Prudent development - a shared responsibility
16 Measures and knowledge base
A forward-looking commitment to the environment and sustainable development may stimulate competitiveness and transition towards the knowledge economy. It should pay to show environmental concern. This is why those who manufacture, supply, consume and finally dispose of products should bear the environmental costs. Technological breakthroughs and innovation are necessary to redirect society towards sustainable development. We need a solid knowledge base for making the right decisions and prioritising activities. Environment policy needs to be knowledge-based and underpinned by the precautionary principle.
Denmark has built up a broad and wellfunctioning system of legal rules on nature and the environment. The Government wishes to use economic measures such as green taxes, transferable quotas and subsidies because such measures have often proved suitable for making producers and consumers more environment-friendly in their actions.
With the tax reform of 1993, the Energy Package of 1995 and the Government's austerity programme, known as the Whitsun Package of 1998, the Government wished to alleviate environmental pressures from CO2 and other pollutants, certain chemicals, waste and wastewater. This went hand in hand with a lowering of income tax. An evaluation concludes that taxes reduce pollution while taking into account the international competitiveness of the business community.
The activities and adjustments needed to create a society in balance with the natural resource base call for insight, awareness and skills. To make the right decisions, prioritise activities and select the right measures, a solid knowledge base is required. Research into causal relationships and into how activities in society have a bearing on people and nature is a prerequisite of a targeted and prioritised approach in the environment and energy areas. Forecasts and scenarios for the anticipated trend in emissions/the state of the environment and the interplay with the economy are other essential elements of the knowledge base needed to achieve sustainable development.
Decisions at all levels should be assessed in relation to the environment. The Government finds it important that bills and Government proposals presented to Parliament undergo a strategic environmental impact assessment to ensure that the environmental consequences form part of the decision making basis in line with economic analyses. Similarly, the environmental impacts of largescale, central-government engineering works must be assessed. Local and regional authorities should also ensure that decisions at the local level are submitted to environmental impact assessment.
The desire has been - and still is - to ensure that Danes understand that environmental concerns must be taken into account in production and consumption. Wishing to set an example, the public sector has implemented a green procurement policy. Consumers are buying a larger volume of ecoand energy-labelled products, and steps are being taken on a broad front to introduce even more eco-labelled products to the market. Cooperation has been initiated with relevant partners on preparing environmental product declarations for consumers and producers alike. Eco-labels and environmental product declarations offer consumers improved opportunities for making real choices.
Green taxes work Sulphur emitted into the atmosphere as SO2 creates acid rain, which destroys plants and contaminates drinking water. A sulphur tax on a range of fuels was introduced in 1995 to curb SO2 emissions. Companies that undertake sulphur cleaning are recompensed accordingly. The proceeds from the sulphur tax are returned to the industries to offset the effect on the companies' international competitiveness. The green tax on sulphur benefits the environment in three ways: It becomes more worthwhile: 1) to develop and switch to energy products with a lower sulphur content (for example natural gas or low-sulphur coal, 2) to undertake sulphur cleaning, and 3) to invest in energy-efficient technologies. Since the tax was introduced, the sulphur content of the energy products used has
declined, and environmental indicators show that total SO2 emissions continue
their downward trend. |
Technological breakthroughs are among the keys to enhanced resource efficiency, which may
help decouple environmental degradation from economic growth. The cleaner products
programme has been instrumental in promoting the development of products, tools and
technologies that, combined, have been able to foster the inclusion of environmental
considerations into production and to offer Danish companies a competitive edge in other
markets.
A growing number of Danish companies are assuming an active role in preventive environmental activities by introducing environmental management, developing cleaner products and drawing up green accounts. This positive trend must be maintained through better information, guidance and exchange of experience.
Local and regional authorities play a great and important role in the concrete implementation of Denmark's nature and environment policy. Local and regional authorities manage substantial parts of specific environmental and physical planning activities. At the same time, local and regional authorities are best at involving citizens in an active debate on the organisation of local conditions. A constructive dialogue between authorities and citizens is of paramount importance and should be strengthened to gain optimal solutions for both citizens and the environment.
Objectives and activities 2001-2006
The Government will uphold the green taxes and consider the possibility of introducing new ones. The Ministry of Taxation - in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Energy - is currently looking into chemicals. In a report, a working committee has outlined the potential for adjusting the tax on pesticides. In the autumn of 2001, on the basis of this report the Government will introduce a bill to increase the differentiation of the ad valorem tax on pesticides. Another working committee recently submitted a report on the possibilities of restructuring the system of vehicle registration tax. The report analyses the possibilities of changing the vehicle registration tax so that new car buyers increasingly take environmental considerations into account and thus contribute to reducing CO2 emissions. The report also analyses whether there are better ways of designing the system of transport taxes, for instance by introducing differential tax rates depending on the level of environmental stress as seen in connection with the petrol and diesel tax.
The use of economic instruments should be coordinated internationally. We can obtain higher environmental gains if, for example, the tax level is more or less identical in the different countries, which eliminates the need to pay special regard to international corporate competitiveness when designing the tax systems. In the international arena, Denmark will work on the development of common instruments to reach the CO2 target. One possibility is to introduce international taxes on air transport, for example a tax on air fuel. In the EU, Denmark will take steps to harmonise green taxes with minimum rates.
In the OECD countries there are examples of subsidy schemes, including tax exemptions in sectors, affecting behaviour in a way that has negative consequences for the environment. This is true of agriculture, industry and transport, for example. It is necessary to examine whether the existing subsidy schemes should be changed or adjusted to prevent them from harming the environment.
Denmark is facing a technological challenge. Technological breakthroughs and innovation are required to decouple the negative impacts on nature and the environment from economic growth. A longterm effort to promote pioneering technologies is required. We must both disseminate knowledge of existing, environment-friendly technologies and develop new technology, new materials and new solutions to redirect society towards sustainable development. We must find new ways of organising existing production in a more environmentally favourable fashion to ensure that resources are used as efficiently as possible and that products become more environment-friendly throughout their life cycles. This means that nature and the environment must be affected as little as possible per unit produced or service provided - throughout the production chain from extraction via consumption to disposal.
We need to strengthen the interplay between the public and private sectors on research into and the development and spread of green technologies. Public and private-sector prioritisation of research into environmental issues can help strengthen industrial and commercial positions and ensure market breakthroughs for cutting-edge technologies that take into account environmental considerations. For example, fuel cells in future means of transport can lower CO2 emissions substantially. Information technology and biotechnology may also pave the way for new environmentfriendly production methods and products. The use of new types of material can lower resource consumption and open up more recycling possibilities.
Companies must have the chance to cooperate with knowledge institutions, which can support environmental initiatives through, for instance, advice on environment-friendly technologies, strategic environmental management, communication on environmental issues and staff competence development. New knowledge and new tools and methods must be spread to and firmly embedded in companies and their surroundings. We need to establish a framework within which the market itself rewards and stimulates environmental initiatives in companies, thus encouraging them to focus on technological development. At the same time, any barriers to the market access of environmentfriendly technologies must be removed.
The development and use of economic and other measures must be reconciled with companies' capacity for innovation and self-management. Direct regulation in the form of legislation and rules as the market and technology develop will still be necessary. Environmental regulation will represent the required minimum basis for environmental behaviour and will determine the framework conditions capable of motivating companies to pay greater attention to developing and selling environment-friendly products and to undertake other voluntary green initiatives. The regulatory measures must be chosen with due regard to efficiency.
A heightened knowledge base will support sustainable development. That applies to basic, strategic and user-oriented research in all sectors. Basic research into causal relationships and into new environmental and societal problems is crucial for society's ability to take the right and preventive decisions at an early point and thereby achieve sustainable development. Therefore, research and development in support of sustainable development should be strengthened. The vision is to provide Denmark with a strong knowledge base concerning sustainable development.
Decisions on environment policy should build on the optimum knowledge base - knowledgebased environment policy. There is a need for research, data collection and monitoring that can contribute to improving the decision-making basis. The link between research and priorities in action plans and strategies must continue to be strengthened. Environmental economy and analyses of how the behaviour of companies and citizens affects the environment rank among the core research areas. That also holds true for research into the link between activities in society and effects on human health and the environment as well as forecasts and scenarios of the anticipated development. The knowledge acquired must be available to everyone. Where the knowledge base is insufficient, the precautionary principle is an important instrument.
Knowledge of the link between activities and environmental impact provides an improved decisionmaking basis, and the methods for strategic environmental impact assessment must therefore be upgraded. The integration of the environment and economy into decision-making processes can be promoted by documenting the effect of environmental initiatives through economic analyses of advantages and disadvantages. With a view to these analyses, we need to upgrade the methods for valuing the boons of nature and the environment that are affected by the political initiatives.
In the years ahead, attention will be also be directed to information, education and teaching. The key concepts in a forward-looking information and teaching strategy on sustainable development are knowledge and responsibility. Schools and youth education programmes assume a special role as the institutions that help shape the fundamental values of children and young people. Greater awareness of the natural basis of human existence combined with profound knowledge of the interplay between the environment and economic and social issues will be reflected in the attitudes and sense of responsibility of future generations.
One duty of educational institutions is to disseminate knowledge about the environment and sustainable development in such a way that this knowledge can lay the foundations for democratic decisions. Sustainable development should be taught in a context of international cooperation among educational institutions. This would cause children and young people to realise that we have common problems that can best be solved by taking international action. When the ministers for education signed the Haga Declaration in March 2000, we took a step in the right direction, placing ecological, economic, cultural and social development on the agenda in an educational alliance between Denmark and the countries bordering the Baltic Sea.