1) An administrative organization is necessary.
The Danish environmental reform at the start of the 1970s contained the following elements that have since proved to be important:
| A Ministry of the Environment was established in 1971, and expanded in 1973. The existence of the Ministry accorded political priority to the environment as a topic - which is exactly the idea behind establishing a new ministry. This priority has enhanced since 1982 when it became customary to appoint ministers with considerable political influence. |
| An even more important factor was the establishment in 1974 of an administrative infrastructure - in the counties and municipalities. It is this part of the apparatus, through being well acquainted with the individual polluters, that has been primarily responsible for the change in the behaviour of polluters. |
| The personnel resource shall match that of the task. In Denmark the desire is not only to regulate the large industrial polluters and the many small polluters in the agricultural sector and in light industry/trades (e.g. vehicle repair shops), but also to provide a good service to neighbours affected by the pollution. The Danish approach has therefore been to appoint 2,000 environmental officers to positions in the Counties and Municipalities. Prior to 1987 the administrative apparatus was only half as large, and was obviously too small to handle the task. |
| The regulatory apparatus shall deal with its clients in a manner that evokes their respect for the environmental authorities. This functions best when respect is based on a high professional standard among the environmental officers and rapid, competent processing of cases. |
2) There also has to be a set of regulations.
This is necessary in order to be able to inform polluters of what environmental requirements they have to comply with. In this respect the EC regulations cover part of the need for environmental regulation. Thus they cover most aspects relating to chemical substances, while regulation of industrial pollution is more sporadic, and that of pollution by the agricultural sector is very sporadic. From the Danish perspective, the EC regulations cover in all approximately half of the problems that need regulating.
A supplementary national set of regulations is therefore necessary to ensure a comprehensive approach to environmental problems. The remaining half of the regulations are therefore "purely" Danish.
Compared to the philosophy of the large EC countries (and hence the EC) that the various branches should be regulated by means of general rules, one of the strengths of Danish environmental administration has been the emphasis placed on individual rulings as a means of regulating large polluters. This creates a dialogue between the authority and the polluter before the requirements are stipulated, and ensures flexible deadlines for their implementation that are adapted to the circumstances of the individual enterprise.
In the case of the numerous small polluters, however, Denmark has moved in the direction of general environmental requirements.
3) Consumer charges and environmental levies are also a good means of regulation.
In Denmark, consumer charges for the supply of water and the treatment of sewage have curbed water consumption. Until around 1990, the mistake was made of letting industry pay only approximately half the actual costs of sewage treatment. That mistake has now been rectified, however.
Among environmental levies, that on waste deserves to be mentioned. This levy, which currently amounts to DKK 195 per tonne, has helped promote the recycling of, for example, building materials (over 80%) and the use of sewage sludge as agricultural fertilizer (over 60%).
Environmental levies are especially useful when one wants to influence a large number of polluters simultaneously; when large numbers of polluters are involved, regulation through rules and inspection is difficult to implement.
4) The main problems in Denmark lie with agriculture, industry, urban sewage, power production, traffic and contaminated sites.
As is evident from Chapter 7, Denmark has not made much progress with respect to reducing pollution from the agricultural sector. The problem first became apparent in the 1980s, and is one that is politically difficult to handle. In contrast, the results of 20 years’ endeavour to regulate industrial pollution and urban sewage have been decidedly positive, as is evident from Chapters 5 and 6.
Power production has become much cleaner over the years because of the introduction of cleaner fuels and abatement measures at power stations. Steep levies on energy have resulted in consumers saving so much energy that this has counterbalanced the increase in energy consumption by other sectors. Denmark has the ambitious target of reducing CO2 emissions by 20% in relation to present levels by the year 2005. This will be difficult to meet, however.
With regard to traffic, Denmark has reaped the benefit of international endeavours aimed at cleaner motor vehicles, but as yet has not made any significant independent progress.
As far as concerns contaminated sites, less than 1,000 have been remediated over the last 12 years out of a possible total of over 10,000. Nevertheless, this is more than in the majority of countries, and valuable albeit painful experience has been gained in the process.
5) General acceptance of the regulations is very important.
Regulations on environmental requirements can only have a reasonable impact if they are accepted by the polluters. Considerable emphasis is therefore given in Denmark to negotiations with the organizations representing the polluters before the requirements are stipulated. Considerable emphasis is also placed on negotiation and contradiction in individual specific cases. It is Danish experience that if acceptance is lacking, the results are poor.
6) There shall be political backing to environmental requirements.
Political will behind the environmental requirements is of great significance for the priority given to the task in question by the environmental administration, and for acceptance of the message by polluters. It is not enough that highly engaged environmental politicians adopt strict rules at the international level and in the national Parliament. Environmental politics needs to come down to the level where enterprises are. Politics is markedly sectorial, and environmental politicians cannot just realize their good intentions without further ado. Environmental policy has to be combined with the requirements from other sides on the preservation or creation of jobs.
It has thus been of great significance for development in Denmark that the environmental requirements in specific cases are the responsibility of the local politicians. They have to balance environmental considerations with job considerations. The way they have tackled this problem is as follows: No County or Municipal Council administers environmental legislation so stringently that large workplaces have to close. However, the majority of County and Municipal Councils have demonstrated their good will by allocating the personnel necessary to handle environmental administration, and a large number of them pressure their enterprises so much that the latter have given high priority to investments in environmental improvements. The politicians’ work has probably been made easier by the fact that the staff of the enterprises are subject to similar impulses from their surroundings. The employees come under pressure from their children, friends, etc, if the enterprise runs into obvious problems with the environment.
7) The environmental requirements have to be enforced.
As mentioned above, the first important step in implementation is to gain acceptance among the majority of polluters. Part of the way to do so is to undertake on-site inspection of polluting enterprises, as has been undertaken in Denmark since 1987.
With the aid of the environmental officers it is normally possible to get 90-99% of the polluters to comply with the rules unopposedly. Nevertheless, even with the most accepted regulations there will still be some enterprises who disregard or neglect them. The environmental authorities should therefore be able to rely upon the judicial system for help in solving the most difficult cases.
The Danish judicial system is used in this way in 200-300 cases per year. The penalties are not very high, however, the most serious cases to date having resulted in 40 days detention and the greatest economic sanction being a penalty of DKK 1.5 million. The important point, though, is that criminal prosecutions of environmental cases are good press material. If a major company loses a criminal prosecution of an environmental case, the damage to its reputation can be serious and affect the sale of its products, as well as recruitment. Criminal prosecutions of environmental cases therefore have an impact far greater than the fine.
8) The administration shall be professional.
There are two sides to this: One is that the administration must have a professional background, while the other is that the regulatory details must be formulated in a manner that facilitates their administration.
Education is the first precondition for a professional environmental administration. Between a third and a half of all environmental officers in Denmark have undergone 12 years education at school and 5 years at university. Of the remainder, the majority have undergone 12 years education at school and 3 years of vocational training. Since there is no special education for environmental officers, they have to undergo suitable further education for this special job. In Denmark the latter is organized by the Municipal College of Further Education.
It is also important that the environmental officers learn to work according to professional standards and norms such that they can combine the local political requirements with the legislative requirement for impartial and fair administration.
The other side to professional administration, i.e. that the detailed regulations must be formulated in a manner that facilitates their administration, is a problem for bureaucrats in Denmark as elsewhere. The problem has not been solved in Denmark either, there being plenty of examples of regulatory details that there are no staff to administer. Nevertheless, there are a couple of mechanisms for instilling discipline: One is that the size of the central administration is virtually fixed. The Ministry of the Environment just has to accept that new regulations have to be administered without the allocation of additional personnel. The second is that the Counties and Municipalities have to be compensated from the Ministry of the Environment’s budget when the Ministry imposes new administrative tasks on them. Considerable effort is thus invested in calculating what a given set of new regulations will cost in administration, and the Ministry and the county and municipal organizations then negotiate the matter closely. This exercise in calculating administrative costs has a feed-back effect on the formulation of the regulations, the end result being that they do not become too complicated.
9) The individual citizen’s attitude to the environment is important.
Danish citizens in their role as consumers have not made much contribution to the progress made so far. About the most positive that can be said of consumers is that they have been saving energy since 1973. However, as members of society many Danes have expressed the wish for a better environment. It can be expected that this attitude will eventually come to expression also in consumer behaviour. This has influenced the attitude of the politicians to major polluters, and has persuaded management in industry, power plants, etc., to take a more accepting attitude to environmental requirements. Moreover, it has made it possible to expend greater sums on sewage treatment and waste management, as well as to utilize taxpayers’ money on environmental administration.
10) Openness and freedom of information have promoted the environmental cause.
The general Danish tradition for administrative freedom of information
also applies to environmental administration. In addition, parts of the regulatory
apparatus have periodically led a deliberate policy of particular openness. Virtually
nothing is considered a factory or commercial secret. This has enabled the media to report
on environmental matters and thereby enhance the environmental awareness of the general
public. At the same time, open administration is of value in relation to enterprises since
it helps convince them that they are being treated in a professional manner
