"How do you deal with such and such a problem in Denmark?" is a question commonly posed to Danish environmentalists by their foreign counterparts. It is to this question that the present book is addressed. However, in contrast to answering individual specific questions, the idea is to provide a coherent account of Danish experience with environmental administration.
Environmental administration in Denmark is nearly always based on rules of law. This is how one attempts to control environmental problems throughout the world. From time to time one also tries to impose levies or other means of control just as we do in Denmark. However, legislative control is still the principal means.
Rules, levies and other means of regulation are relatively easy to devise. It just
takes the courage to weed out from the material the 99% that only pertains to detail. In
Denmark and the other states that are members of the European Union there is one further
complication though: There are rules on two levels the community level and the national
level.
The various means of regulation first become really interesting when one can see that they
are having an effect, i.e. that polluters change their behaviour and that the environment
is improving. Throughout the book I have therefore placed much emphasis on trying to
synthesize the following three elements:
| what requirements does the EC stipulate as to Member States’ environmental legislation? |
| how has Denmark chosen to regulate within that framework? |
| what has been the impact of regulation? |
As will become apparent from this account, many of the ideas that we work with in Denmark originate abroad. It is in fact a characteristic of environmental work that it is extremely internationalized. One of my hopes is that this account will be a further contribution to the international mutual learning process.
One should not assume that regulations are universally applicable, though. Regulations have to be adapted to the society in which they are to have an effect. The society’s attitude and ability to comply with the regulations is of decisive importance for the practical results. In the final analysis the environmental impact of the regulations is the decisive measure of whether that process of adaptation has been successful.
The target group for this book is the foreign reader who is already familiar with environmental questions from the administrative, political, legal or similar points of view.
The book deals with the area "environmental protection"
(pollution abatement), the reason being that environmental protection is always a
permanent and important part of environmental activity in different countries, even though
definition of the term environment varies considerably. From the organizational point of
view environmental protection is usually assigned to special organizations, e.g. the EPA
in the case of USA and Denmark.
