Book Description

'Martin Enevoldsen's book is a pioneering work that compares the impacts of various non-regulatory environmental strategies in achieving measurable pollution reductions. Much has been written on the theoretical virtues and drawbacks of green taxation versus the adoption of voluntary agreements when it comes to effective implementation of environmental goals. In convincing detail, this book makes the case for the effectiveness of environmental taxation, its barriers being primarily political in nature rather than economic. Green taxes are highly controversial even in the most environmentally conscious nations, particularly when they are regarded as a purely fiscal instrument. The successful Danish CO2 taxation on industry, which this study proves to be much more effective than the Dutch system of voluntary agreements or the Austrian laissez-faire policies, relied not only on the inducement of the CO2 tax itself; all of the tax revenue was ploughed back into industry as subsidies for investments in advanced energy saving technologies. Martin Enevoldsen's book is simply a "must" for political scientists, environmental economists and environment policymakers.' - Svend Auken, M.P. and former Danish Minister for Environment and Energy Although there is a huge demand for accurate analysis of environmental policy outcomes in both the academic and policy-making communities, there is currently very little theoretical research on this issue. This ambitious book redresses the balance by constructing a new theoretical framework at the crossroads between economics and political science to account for the effectiveness of environmental governance. Drawing on insights from new institutional economics, environmental economics, collective action theory and social capital theory, the author analyses how policy outcomes are influenced by institutional factors that constrain and empower the target groups of environmental regulation.