ABSTRACT
In designing the right frameworks for sustainability through the market, national governments need to operate more effectively on multiple levels: the global, the regional, the national, and the local. Although this does not alter the fundamental characteristics of a sound policy and instrument mix, it does make the task of streamlining and dovetailing different tools more complex. Within the right framework, an optimal combination of command-and-control regulation, economic or market instruments, are by far the best means to achieve sustainable development objectives through the market. Non-market measures are needed to support the market measures, especially in developing countries and economies in transition to market systems. The policy framework implications of full-cost costing are twofold, according to Germany’s Wuppertal Institute. In the South, where little primary research is being conducted on full-cost pricing, South African utility Eskom is filling the gap through an extensive study of how consideration of externalities might improve decision-making on corporate environmental expenditure.
