Experts Confirm Compliance Key to Emissions Trading Markets' Success
 Sixty-five experts from governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, third-party verifiers, and industry convened to discuss monitoring, reporting, and verification in emissions trading systems during the “Confidence Through Compliance in Emissions Trading Markets” workshop in Washington, D.C., on 17-18 November 2005.
The workshop drew many of the world's leading emissions trading experts, who agreed that only with high levels of compliance will emissions trading systems achieve efficient reductions in emissions.
The key outcomes of the workshop included: (1) a focused agenda for future work on monitoring, reporting, and verification; (2) confirmation of the importance of compliance in building confidence in emissions trading markets; (3) suggestions for future research; and (4) new knowledge from shared experiences among stakeholders participating in the E.U. emissions trading scheme for carbon dioxide, the U.S. program for sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, and emissions trading programs in Japan, Canada, and Australia.
The workshop was sponsored by INECE; the Environment Agency (England & Wales); the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning, and the Environment; the European Commission; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; and Resources for the Future. The event was hosted by American University's Washington College of Law.
More information on the Workshop, including the agenda, background papers, and presentations, is available at http://inece.org/emissions/.
Environment Agency Chief Executive Barbara Young Discusses the Contribution of Good Environmental Regulation to Competitiveness
Baroness Barbara Young, Chief Executive, Environment Agency (England & Wales) met with Secretariat Director Durwood Zaelke on 19 December 2005 to discuss the recent report on The Contribution of Good Environmental Regulation to Competitiveness, which was developed by the Network of Heads of European Environment Protection Agencies.
 The report, referred to as the Prague Statement, reviews the evidence on the links between environmental regulation and competitiveness. Barbara Young, as chair of the Network of European EPA's Interest Group on Better Regulation, was instrumental in driving this work forward.
The conversation will be broadcast on the INECE web site next month. In the meantime, the following is an excerpt from their discussion.
Durwood Zaelke: Could you describe the Prague Statement on the contribution of good environmental regulation to competitiveness?
Barbara Young: The Prague Statement is a publication by all of the environmental protection agencies across the Europe Union, explaining and demonstrating the evidence for the case that says that good environmental regulation and achieving high environmental standards is not a dead weight on business and the economy, but is a real opportunity for both businesses and national economies in driving innovation and reducing risk in anticipating new technologies, in opening up markets, and in reducing costs.
So the thesis really is to achieve high environmental standards, embrace environmental regulation, with an enthusiasm providing it’s good, modern, risk-based regulation, because it’s good for your business.
Zaelke: In your opinion, what has been the public response to the move towards raising environmental standards for business?
Young: I think that if you talk through the principles of the Prague Statement with the man on the street, they would recognize it with no problem at all. The man on the street knows about this stuff. The blockage at the moment is industry groups, government and those businesses who’ve not really had the opportunity to think it through. And it’s these groups that we’ve got to convince that there is a real case here and that environmental regulation is a good thing for them. The public are pretty pleased about the idea that environmental regulation is there to protect them, and don’t believe that this is a dead weight on business.
For more information on the Prague Statement, please visit the Publications section of this Newsletter.
South African Indicators Project Focuses on Natural Resource Permitting
In November, INECE and South African regulators agreed jointly to develop indicators of effective environmental compliance and enforcement (ECE) in order to evaluate natural resource permitting. This effort is part of an international project with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to help countries use ECE indicators to improve implementation of biodiversity-related multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). In addition to South Africa, INECE and UNEP are working with Brazil, Costa Rica, and Kenya to launch pilot projects that will develop and test a set of indicators addressing the unique compliance and enforcement challenges posed by biodiversity regulation.
At the November meeting in Polokwane, Limpopo Province, South Africa, provincial environmental compliance and enforcement officials involved with regulatory enforcement, environmental impact assessments, permitting, biodiversity, and protected areas met with INECE Staff Attorney Dave Grossman to review the INECE-UNEP project and decide on a focus for the pilot project in Limpopo Province. It was agreed that the focus of the project would be on compliance with permits required under the Limpopo Environmental Management Act, which generally relate to utilization of natural resources. Meeting participants identified as one of their key biodiversity challenges the fact that many permits issued receive little follow-up to determine if permit conditions were met. This issue affects the implementation of obligations from virtually all biodiversity-related MEAs. Meeting participants also brainstormed to develop a preliminary list of input and output indicators to launch the project.
Officials in Limpopo Province will now begin assessing Limpopo's current activities and datasets related to permit compliance, finalizing the initial list of input and output indicators, and seeking input from other officials and experts in Limpopo and South Africa more broadly, with feedback from the INECE Secretariat and the INECE Expert Working Group on Enforcement and Compliance Indicators. For more information on the INECE Indicators Project, see http://inece.org/indicators/.
Long-Range Planning Advisory Group Addressing INECE Future
The INECE Secretariat launched a new Long-Range Planning Ad Hoc Group this fall. In developing and maintaining a long-range plan, the Ad Hoc Group will extrapolate from INECE’s present role and context, explore emerging trends that may affect or be affected by INECE’s work, and, in light of these, offer recommendations about a range of factors including INECE’s mission and goals, its strategies and activities and its external relationships.
Chaired by Donald Kaniaru, a Kenyan lawyer and advocate who is currently the Chairman of the National Environment Tribunal in Kenya, the Ad Hoc Group will consist of INECE Executive Planning Committee (EPC) members and outside experts drawn from around the world. The long-range planning process seeks to answer numerous questions, including:
- Where is INECE today?
- In developing a long-range plan, what are the major trends that influence INECE, and that INECE should seek to influence?
- In light of these trends, what should INECE’s mission and goals be?
- What value can INECE add to countries’ regulatory programs?
- To achieve these goals, what specific strategies and activities should INECE adopt?
- To implement these activities, whom should INECE seek as participants and partners?
- To support its work, how should INECE communicate with stakeholders?
Group members will participate in meetings, conference calls, and informal dialogue aimed at producing a report of recommendations to the INECE EPC in April 2006.
INECE Releases Vol. 2 of the 7th Conference Proceedings
INECE released Volume Two of the the Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Environmental Compliance and Enforcement, held 9-15 April 2005 in Marrakech, Morocco. Volume One contained papers submitted by participants and other enforcement professionals in preparation for the conference. Volume Two contains reports from the panels and workshops of the conference, along with additional articles.
Volume Two is available in PDF through the INECE Web site at http://inece.org/conference/7/vol2/.
INECE Announces New Co-chair, New Members of Executive Planning Committee
 The INECE Executive Planning Committee (EPC) recently announced the appointment of Antonio Benjamin as the new Co-Chair and the addition of six new committee members.
Mr. Benjamin, a long-standing EPC member, is the Director of the Law for a Green Planet Institute, a Brazilian nongovernmental organization dedicated to the protection of Brazil's environment and biodiversity and its indigenous peoples.
The EPC also welcomed the following new members:
The EPC, as the governing body of INECE, defines INECE's cooperative efforts and makes decisions to realize the INECE mission. It is composed of government/public officials, from every region of the world, as well as representatives from nongovernmental organizations and international organizations including the United Nations Environment Program and the World Bank.
The EPC agrees upon the goals, activities, and multi-year work program of the INECE partnership, reviews and approves of work products produced under the auspices of the partnership, and catalyzes and facilitates enforcement and institution-building by countries and cooperation among related organizations. An overview of the role of INECE's EPC is available at http://www.inece.org/overview/epc.html.
Experts Panel Discusses INECE's Message in Making Law Work
On November 16th, INECE hosted a panel discussion on the INECE message in “Making Law Work: Environmental Compliance & Sustainable Development” at the American University Washington College of Law (WCL) in Washington, DC. Panelists included:
- Annette Killmer, Natural Resource Specialist, Inter-American Development Bank;
- Michael Stahl, Director of the Office of Compliance, USEPA;
- David Hunter, Professor, WCL;
- Jim Gray, Environment Agency (England and Wales);
- Durwood Zaelke, Director, INECE Secretariat; President, Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development and Partner, Zelle, Hofmann, Voelbel, Mason & Gette; and
- Kenneth Markowitz, President, Earthpace LLC and Consultant to the INECE Secretariat.
The panelists made brief presentations on their articles in Making Law Work: Environmental Compliance & Sustainable Development, a two volume compilation of the best literature on topics related to compliance with and enforcement of laws to protect the environment and promote sustainable development, as selected by INECE, in cooperation with the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development and its affiliated Program on Governance for Sustainable Development at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, UC Santa Barbara.
Mr. Zaelke reiterated the INECE message, layed out in the article he co-authored with Mathew Stillwell and Oran Young, which argues that “sustainable development depends upon good governance, good governance depends upon the rule of law, and the rule of law depends upon effective complinace. . . the role of compliance in this equation is often insufficiently appreciated. . .”
For additional background on Making Law Work, including ordering information and video clips of Mr. Zaelke discussing selected chapters of the book, please see http://inece.org/makinglawwork.html.
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