INECE Promotes Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Indicators in Asia

INECE and the US Environmental Protection Agency co-sponsored three, two-day capacity building events on environmental compliance and enforcement indicators in Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines in June 2006.

Course instructors worked with senior environmental officials in each of the three countries to design practical sets of indicators and establish appropriate methodologies for implementation.

The deliveries of this specialized regional indicators training were supported by the Asian Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network (AECEN), which has been working with Asian officials and practitioners to assess local capacity and determine needs for environmental compliance and enforcement performance indicators.

INECE has recently revised and published on the Web “An Introduction to Environmental Compliance & Enforcement Indicators” brochure. The brochure is available in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic, and additional translations are planned.

For more information on Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Indicators, see http://inece.org/indicators/ and Chapter 11 of Making Law Work: Environmental Compliance & Sustainable Development on Indicators for Measuring Compliance, at http://www.inece.org/makinglawwork.html.

Study Indicates that More Enforcement Does Not Equal Cleaner Air in China

A growing body of research attributes China 's environmental problems to weak regulatory enforcement. Few studies, however, have explored the relationship between institutional capacity and regulatory enforcement.

In their article, “Translating Regulatory Promise Into Environmental Progress: Institutional Capacity and Environmental Regulation in China”, Wanxin Li and Eric Zusman draw upon the literature on state capacity and institutional analysis to fill this void.

The article reveals that local environmental protection bureaus with greater human capital--though not necessarily greater financial resources--enforce regulations more rigorously. The article also shows that these efforts do not necessarily lead to cleaner air or water. Regions with industries that have a greater capacity to abate pollution tend to pollute more, offsetting the potentially beneficial effects of stronger regulatory enforcement. The authors therefore conclude that it may take more than just innovative regulations to translate regulatory promise into environmental progress.

Wanxin Li is an Assistant Professor at the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. For correspondence, she can be reached at wanxin90@tsinghua.edu.cn.

Eric Zusman is a doctoral student in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. His participation in this project was made possible by funding from the University of California's Pacific Rim Grant Program and Institute for Global Cooperation and Conflict.

The complete article appears in the August issue of the Environmental Law Institute’s Environmental Law Reporter (36 ELR 10616).

UN Opens Environmental “Knowledge Hub” in Asia

Reduce, reuse and recycle are the watchwords of a new initiative announced in August 2006 by the United Nations and key Asian institutions aimed at promoting the sustainable use of natural resources and environmental efficiency.

Jointly established by the Asian Development Bank, Asian Institute of Technology, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), the new “knowledge hub” will function as a think tank on technology, good practices, policy strategy and management.

Located at the Asian Institute of Technology, it will also focus on issues related to the “3R” – shorthand for reduce, reuse and recycle – which UNESCAP said in a press release “promotes sustainable production and consumption of limited natural resources, and improved economic and environmental efficiency.”

Towards this end, the initiative will facilitate research, promote information sharing, and liaise with academic, scientific and technical institutions, the private sector, and civil society. The hub will also produce new information products on 3R, including periodicals, website, newsletters, workshops and training courses, UNESCAP said.

See http://unescap.org/unis/press/2006/aug/g33.asp for more information.