AGENTS OF CHANGE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION
New UNEP Study Examines Role
of Economic Instruments in Sustainable Development
NEW YORK, 29 October 1998 -- Economic
instruments, specially designed to fit the
specific needs and circumstances of developing
and transitional economies, can be powerful
instruments of change toward sustainable development,
according to a new study released here today
by the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP).
With countries preparing to meet next week
in Buenos Aires to examine how best to implement
the UN Climate Change Convention and its Kyoto
Protocol, the issue of economic instruments
has never been higher on the global environmental
agenda. Issues such as internationally tradeable
greenhouse gas emission permits and credits,
joint implementation activities and carbon
offsets, and the Protocol's Clean Development
Mechanism will be extensively discussed in
the Argentine capital beginning on Monday,
2 November.
The new study, "Instruments of Change:
Motivating and Financing Sustainable Development",
has been written for UNEP by Dr. Theodore
Panayotou of the Harvard Institute for International
Development, and makes a major contribution
to that debate, says UNEP Executive Klaus
Toepfer. "The new study examines in a
comprehensive fashion how the proper uses
of market-based incentive systems and improved
institutional arrangements can offer policy-makers,
especially in developing and transitional
economies, a menu of effective economic tools
in their efforts to protect the environment
and conserve natural resources", he said.
According to the study, sustainable development
can only proceed if environmental policy and
economic policy are inextricably linked. Although
developing countries and transitional economies
increasingly look towards the experience --
both positive and negative -- of the developed
world, economic instruments are clearly not
a panacea. But they can help bridge the financing
gap of sustainable development by encouraging
behavioral change among consumers and polluters,
while also raising revenue for environmental
protection efforts.
Conventionally, Governments have employed
tough command and control regulations to protect
the environment. The author argues whether
consumers and polluters can realistically
change behaviour patterns through the imposition
of tough laws when enforcement is weak. Also,
can weak institutions and backlogged courts
enforce such new regulations? Can developing
countries afford such new instruments, even
if they can enforce them? The book takes stock
of the available economic and related instruments
such as tradeable permits, user fees, pollution
charges, subsidies, environment taxes, fines,
among many others.
The experience of both developed and developing
countries with the use and mis-use of economic
instruments is analysed. And, finally, the
study explores ways in which such instruments
might be better designed and adapted to the
specific needs of developing and transitional
economies as agents of change towards sustainable
development.
Dr. Theodore Panayotou is a fellow at the
Harvard Institute for International Development
in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is also a
lecturer in the Department of Economics and
the John F. Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard University. He is the recipient of
the 1991 Distinguished Achievement Award of
the Society for Conservation Biology for his
wide-ranging efforts to use economic analysis
as a tool for conservation.
"Instruments of Change: Motivating and
Financing Sustainable Development", UNEP,
1998, is available from Earthscan Publications
Limited, London, at fax: (44-171) 278-1142,
e-mail: earthinfo@earthscan.co.uk;
or from the UNEP Environment, Economics and
Trade Unit, Geneva, fax: 41-22-796-9240, e-mail:
eteu@unep.ch
The price is œ19.95.
Note for journalists: The book will be launched
at a press conference at UN Headquarters at
11:30 a.m on Thursday, 29 October. For interviews
with Dr. Panayotou and Dr. Toepfer, please
contact Jim Sniffen, UNEP Information Officer,
at 1-212-963-8094, fax: 1-212-963-7341, e-mail:
sniffenj@un.org.
