The Dynamics of Environmental Policy

There have been four phases in the evolution of environmental policy, the fourth – since the 1980s – being more strategic, integrative, creative, preventative, and international in nature. Studies of the often disorderly and unpredictable character of public policy are made more manageable by thinking of policy-making and implementation in terms of a cycle. States are the key players in making policy, and yet their work on the environmental front is often overlooked. In the absence of a system of global government, the international response to environmental problems relies for its substance on international treaties. There are several instruments available upon which to base environmental policy, most of which take the form of either a stick, a carrot, or a sermon. Often overlooked in discussions about the environmental politics and policy is the role of the marketplace in leading to changes in approach. As we saw in Chapter 1, public policy can be defined as the actions that those in positions of authority take – or deliberately avoid taking – in order to achieve public goals or address public problems. It encapsulates objectives, the means applied to achieving them, the informational basis of policy, the underlying principles that drive policy, decisions and sets of decisions, and overall styles of governing. Public policy is shaped by a combination of laws, regulations, constitutional obligations, political ideology, available budgets, carefully targeted objectives, opportunism, crises and emergencies, and a combination of good fortune and misfortune.