Catalog

	Table of Contents
p. 31 of 57 BACK | NEXT I. The Changing Environment II. Driving Forces of Change III. Options and Opportunities IV. Toward Policy Integration Mounting Pressure for Policy Responses Policy Integration Entry Points for Policy Integration Managing Economic Fundamentals Intrasectoral Policy Integration Intersectoral Policy Integration International Trade and Investment Governance A Framework for Policy Integration Toward an Action Agenda V. Call to Action

Asian Environment Outlook 2001

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IV. Towards Policy Integration

Adopting effective environmental policy is a prerequisite for achieving substantial progress in reducing environmental degradation.

Chapters 4 and 5 concentrate on national environmental policy integration as the most important aspect of policy redirection in Asia. This chapter discusses the mounting pressures for policy responses, the definition of policy integration, and entry points for policy integration including intrasectoral and intersectoral policy integration, trade and investment, governance, creation of an enabling environment, and a framework for policy integration. If the current driving forces of change in the Asia and Pacific region continue unabated without an effective policy response, environmental degradation will become an increasing constraint on economic growth and on efforts to eliminate severe poverty within the region.

A major consideration in policy integration is a concern that environmental improvements cannot be achieved without significant costs. This is certainly one of the reasons developing economies in the Asia and Pacific region have been slow to implement strong environmental regulation programs. Weaknesses of existing environmental regulatory approaches, such as inflexibility of traditional command-and-control regulations adopted from the west, have added to skepticism in the business community about the cost of environmental improvement. Even as the new alternatives to environmental policy are being successfully deployed as discussed in Chapter 3, the pace of change and of policy implementation remains desperately slow.

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