Implementation - More than Monitoring and Enforcement: Evidence from the Implementation of the 1989 Municipal Waste Incineration Directive (89/429/EEC) in Four Member States

Researchers and policy-makers accept that implementation decisively influences the effectiveness of European (EU) environmental policy. Some Member States lead the development of EU policy and implement Directives with little problem. Others follow a variety of compliance (or non-compliance) paths. Implementation gaps and policy failures are prevalent. Policy outcomes often differ radically between even neighbouring Member States. What are the reasons for these differences? Why do Member States follow different compliance paths? Why do implementation gaps and policy failures occur? What factors can explain the different policy outcomes achieved? Is it only 'classical' implementation variables i.e. the monitoring and enforcement actions of public authorities that count? What lessons can we draw for the future? This paper addresses these questions through a comparative analysis of the implementation of the European Directive on the reduction of air pollution from existing municipal waste incineration plants (89/429/EEC) in Germany, the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom: four neighbouring Member States that exhibit quite divergent compliance paths and policy outcomes. Monitoring and enforcement are found to have only limited explanatory power. In practice national contextual variables, such as: public and political environmental awareness; interactions both with environmental and non-environmental policies; regulatory anticipation and uncertainty; the degree of autonomy and scope of regulatory agencies; and, industrial and market structure of the regulated industry, must also be considered

Regional governance, innovation and low carbon transitions: exploring the case of Wales

With the rapid development of its iron and coal industries, by the mid-18th Century South Wales arguably emerged as the world’s first carbon-based economy. Since the mid-20th century ‘landscape’ changes, associated with: i) energy regime shifts from coal to oil and gas; and ii) globalisation and neo-liberalism have combined to drive the equally rapid deindustrialisation of the Welsh economy: a process which has left a structural legacy of economic and social deprivation across much of the region. In this context devolution and the establishment of a Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) with a statutory duty to promote sustainable development, has presented both unique opportunities and challenges. Despite limited powers WAG is determined that Wales will play an internationally leading role in tackling climate change. Rather than simply acting as a ‘policy taker’, WAG has established ambitious targets which exceed current UK and international commitments: including a 3% annual reduction in GGE in areas of devolved competence; all new buildings to be zero carbon; and to produce as much electricity from renewable sources as is consumed in Wales by 2025. This paper will explore the politics of sustainable regions through the governance of energy and innovation in Wales. Particular attention will be paid to: i) insights from past transitions; ii) the economic and political context of devolution; iii) the emergence of a distinctive Welsh ‘transition’ narrative; iv) and the role of innovation in the built environment, and associated regional innovation systems, not only in delivering WAG’s carbon reduction targets but also its social and economic objectives