Helmut Weidner

Capacity Building for Ecological Modernization Lessons from Cross-National Research

Environmental policy development in 30 advanced and developing countries is examined using the capacity-building approach. Findings indicate that an appropriate mix of institutions is decisive for policy performance and that formal institutionalization is helpful for longer term policy-learning processes. Globalization is not found to be negative, as often claimed: Rather, the globalization of environmental policies and proponents counteracts ecologically ignorant economic interests and fosters diffusion of environmental innovations. Assistance from international organizations and regimes plays an increasingly critical role. Environmental and politico-administrative reforms appear to be mutually supportive. Democratic structures and institutions are a basic precondition for effective environmental policies. Although many countries have been able to achieve environmental gains from new technologies, policies, and forms of stakeholder cooperation, even the most advanced need to strongly increase environmental policy and management capacities to meet the continuing challenge of sustainable development.

German Climate Change Policy: A Success Story With Some Flaws

Germany is one of the leading countries in Europe, as well as globally, in terms of its renewable energy and climate change policies. The multiple levels of government within the European Union (EU) mean that the German government must interact both with EU institutions (e.g., the Commission, Council, and Parliament) and subnational Länder, or states, when formulating and implementing policy. The grand coalition government of the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats that came into power in 2005 has set demanding national climate change and renewable energy goals and actively supports international climate negotiations, often spurring EU policy. This progressive policy has its roots in the air pollution control policies that started to develop in the 1970s. This article discusses the various factors that are behind Germanys climate change policy leadership.

Summary: Global Environmental Policy Learning

In this book the national environmental policy of a number of different countries has been characterised. In this, the method of “structured” case studies was used, to take into account both the complexity of the individual historical development and any possible general or cross-national characteristics. Thirteen case studies is a relatively large number, but they still represent a somewhat narrow basis for any systematic generalisations. The cases, however, possess similarities which cannot be overlooked: even though the analyses were strictly limited to domestic development, the authors reveal important international influences and similarities. In this summary we will focus especially on this global dimension of the book.

Umweltpolitik: auf alten Wegen zu einer internationalen Spitzenstellung

Staatliche Masnahmen zum Schutz vor umweltgefahrdenden Aktivitaten von Industrie- und Gewerbebetrieben haben in Deutschland eine lange Tradition, diesbezugliche Regelungen finden sich bereits in der preusischen Gewerbeordnung von 1845. Allerdings standen hierbei der Gesundheitsschutz und Eigentumsschaden im Vordergrund. Umweltpolitik als ein eigenstandiger Politikbereich, dem eine umfassende Konzeption von Umweltschutz im Sinne von Schutz und Bewahrung der naturlichen Lebensgrundlagen zugrunde liegt, entwickelte sich erst — unter kraftigen Anstosen aus den USA — mit dem Beginn der Regierungszeit der sozial-liberalen Koalition (Hartkopf, Bohne 1983). An deren Ende hatte der relativ junge Politikbereich eine turbulente Entwicklungsgeschichte hinter sich, in der anfangliche legislative Erfolge zunachst durch okonomisch motivierte Interesseneinflusse im Vollzug konterkariert worden waren (Muller 1986).

Summary: Environmental Capacity Building in a Converging World

Thirteen countries were examined in the first phase of our research project on capacity building in national environmental policy (see Appendix). The seventeen new country case studies included in the second phase of the project presented in this volume were carried out in accordance with the same conceptual framework. This offered a good opportunity to check our earlier findings against the results of the new case studies and, where necessary, to modify them. For this reason we will largely be addressing the topics dealt with in our summary of the 1997 reader (Janicke & Weidner, 1997a, b). And, as in our first publication, we concentrate on international and global trends in environmental policy development. While we had then conceded that 13 case studies represented a somewhat narrow basis for any generalizations, the total of 30 country studies now provide a much broader basis for the systematic analysis of general development trends in environmental policy capacities, their forms, causes, and effects. The 17 country studies in the second project phase expand the country sample not only quantitatively: the spectrum of country types is also broadened, and a selection bias in the first group of countries substantially corrected. The 13 countries included almost all early and later environmental policy pioneers, while developing, newly industrializing, and transition countries had largely been disregarded. Nevertheless, the developing countries are still underrepresented in the total sample.

Vom Aufstieg und Niedergang eines Vorreiters Eine umweltpolitische Bilanz der Ära Kohl

Die Ara Kohl begann in einer umweltpolitisch ambivalenten Situation: In Wirtschaftskreisen wurde eine moderate Gangart staatlicher Umweltpolitik erwartet. In der gesellschaftlichen und politischen Diskussion spielten Umweltthemen hingegen inzwischen eine zentrale Rolle. Forderungen nach einem besseren Umweltschutz waren haufig mit konflikthaften, teils militanten Auseinandersetzungen verbunden und kumulierten in den letzten Jahren der sozial-liberalen Regierungskoalition. Insgesamt waren seit dem Beginn einer systematischen staatlichen (rechtlich-institutionell ausdifferenzierten) Umweltpolitik um 1970 in allen Gesellschaftsbereichen umweltbezogene Kapazitaten entstanden, die eigentlich eine gute Grundlage fur eine effektive Umweltpolitik boten und auch Druck in dieser Richtung auslosten.

Environment Protection in Japan: Development and Prospects

Especially in the 1950s and the 1960s, the Japanese people had to suffer terrible experiences owing to the effects of environmental disruption, and they still have to cope with many unsolved problems. In a tremendous effort to mitigate damage to health and the environment in the wake of uncontrolled economic growth, the Japanese have, however, developed some internationally unparalleled and, more importantly, feasible and successful political and technical measures which deserve the full attention of other nations.