Environmental policy
Environmental policy is the measures to be taken to preserve the resources necessary for survival, which are the responsibility of individuals, institutions, companies and governments [1]. The environment is the whole living environment, i.e. the whole set of factors (physical, cultural, economic and social) that surround us, as well as the interactions between them. The environment is the basis for ensuring human survival and the most important point to bear in mind is that it affects future generations.
The main objective of environmental policies is to encourage the different organisms of society to look towards a planet as green as possible and for this, there are different instruments.
United Nations organization and the environment
The United Nations, also known as the UN, is "an international organisation (only sovereign states can join), open (the requirements for states to become members are flexible), universal (states from any continent can join) and general in its competence"(Rial, J. A. 2012)[2].
The UN's first concerns about the environment came to the surface in June 1992 (from day 3 to 14), when 172 governments met in Rio de Janeiro for the so-called "Rio Declaration on Environment and Development"; it was also known as the "Earth Summit". This summit sought to "establish a new and equitable global partnership by creating new levels of cooperation among States [...] seeking to reach international agreements that respect the interests of all and protect the integrity of the global environmental and developmental system" ( Río, O. L. D. 1992)[3]. The declaration was made up of 27 principles and was to be taken as a reference for the next summit, the fulfilment of Agenda 21, a programme that brought together the established objectives [4].
The UN continued to build its way forward 10 years later with the call to member states to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg, South Africa. "The Summit represented the culmination of the ten-year comprehensive review of progress on sustainable development" (de la Salud, A. M. 2002)[5].
On the occasion of the passing of two decades after the well-known "Earth Summit", the "Rio+20" summit was held once again in Rio de Janeiro. The results were not as expected, at least the foundations of the agreements we have today were laid, but as Eduardo Lopez said "the logic that it was preferable to have any agreement than no agreement at all" prevailed. And it came to be known in the words of Barbara Stocking as "the summit of deception" (López, E. 2012)[6].
Current environmental policy in the EU
Climate change has been leaving its mark on the environment for decades and as mentioned above, this has led to the adoption of an environmental policy, to protect and extend the life of the world we live in. Therefore, the European Union has created different strategies and plans in the various congresses held to try to find a solution to the problem. The Maastricht agreement, first and later the Amsterdam agreement established a turning point by placing development and environment in the same direction and pointing out that they were complementary to each other.
Currently, the last General Assembly of the European Union culminated in 2020 with the title "European green deal: our for the future". At this conference in Berlin, the problems that society faces if the corresponding measures are not taken and the importance of the 2030 Agenda, established in 2015 by the members of the United Nations Organisation, were underlined. The new agenda is made up of 17 goals and creates three new dimensions: economic prosperity or profit, social equality and environmental sustainability.
On the other hand, to complement the European Green Pact and focus more specifically on environmental policy, in 2021 the eighth environmental action programme (which began in the 1970s) was signed, which will also have a target date of 2030 and will be reviewed regularly to analyse both progress and problems in 2024. Six objectives are prioritised, always to help our planet[7]:
- Reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero to tackle climate change.
- To create steady growth in a common welfare society and economy.
- Support green energy with financial aid, while not financing non-renewable energy sources.
- Use whatever technology we have at our disposal to collect data and make society aware of the situation.
- Reduce actions that leave a footprint on our environment.
- Protect biodiversity.
New plan
Although these initiatives exist on the part of the European Union, each country acts freely within the established limits, taking as a reference what has been previously agreed upon and always as coordinated as possible with the EU. A great example of this is the NextGeneration EU plan[8]. This new plan, which has been developed by the European Union after the effects of the Covid19 pandemic, focuses on the recovery of countries but places great emphasis on the environment. The EU will allocate funds to the member countries and each country will decide on the allocation of these funds taking into account the established guidelines. The main pillars of these funds are digital and green, so they have been set as minimums.
Tools to cope
If we leave aside the green plans and agreements, we can see that the governments of each country use other instruments in the fight against climate change. For example, regulation. What does this consist of? The government is in charge of monitoring and enforcing the measures it puts in place, which can be such as regulating gas emissions from industry, controlling discharges that pollute rivers or banning the use of substances that harm the environment. A clear example is a measure taken by the Community of Madrid in Spain to allow only cars with the B, C, cero and eco labels to circulate in the city centre, thus regulating pollution in the city centre. This regulation has resulted in people using public transport more often, mostly to get to work and to encourage the use of bicycles and walking, contributing to the health of citizens (Gil, A. 2020) [9].
Another instrument is environmental taxes, whereby each company pays at the end of the month or the end of the year a proportionate share of the amount of pollution it has caused.
Finally, there are tradable emission rights. The government interferes directly, and either for free or for a fee, gives certain industries the right to pollute. After the distribution, the companies will buy and sell the acquired rights depending on how much each one pollutes with its production. If we had to choose one instrument out of all those mentioned, it would be a very difficult task. For the same reason, the above-mentioned instruments are often used together, but in global problems and concerning the importance we have given in this article, plans and agreements stand out among all the others.
Footnotes
- ↑ "Ley 26/2007" (2007), de Responsabilidad Medioambiental, España. 24/10/2007.
- ↑ Rial, J. A. (2012), p. 50.
- ↑ de Río, O. L. D. (1992), p. 1.
- ↑ de Janeiro, R. (1992), p. 2.
- ↑ de la Salud, A. M. (2002), p. 1.
- ↑ López, E. (2012), p. 70.
- ↑ R (UE) nº 2022/591 del Consejo (2022), p. 9.
- ↑ Alcidi, C., y Gros, D. (2020), p. 202-203.
- ↑ Gil, A. (2020), p. 44.
References
- Burns, C. J., & Tobin, P. A. (2016). The impact of the economic crisis on European Union environmental policy, "JCMS-journal of common market studies". ISSN 0021-9886.
- Alliance, C. (2011). European Commitment to Higher Education for Sustainable Development, "Copernicus charta 2.0"(201).
- "Iau Horizons". April (2019, In focus:Universities and Agenda 2030: Engaging with the SDGs , Volume 24.
Author: Iñigo Arin
