ABSTRACT
Since the 1980s, the European Union (EU) has sought to become an innovator and leader in international environmental policy. Part of its bid has involved the development of ambitious controls in areas such as climate change and the promotion of themes such as sustainable development in international arenas including the United Nations (UN) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Another dimension in its global effort is the creation of ‘new’ environmental policy instruments (NEPIs); these include instruments that emphasize the role of information (such as eco-labels) and that manipulate market incentives (such as eco-taxes). This chapter assesses how the EU has shaped NEPI innovation in its Member States, focusing particularly on NEPIs that do not draw on ‘command-and-control’ legislation, or at least retain a relatively high degree of flexibility concerning policy goal achievement. The three types of instruments discussed in this chapter vary in coerciveness. Eco-labels constitute the ‘softest’ and eco-taxes the ‘hardest’ instrument. Voluntary agreements (VAs) are somewhere in between although they are generally closer to the former as regards their degree of coerciveness.
