What Are Environmental Regulations Like in Other Countries

http://trinomics.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/1-3.jpg

Governments around the world have implemented environmental regulations, but the ways those nations have dealt with them vary widely. This information was gathered from Gale’s Global Issues in Context, a reliable database recommended by the school. These regulations influence the way companies must go about their practices relating to being more eco-friendly by having to comply with these rules.

According to the Environmental Parliament, an online source pertaining to all European environmental policies, Europe has 4 “ principles of precaution, prevention and rectifying pollution at source, and on the ‘polluter pays’ principle.” The precautionary principle is basically a tool that the government can use to halt production of any product of there is even any uncertainty of the products potential affects whether it be on the environment or on humans. However once more information is available the product can either continue production or can be shut down permanently.  

The “Polluter Pays” principle is basically a law that says that those involved in the production, transportation, or anything pertaining to waste discharge into water has to take extra precautions to help alleviate the threat of potential harm to the soil, air, or water. If damage does occur, the company responsible has to take all the necessary measures to fix the problem and also has to pay for it all themselves. After this was implemented, it has been expanded 3 times to include “management of extractive waste, the operation of geological storage sites, and the safety of offshore oil and gas operations respectively.”

The EU has 5 main parts to their environmental policy: 1. Environment action programs 2. Horizontal strategies 3. Environmental impact assessment and public participation 4. International environmental cooperation and 5. Implementation, enforcement and monitoring. These 5 parts are what make the EU the leaders in governmental environmental regulation and protection. The most important part in my opinion is part 3, because it includes public participation. The government can do all it wants to protect the environment but until the actual people of the nation buy into this idea nothing will get done, and that is part of the emphasis in Europe.


Future research question: What is the history and current state of U.S, environmental policy?