ABSTRACT
Over the last decades, environmental policy has shown various shifts in terms of, among other things, the scope (problems addressed and objectives), the focus on the “pollution chain” targeted by policy (mitigation versus prevention) and the modes of governance (governance style, actors involved, dominant policy instruments) (for a discussion of the dynamics in Dutch environmental policy, see Keijzers, 2000). An important shift since the 1980s and 1990s relates to environmental policy integration (EPI): the inclusion of environmental values in other policies (urban planning, transport policy, etc.). Lafferty and Hovden state that EPI “entails a fundamental recognition that the environmental sector alone will not be able to secure environmental objectives, and that each sector must therefore take on board environmental objectives if these are to be achieved” (2003: 1). Much has been written on what EPI encompasses or should encompass,
how it can be analysed and how it can or should be achieved (e.g. Jordan and Lenschow, 2008a; Lafferty and Hovden, 2003; Nilsson and Persson, 2003; Nilsson and Eckerberg, 2007). From a substantive perspective, the “level of EPI” achieved is important. A distinction can be made between “coordination” (aimed at avoiding contradictory sector policies or at compensating for adverse environmental consequences of sector policies), “harmonisation” (an attempt to bring environmental objectives on equal terms with sector objectives), and “prioritisation” (favouring environmental objectives in sector policies) (Runhaar et al., 2009). From a procedural perspective the focus is on how actors from sectors outside the environmental sector consider environmental consequences of their policies and take active and early steps to incorporate an understanding of them into policy-making (Jordan and Lenschow, 2008b). Criteria for assessing EPI are not restricted
to what is achieved (e.g. in terms of the above levels of EPI), but also relate to how EPI is achieved. In this context the mobilisation of actors involved and their support for concrete plans for EPI, as preconditions for actual EPI, can be considered important criteria.1
