IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/zewdip/9704.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Voluntary Agreements in Environmental Protection - Experiences in Germany and Future Perspectives

Author

Listed:
  • Rennings, Klaus
  • Brockmann, Karl Ludwig
  • Bergmann, Heidi

Abstract

A trend towards softer regulation, especially in the form of negotiated environmental agreements, is observable in national and international environmental policies. Such agreements are controversial, because there are fears that government will relinquish its responsibility for environmental protection. This paper analyses recent experiences with voluntary agreements in Germany. Topical German examples that have prompted public debates include the takeback agreement for cars, the voluntary agreement made by a number of industries on a C02 reduction by the year 2005 and the voluntary agreement made by the automobile industry on the development of energy-efficient cars. Proponents of voluntary agreements argue that this instrument provides incentives to the business sector for the development of efficient, innovative and environmentally-friendly solutions. Analysing the examples mentioned above, we conclude that it is hard to detect solutions derserving such attributes. These agreements are unlikely to produce results that go beyond what industry would have done in any case and they avoid using economic incentives. The agreements are' non-binding and unenforceable, with the negotiating process leading to a watering down of the environmental goals government had originally aimed at. A preference for negotiated solutions on principle, as currently espoused by the Federal Government in Germany, seems to be counterproductive. If the government clearly signals its willingness to refrain from using regulatory or economic instruments in favour of industry agreements, it weakens its negotiating position. The government also limits its options should the implementation of the agreement prove unsatisfactory. Government needs to be 'in control in order to leave its choice of policy instruments open and to be flexible. In a last step, we derive some general conclusions concerning reasonable strategies and applications of voluntary agreements within the European Union.

Suggested Citation

  • Rennings, Klaus & Brockmann, Karl Ludwig & Bergmann, Heidi, 1997. "Voluntary Agreements in Environmental Protection - Experiences in Germany and Future Perspectives," ZEW Discussion Papers 97-04, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:9704
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/29409/1/227844114.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Holzhey, Michael & Tegner, Henning, 1996. "Selbstverpflichtungen - ein Ausweg aus der umweltpolitischen Sackgasse?," Wirtschaftsdienst – Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftspolitik (1949 - 2007), ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 76(8), pages 425-430.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rennings, Klaus & Koschel, Henrike & Brockmann, Karl Ludwig & Kuhn, Isabel, 1999. "A regulatory framework for a policy of sustainability: lessons from the neo-liberal school," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 197-212, February.
    2. Kathryn Harrison & Werner Antweiler, 2003. "Incentives for pollution abatement: Regulation, regulatory threats, and non-governmental pressures," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(3), pages 361-382.
    3. Budzinski Oliver & Kuchinke Björn A., 2012. "Deal or No Deal? Consensual Arrangements as an Instrument of European Competition Policy," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 63(3), pages 265-292, December.
    4. Lars P. Feld & Gebhard Kirchgässner, 2003. "Die Rolle des Staates in privaten Governance Strukturen," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 139(III), pages 253-285, September.
    5. Horbach, Jens & Rammer, Christian & Rennings, Klaus, 2012. "Determinants of eco-innovations by type of environmental impact — The role of regulatory push/pull, technology push and market pull," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 112-122.
    6. Hans Bressers & Theo de Bruijn, 2005. "Conditions for the success of negotiated agreements: partnerships for environmental improvement in the Netherlands," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(4), pages 241-254, July.
    7. Tim Benijts, 2014. "A Business Sustainability Model for Government Corporations. A Belgian Case Study," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 204-216, March.
    8. Judith Petts & Andrew Herd & Simon Gerrard & Chris Horne, 1999. "The climate and culture of environmental compliance within SMEs," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(1), pages 14-30, January.
    9. Böhringer, Christoph & Frondel, Manuel, 2002. "Assessing Voluntary Commitments: Monitoring is Not Enough!," ZEW Discussion Papers 02-62, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    10. Kirchgässner, Gebhard, 2014. "Zu neueren Entwicklungen bei der Einbeziehung privater Akteure in Prozesse der öffentlichen Verwaltung: Einige Bemerkungen," Economics Working Paper Series 1413, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science, revised Dec 2014.
    11. Ulrich Steger & Wouter Achterberg (†) & Kornelis Blok & Henning Bode & Walter Frenz & Corinna Gather & Gerd Hanekamp & Dieter Imboden & Matthias Jahnke & Michael Kost & Rudi Kurz & Hans G. Nutzinger &, 2005. "Sustainable Development and Innovation in the Energy Sector," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-540-26882-6 edited by Friederike Wütscher, January.
    12. Ana Garcia-Bernabeu & Adolfo Hilario-Caballero & David Pla-Santamaria & Francisco Salas-Molina, 2020. "A Process Oriented MCDM Approach to Construct a Circular Economy Composite Index," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-14, January.
    13. Susana Garrido Azevedo & Radu Godina & João Carlos de Oliveira Matias, 2017. "Proposal of a Sustainable Circular Index for Manufacturing Companies," Resources, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-24, November.
    14. Shaheen, Susan A. & Bejamin-Chung, Jade & Allen, Denise & Howe-Steiger, Linda, 2009. "Achieving California’s Land Use and Transportation Greenhouse Gas Emission Targets Under AB 32: An Exploration of Potential Policy Processes and Mechanisms," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt8bm4t7w5, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eickhof Norbert, 2004. "Selbstverpflichtungen im Bereich des Umweltschutzes," ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, De Gruyter, vol. 55(1), pages 269-286, January.
    2. Norbert Eickhof, 2003. "Freiwillige Selbstverpflichtungen aus wirtschaftswissenschaftlicher Sicht," Volkswirtschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge 61, Universität Potsdam, Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultät.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:9704. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zemande.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.