Environmental Policy

Literature Review on Environmental Policy in Brazil

In the Encyclopedia of Public Administration and Public Policy, [1] Rebecca Neaera Abers offers the following summary about the topic of Environmentalism and Environmental Policy in Brazil: This entry argues that since the origin of environmental policy making in Brazil, environmentalists have worked from inside the state to help design policy and build institutions. Even during Brazil’s harsh military dictatorship (1964–1989), conservationists working in the government influenced policies regulating natural resource use. During the 1980s, “socio-environmentalist” thinking increasingly dominated the Brazilian environmental movement. This approach criticized traditional top-down approaches and called for greater community participation in policy making and in environmental protection itself. In the 1990s, close collaboration between nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and government agencies resulted in a number of innovative programs and institutions influenced by that philosophy, such as the creation of extractivist reserves. In the 2000s, these collaborative relations further intensified with the appointment as Minister of Environment of a renowned activist, Marina Silva. Today, as Silva has emerged as an important oppositional candidate against the governing party, relations between the federal government and environmental NGOs are more contentious than in the past. Nonetheless, the continued engagement of a large group of activists in electoral campaigns suggests that the boundary between movement politics and institutional politics continues to be blurred in the Brazilian environmental sector.

Literature Review on (Environmental Policy) Cap and Trade

In the Encyclopedia of Public Administration and Public Policy, [1] Leigh Raymond offers the following summary about the topic of (Environmental Policy) Cap and Trade: Cap-and-trade schemes have become a leading policy option for the control of greenhouse gases and many other air and water pollutants. These policies seek to “internalize” the external costs of pollution by creating a limited number of rights to emit a unit of pollution, often referred to as “emissions allowances.” By requiring emissions sources to surrender one allowance for every ton of pollution emitted, the policy imposes a fixed cap on total pollution from all sources. In addition, cap-and-trade policies allow pollution sources to trade emissions allowances to minimize the costs of meeting the total emissions cap. Cap-and-trade supporters cite both aspects of the policy as crucial advantages in terms of meeting firm environmental goals in the most cost-efficient manner possible. At the same time, critics cite potential problems with cap and trade related to the risk of increased local concentrations of pollution, social and environmental problems from the use of “offset” credits for reductions of emissions outside the cap, allowance price instability, poor tracking of emissions or allowances, and possible windfalls to companies from free allowances. Recent cap-and-trade policies have developed innovations to try to address these criticisms, including a shift to auctioning allowances and imposing restrictions on some forms of trading or offset programs.

Resources

Notes and References

Entry about (Environmental Policy) Cap and Trade in the Encyclopedia of Public Administration and Public Policy (2015, Routledge, Oxford, United Kingdom)

Resources

Notes and References

Entry about Brazil: Environmentalism and Environmental Policy in the Encyclopedia of Public Administration and Public Policy (2015, Routledge, Oxford, United Kingdom)

Hierarchical Display of Environmental policy

Environment > Environmental policy
Economics > Economic policy > Economic policy > Development policy > Sustainable development
Agriculture, Forestry And Fisheries > Forestry > Forestry policy
Politics > Politics and public safety > Trends of opinion > Ecology movement
Science > Natural and applied sciences > Life sciences > Ecology
Environment > Natural environment > Physical environment