Environmental Policy and Regulation

1. Environmental Policy and Regulation Environmental Policy: Environmental Policy is any action deliberately taken tom manage human activities with a view to prevent, reduce or mitigate harmful effects on nature and natural resources, and ensuring that man-made changes to the environment do not have harmful effects on humans .

2. Environmental policy comprises two major terms: ‘Environment and Policy’.Environmentprimarily refers to the ecological dimension (ecosystem) , but can also take account of social dimension (quality of life) and an economic dimension (recourse management).Policy can be defined as a course of action or principle adopted or proposed by a government, party business or individual.

3. Thus, environmental policy focuses on problems arising from human impact on the environment, which retroacts onto human society by having a negative impact on human values such as good health or the ‘clean and green’ environment. Environmental issues generally addressed by environmental policy include –but not limited to- air and water pollution, waste management, ecosystem management, biodiversity protection, and the protection of natural resources, wildlife and endangered species.

4. Environmental Policy InstrumentsEnvironmental policy instruments are tools used by governments to implement their environmental policies.Governments may use a number of different types of instruments. For example, economic incentives and market-based instruments such as taxes and tax exemptions and tradable permits can be very effective to encourage compliance with environmental policy.

5. Objectives of Environmental Policy: The protection and preservation of health and human life. Protection of natural resources such as water, air and soil. Protection of biodiversity destruction. Combating desertification and save the landscape. The integrated management of waste and hazardous materials and chemicals.

6. Environmental Regulations: Regulation is "controlling human or societal behavior by governmental or self rules or restrictions. - Regulations can be seen as implementation artifacts of policy statements. Common example of environmental regulation include controls of pollution effects.

7. For example, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state environmental agencies regulate the impact of businesses on the environment. The EPA develops and enforces regulations that implement environmental laws enacted by Congress. Likewise, state agencies enforce regulations that implement laws enacted by the state legislature. This is such as Air Quality Regulations, which provide information about how to comply with the Clean Air Act. (See Table 14.1 ‘Purpose and/or scope of various environmental laws’*).___________________________________________________________________________________________________*Moeller, D. W., (2005). Environmental Health, 3rd. Ed., Pages 353 and 354,Harvard University Press, USA.