Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Columbia Journal of Environmental Law

Abstract

As the countries of Eastern Europe move to market economies, the complementary use of market-based environmental policies seems highly desirable. In the United States, market-based approaches have been employed with great success in several realworld applications. They have effectively achieved environmental goals while generally cutting the costs of achieving those goals by twenty-five to fifty percent or more. Yet the United States' CACdominated environmental policy of the last two decades has taken its toll, both economically and environmentally. The rediscovery of market-based incentive tools in the last five to ten years has opened the door to better policy here, which we believe should be the model for policy in Eastern Europe. Support for this proposition begins in Part II with a comparison of the attributes of technology-based and market-based environmental policies: their structure and incentive effects, and their impacts on cost, performance, innovation, and government agencies. This Part assembles the conceptual case for market incentives. Next, in Part III, we emphasize the importance of viewing environmental issues comprehensively rather than dividing problems and treating them in narrow, piecemeal fashion. In Part IV, we build the practical case for market incentives: for each of the major environmental problems reported in Eastern Europe, we examine the experience gained from actual implementation of market-based policy approaches in the United States and elsewhere. In Part V we suggest the usefulness of cooperative, international, market-based approaches that could bring clean investment to Eastern Europe. Finally, based on this experience, in Part VI we suggest how best to design environmental policy in Eastern Europe.

First Page

1

Volume

17

Publication Date

1992

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