Johdatus ympäristöpolitiikkaan – Introduction to environmental policy

Johdatus ympäristöpolitiikkaan – Introduction to environmental policy Janne Hukkinen, ympäristöpolitiikan professori Valtiotieteellinen tdk Bio- ja ympäristötieteellinen tdk Maatalous-metsätieteellinen tdk, Helsingin yliopisto janne.i.hukkinen@helsinki.fi

Outline • Background to environmental policy • Evolution of environmental issues • What is sustainability? • Rules that guide environmental policy • Environmental institutions • Systems of environmental regulation • Environmental policy tools • Impact assessment and life cycle analysis • Eco-efficiency tools • Roadmaps to sustainability • Scenarios and indicators as roadmaps to sustainability

Evolution of environmental issues (www.earthportal.org/forum/?cat=28; janne hukkinen; www.solcomhouse.com/nuclear.htm; www.ew.govt.nz/enviroinfo/air/climatechange.htm)

Evolution of environmental issues

What is sustainability? Raise or lower water level in lake?

What is sustainability? Sustainability is a set of preferred pathways of development • socially constructed by people: Different social groups hold well-reasoned but different views of what the sustainable future is—difficult to say which is the ‘correct’ or ‘optimal’ one • objectively constrained by ecology: An ecosystem may have several alternative locally stable, ecologically sustainable states

Rules that guide environmental policy: environmental institutions

Systems of environmental regulation • command and control • Technological performance standards • Effluent standards • Ambient standards • agreements • economic instruments • Taxes • Tradeable pollution permits • organizational reform

Command and control technological performance standards effluent standards ambient standards

Economic instruments Technosystem Ecosystem

Environmental policy tools: Impact assessment • Analytical framework to minimize potential adverse social and ecological impacts of new developments at the planning, design, and development stage • Difference between social and ecological impact assessment: • revealing possibility of social impact will alter social behavior, because human beings act strategically and know that their fellow human beings also act strategically • no such link between ecosystem impact and ecosystem behavior

Environmental policy tools: Impact assessment (Leopold matrix) Mij = Effect: magnitude of impact i caused by activity j (-10…10) Iij = Significance: importance of impact i caused by activity j (1…10)

ECOSOCIAL IMPACTS energy energy extract Life cycle analysis matter matter transport manufacture distribute use dispose ECOSOCIAL IMPACTS

Indicators of eco-efficiency • eco-efficiency, material efficiency (service/material intensity) • MIPS (material intensity/service) • ecological rucksack (weight of natural resources used to produce product) • ecological footprint (land area required to produce product) • Factor 4 and 10 (quantitative targets with time schedules for dematerialization) • In all indicators life cycle analysis used as analytical tool

What does it look like out there? • Ehrlich and Holdren: I=PAT, where • Impact (kg), • Population (cap), • Affluence (eur/cap), • Technology (kg/eur) (NOTE: this is MIPS) • But in next 40 yrs: • P up, • A up, • T globally up (only local case specific success) • While need to stabilize I • Need to take degrowth (A down) seriously

Bandwidth of X in scenario A Indicator X Bandwidth of X in scenario B t’ Time t’’ Roadmaps to sustainability: How to reconcile social constructivism and objective realism? - Indicator X bounded by alternative sustainability scenarios A and B - Drop in X at time t’’ means abandoning sustainable bandwidth in scenario A but entering sustainable trajectory in scenario B - Example: If X=GDP, then low GDP is sustainable in scenario B

Johdatus ympäristöpolitiikkaan – Introduction to environmental policy