ABSTRACT
Regulation comprises one of the main influences on the environmental and related behaviour of firms. Regulation is thus of double importance to this study; substantively: as the primary means whereby society seeks to change the behaviour of industry with regard to environmental, health and safety and related issues, and methodologically: as a key component of the regional comparative analysis. This chapter therefore seeks to elucidate the nature and operation of the regulatory agencies in the four regions in the study, and to start to draw out some of their implications for the environmental responses and behaviour of firms. The development and implementation of regulation is never simply a technical matter, but inevitably involves choices with an explicitly political character about trade-offs between environmental performance and costs of compliance. Civil society is founded on a mix of formal and informal rules and regulations.
