Martin Jänicke

‘Dirty industries’: Patterns of change in industrial countries

This article concerns itself with the environmental role of heavily polluting industries since 1970, analysing its development in 11 basic industries, as well as electricity production and road transport, in 32 industrial countries. It argues for a green industrial policy, demonstrating that other mitigations of environmental pressure in industrial countries—end-of-pipe treatment, relocation to the Third World, structural change in the industrial sector and even environmentally oriented modernization—have so far been unable to solve the problems of ‘dirty industries’, although some approaches have shown (some) promise.

Conditions for environmental policy success: An international comparison

SummaryEven though there are no examples of outstanding success when comparing national environmental policies, insights can still be gained by studying their relative success in terms of environmnetal quality. The starting point of this study is the hypothesis that the material, institutional and socio-cultural capacity of a country are more relevant in determing the outcome of environmental policies than its choice of policy instruments.Institutionally, the openness of the judicial, political, informational and economic systems for innovation is as important as a countrys capacity for stategic action. Culturally, a tradition of consensus building strengthens both openness and the integration of politics and thereby reinforce the institutional conditions for relative success.

Lead Markets for Environmental Innovations: A New Role for the Nation State

The article discusses the role of the nation state in stimulating lead markets for green innovations. It is often feared that the nation state loses its capacity for action because of economic and political globalization. This article rejects this hypothesis. It argues that empirical research on actual environmental policies reveals that it is most often nation states that pioneer new approaches, push for advances in environmental policy, and serve as regional starting points for new green technologies. The innovation and diffusion of environmental technologies and their support through national environmental policies bear the potential of a far-reaching ecological modernization.

Governing environmental innovations

Green technologies display unusually strong growth and are well on the way to establishing a ‘mega-trend’ in technology development. To exploit the associated economic opportunities, many industrialised countries have started to follow an innovation-oriented approach to environmental policy. Against this background, the ways are examined in which environmental policy can effectively ‘govern’ technological change and secure environmental improvements. What is needed is a clear focus on prioritising the ecological effectiveness of environmental innovations, devising ‘smart regulation’ through instrument mixes and addressing the inherent limitations of innovation-oriented policies.

Environmental Policy and Innovation: an International Comparison of Policy Frameworks and Innovation Effects

Lasting environmental quality and availability of natural resources within a sustainable development would appear to require fundamental changes in existing modes of production and lifestyles. Strategies for achieving sustainability goals can be divided into two categories: sufficiency strategies and efficiency strategies. The former are aimed at changing behaviour, while the latter emphasise the necessity of comprehensive technological change. Environmental innovation is meant to reduce consumption of resources, limit pollution of the environment and — taking note of a crisis in available resources — substitute environmental capital with produced capital.

Structural change and environmental impact

Although structural change in many industrialized countries has increased since the early 1970s, the environmental policy aspects of this change have hardly been investigated. Using a set of four indicators, this study examines the correlation between structural changes and environmental pollution in thirty-one Eastern and Western industrialized countries from 1970 to 1985.

STRUCTURAL CHANGE AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE ON THIRTY-ONE COUNTRIES IN EAST AND WEST

Although structural change in many industralized countries has increased since the early 1970s, the environmental policy aspects of this change have hardly been investigated. The more pronounced the positive environmental effects of structural change become, the more positive will be the structure-oriented options of environmental policy.Using a set of four indicators, in this study thirty-one Eastern and Western industrialized countries are being tested with regard to economic structure and environmentally significant structural change. The authors come to the conclusion that the strong correlation between economic performance and environmental pollution, unequivocal in 1970, had become much weaker by 1985. The de-linking of economic growth from material-intensive industrial production processes is particularly evident. In some cases automatic environmental benefits (‘environmental gratis effects’) were generated in this way.However, the development profiles of the countries investigated differ greatly. There are countries, in particular Sweden, with absolute structural improvement in the ecological sense; countries like Japan and Norway with structural improvement relative to economic growth; and countries, including most Eastern and Southern European states, featuring no structural improvement or even environmentally negative structural change.The question is being left open to what extent the modernized economic structures are accompanied by ‘modernized’ forms of environmental pollution.

National environmental policy planning in OECD countries: Preliminary lessons from cross‐national comparisons

While the first part of the article focuses on the possible advantages of strategic and integrative planning in environmental policy, the second part looks at existing national planning approaches in OECD countries, underlining important differences and similarities, and attempting a preliminary evaluation of three national environmental policy plans. On this empirical basis the article represents an attempt to systematise existing approaches and to draft model stages in environmental planning.

The Diffusion of Environmental Policy Innovations: A Contribution to the Globalisation of Environmental Policy

The subject of this paper is the importance of the diffusion of environmental innovations between countries for the global development of environmental policy. Empirical observation has shown that national environmental initiatives are often rapidly adopted by other countries; thus, these initiatives spread internationally. The conditions for and restrictions on the international diffusion of environmental innovations are examined on the basis of five case studies: environmental agencies and ministries, ecolabels, national environmental plans, CO2/energy taxes, and soil protection legislation. The key determinants of policy diffusion include (1) national factors (capacities for action in environmental policy, the demand for problem solutions), (2) the dynamics of the international system (the significance of front-runner countries for global policy diffusion, international organisations, transnational networks), and (3) aspects of the specific policy innovation (characteristics of policy innovation, availability of appropriate policy models, etc.).

Ecological aspects of structural change

Structural change in advanced industrialized countries has followed a very ambivalent course, with the resulting reductions in environmental stress in one area often being cancelled out by increases in another. What role has been played in this to date by industrial and economic policy? What options are open to policy-makers for the future?