Frans Oosterhuis, 2012 EEEN forum, Leuven, 9 February 2012

Evaluating environmental law and policy in The Netherlands: experiences from the ‘STEM’ programme

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STEM: Structural Evaluation of Environmental Law

Programme funded by Ministry of Environment, 2004-2010

35 projects

Consortium of 4 partners:

Amsterdam Centre for Environmental Law and Sustainability

METRO Institute for Transnational Legal Research

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STEM’s objectives

Contribute to knowledge on the extent to which legislation can help to protect the environment

Contribute to quality improvement in environmental legislation (effectiveness, efficiency, feasibility, enforceability, legitimacy...)

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Three example projects

Allocation of GHG emission allowances under the EU ETS

Implementation of the IPPC Directive in NL

Research obligations in environmental permits

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Allocation of GHG emission allowances under the EU ETS

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Allocation of GHG emission allowances under the EU ETS

First trading period (2005-2007): Member States had much freedom in applying allocation criteria

NL has been rather generous to avoid competitive disadvantage for energy intensive industry

Consequence: Kyoto targets had to be reached largely by other means

Windfall profits for trading sector (especially electricity industry)

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Implementation of the IPPC Directive in NL

IPPC: a potentially powerful instrument

Emissiereductiepotentieel van BAT bij grote stookinstallaties(bron: TNO / EEA)

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500

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NOx SO2

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Huidige emissies

BAT bovengrens

BAT ondergrens

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Implementation of the IPPC Directive in NL

Objective of the IPPC Directive: “to achieve a high level of protection of the environment taken as a whole.”

Directive has a broad scope, but how broad?

Balancing between harmonized, general standards and case-specific considerations

Local authorities struggling with BAT and BREFs

Limited room for other instruments (e.g. NOx trading)

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Research obligations in environmental permits

Dutch environmental law allows authorities to impose a research obligation in a permit

In theory: an instrument to ‘go beyond BAT’ (aiming at a higher level of environmental protection than the other permit conditions provide for)

In practice: an instrument to facilitate the granting of a permit even though there are still information gaps

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Achievement of STEM’s objectives (1)

Contributing to knowledge on the extent to which legislation can help to protect the environment

• only partly achieved:

> many projects focused on legislation as an ‘enabling framework’; not on concrete environmental results

• nevertheless useful insights gained, e.g.:

> reducing information obligations has led to lower costs, but also to less effective environmental protection

> legislation needs to take into account the uncertainty of risks

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Achievement of STEM’s objectives (2)

Contributing to quality improvement in environmental legislation

• achieved on several aspects, e.g.:

> legitimacy (a.o. compatibility with EU law)

> effectiveness and efficiency (a.o. need for criteria to measure these)

> subsidiarity and proportionality (a.o. need for new legislation)

> feasibility and enforceability (a.o. extent to which local authorities are able to put permit requirements into practice)

> simplicity, clarity, accessibility (a.o. recommendations to facilitate insight in complex laws)

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Limited impact from STEM evaluations...

Policy/law makers not always interested in external suggestions for improvement

Political priorities more important than scientific, objective assessments

Current priorities in Dutch environmental policy:• do no more than what ‘Brussels’ tells us to do• reduce administrative burdens and squeezing regulation

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...but (structural) evaluation is still important:

indispensible if we want ‘evidence based’ environmental policy

may provide lessons for other policy areas as well

reduces the risk that failures and inefficiencies remain invisible

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Some suggestions for future evaluations

Do not over-evaluate (cost; policy continuity)

Prioritize

Use a checklist to determine evaluation criteria

Methodological diversity and multidisciplinarity

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Thank you for your attention

You can find all STEM reports on:

www.evaluatiemilieuwetgeving.nl

(but unfortunately only in Dutch...)