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| ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
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| 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. Once the environment has been defined, environmental policy establishes the measures necessary to preserve the resources necessary for survival, which are the responsibility of individuals, institutions, companies and governments.
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| 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; focusing on the European Union, on the one hand we have the so-called green plans and agreements.
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| ACTUAL ENVIROMENTAL POLICY
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| EUROPEAN UNION
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| 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, in order 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.
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| 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.
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| Currently, the last General Assembly of the European Union culminated in 2020 with the title "European green deal: our for the future".
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| 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, was underlined. The new agenda is made up of 17 goals and creates three new dimensions: economic prosperity or profit, social equality and environmental sustainability.
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| Among the 17 goals there are some that make direct reference to the environment, which are number 7: Accessible and clean energy, number 11: Sustainable cities and communities, number 12: Responsible production and consumption, number 13: Action on climate change, number 14: Conservation of marine life, number 15: Conservation of the terrestrial ecosystem and finally, and most importantly, number 17, which refers to the partnership between countries to achieve the above-mentioned goals.
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| On the other hand, to complement the European Green Pact and focusing 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. Seven objectives are prioritised, always with the aim of helping our planet:
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| 1. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero in order to tackle climate change.
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| 2. To create steady growth in a common welfare society and economy..
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| 3. Support green energy with financial aid, while not financing non-renewable energy sources.
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| 4. Use whatever technology we have at our disposal to collect data and make society aware of the situation.
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| 5. Reduce actions that leave a footprint on our environment.
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| 6. Protect biodiversity.
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| 7. Strive and persist to achieve 0 pollution.
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| 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 and always as coordinated as possible with the EU. A great example of this is the NextGeneration EU plan. 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. As far as we are concerned, of the funds allocated, a minimum of 37% has to go to environment-related plans.
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| 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 the 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.
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| Another instrument is environmental taxes, whereby each company pays at the end of the month or at the end of the year a proportionate share of the amount of pollution it has caused. By this method, each company decides how much pollution it has without exceeding a framework of maximums. This motivates to invest in sustainable production in order not to pollute so much and thus to save on the environmental tax bill.
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| 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.
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| 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 with reference to the importance we have given in this article, plans and agreements stand out among all the others.
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| <ref>10 ASPECTOS CLAVES PARA LA GESTIÓN AMBIENTAL. Marieudil López; Jos Ben Tez; José Benítez;
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| Wilfredo López; EAE (2012). ISBN: 9783847368892.</ref>
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| <ref>EVALUACIÓN DE IMPACTO AMBIENTAL Y EVALUACIÓN ESTRATÉGICA. Tomás Quin</ref>
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| <ref>Comisión Europea, La lucha contra el cambio climático. La Unión Europea lidera el cambio, OPOCE, BruselasLuxemburgo, p. 8. </ref>
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| <ref>Alcidi, C., y Gros, D. (2020). Next Generation EU: a large common response to the COVID-19 crisis.
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| Intereconomics, 55(4), 202-203.</ref>
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