Regulating environmental protection

Regulation is still the core instrument of environmental policy. Legislation for environmental protection concentrates on standards, bans, permits and quotas and, in some cases, specification of technologies or technical standards to be used in industry. These instruments have long been favoured because they promise certainty of outcome.

The industrialized countries enacted a 'first generation' of legislation in the 1960s and 1970s, aimed principally at protecting human health from the impacts of air, water and soil pollution. In the 1990s, many countries reformed their sectoral environmental approaches into better integrated strategic policies. Comprehensive environmental protection laws are now in place in the newly industrializing countries and other developing countries.

1. Command-and-control legislation has its limitations, notably the time needed to draft, enact and implement adequate laws, the inflexibility of regulation and possible cost-inefficiencies in implementation on the ground. In addition, problems with inspection and enforcement, especially in rapidly developing nations, appear to be worsening as limited capacity and resources face an explosion of industrial activity and urbanization.

1. Regulating
2. Protecting global environment
3. Developing international environmental law

1. Strengthening international environmental agreements
2. Regulating transboundary movement of genetically modified organisms
3. Regulating trade in endangered species
4. Regulating pollution
5. Regulating industrial environmental performance
6. Reducing animal excrement in urban environments
7. Ensuring compatibility of environmental and trade law
8. Enforcing environmental protection regulation
9. Developing environmental risk assessment for genetically modified crops
10. Adopting laws to prevent the illegal export or import of hazardous waste

1. Protecting the environment from contamination
2. Protecting against railway environmental hazards
3. Protecting against environmental hazards of pharmaceutical products
4. Protecting against environmental hazards of new species introduction
5. Protecting against environmental hazards from transport systems
6. Protecting against environmental hazards from mines
7. Protecting against environmental hazards from industry
8. Protecting against environmental hazards from agricultural and pastoral activities
9. Protecting against environmental hazards due to economic development
10. Ensuring safe management of radioactive wastes
11. Ensuring national policies account for environmental effects
12. Ensuring equal access to legal redress for environmental harm
13. Ensuring environmentally responsible production

1. Facilitating public access to justice in environmental matters
2. Ensuring full and open sharing of environmental information among scientists and decision-makers
3. Developing policy for conservation of biodiversity
4. Developing environmental law

1. Avoiding environmental regulation

1. Insufficient environmental legislation
2. Fragmentation of environmental law

1. UNEP Global Environmental Outlook 2000