Catalog

	Table of Contents
p. 36 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 Establishing a Regulatory Regime Resource Pricing Using Market-Based Instruments Removing Pricing Barriers to Technology Adoption 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 : IV. Toward Policy Integration : Managing Economic Fundamentals

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Establishing a Regulatory Regime

The current state of environmental performance drivers varies widely within the region. A few countries, such as Japan and Singapore, have environmental regulatory infrastructure at par with that of the OECD economies. But other countries lack even the rudiments of an operational national environmental regulatory infrastructure. Basic environmental laws are unevenly enforced, and the main policy tools available are too blunt to accommodate the range of economic and environmental circumstances they need to address, from the concerns of multinational firms with substantial managerial capability to small enterprises that lack basic technical and financial resources for environmental protection. In general, weak and under-resourced institutions generate inefficient policy because the costs of achieving environmental goals are high. Whatever the level of a country's environmental performance goals, when environmental policy is unevenly and inconsistently applied, unclear and uncertain messages concerning performance expectations result, causing higher levels of malfeasance and erosion of benefits for leading firms. An important first step to influencing basic economic decision making, therefore, is a national environmental regulatory system that provides clear performance expectations that are consistently enforced.

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