice of implementation involves a substantial amount of bargaining over the terms of regulatory actions between enforcement agencies and their clientele. As a consequence of this situation, it appears that the stringency of the legal norms contained in the formal control programs is weakened in the course of their implementation.

Although the drive to create a single market in the European Union (EU) was ostensibly about market liberalization, it has led to a recasting of the role of different tiers of government in the EU. This article introduces the special issue on regulation in the EU by summarizing some of the main features of the new regulatory environment. The article then assesses factors shaping the evolution of rules and points to topics in need of further work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the need for the European Union (EU) to revise the directive regulating the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops. The idea was raised after EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas inappropriately overturned the recommendation of his scientific advisers and plans to reject the applications for two GM varieties of insect- and herbicide-resistant maize from Sygenta AG and Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. EU countries anticipate that the revision will limit the use of political motives in analyzing applications for GM crops.

The article reports on the new energy and environment laws allowing renewable energy producers in Poland to trade on the Polish power exchange. To date, the exchange is already operational, with an expected turnover of 180 million euros per year at its initial stage. As stated by the new law, companies are required to prove that they purchase renewable energy but for those who can't, they must pay a substitute fee of 60 euros per megawatt hour. Failure to do either of the two will be sanctioned by paying severe fines.

Reports on the proposal of the Danish government of system of regulation that would reward individuals and companies for positive behavior while penalizing rule-breakers. Environmental regulations; Use of company records and compliance in assessing the amount of supervisions corporations will receive.

Presents details on how the environmental regulations developed by the Helsinki Conventions were implemented in the Baltic States. Environmental problems caused by nutrients that cause eutrophication and various kinds of toxic substances including heavy metals, halogenated hydrocarbons, and oil products; Need for the Helsinki Convention to be expanded at the beginning of the 1990s due to political changes on the east side of the Baltic Sea; Creation of new monitoring systems and establishment of new systems of finance; Data on organic toxic pollutants.