Environmental Principles and Policies: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Abstract

In recent years, debate over the most efficient means of dealing with environment problems has heightened. This is particularly true for issues such as habitat loss and climate change, whose environmental ramifications are of global significance. In the past two decades much of this debate has centered on so called ?economic instruments? for environmental protection, such as tradable permits, quota systems, environmental taxes and conservation banks. The recent emphasis on instruments signifies a departure from traditional environmental policy, which focused almost exclusively on legal regulation (i.e., so called ?command and control? regulations). Ostensibly, the purpose of economic instruments is to protect the environment in the most economically efficient manner, by turning a ?zero sum game? into a situation where environmental and social costs are integrated into market process to find ?optimal? levels of environmental degradation. It is within this intellectual mine-field that Sharon Beder launches her recent publication, Environmental Principles and Policies: An Interdisciplinary Approach.