Methods of assessing the effectiveness of policies/measures

The environmental impact of a policy or project may be defined as changes in the quality and/or supply of an environmental good or service that result from the policy/project. Impacts can be classified into the following:

Types of approaches	Description
*Qualitative approaches*	an identification and description of the important impacts that cannot be exporessed in physical units or monetary terms used especially in cases where data do not exist i.e. impacts on species of which little is known, impacts in regions with no baseline data
Quantitative approaches	involves expressing the potential magnitude of each impact in appropriate physical units i.e. reduced number of cases of a disease associated with waste water treatment, the number of residents displaced by a power project, or the amount of hectares of a forest conserved due to improved resource management these effects should be converted into monetary terms to be used in the cost-benefit analysis
Checklist approaches	involves a subjective assessment of the environmental impacts and classifying them into various categories reflecting the severity of the impacts is useful for impacts which cannot be easily quantified using physical units i.e. biodiversity impacts of a project or policy could be classified into the following: very low, low, medium, high, or very high

When assessing environmental impacts of policy/measures, the various policy assessment activities should be considered.

Assessment activity should focus on the relationship between existing policies and interventions and behaviours (compliance, behavioural change) or on background data related to identification and refinement of new initiatives being considered.

Types of government strategies	Assessment activities
(a) Regulatory frameworks:	Assessment activity related to regulation should focus on: Assessment of economic efficiency and costs of regulations Assessment of extent of compliance with regulations in priority environmental sectors Monitoring and assessing changes in behaviour with introduction of new regulations More
(b) Standards:	Assessment activity related to standard should focus on: Measuring compliance Measuring the reasons for compliance/non-compliance More
(c) Tax and subsidy structure:	Assessment activity in this area should focus on determining the distorting effects of the tax and subsidy structure on the environment, taking account of the two important uses of the tax mechanism: To what extent does the tax in question internalize environmental externalities into the pricing structure? To what extent does the tax act as a funding mechanism for environmental rehabilitation? More
(d) Market-based incentives:	Focus of the assessment activities of various Polluter Pays Principle economic tools Licenses, concessions and quotas To what extent does the scheme in question internalize environmental externalities into the pricing structure? To what extent does it improve the efficiency of production to result in conservation of resources? Emissions charges To what extent emission charges encourage compliance or potential compliance? Can the emission fees change behaviour of the firms to reduce their emissions? User fees Comparative experience throughout the nation to facilitate more realistic implementation - determining the effectiveness of user fee systems Refund mechanisam ensuring that the activity is economic the impact and the relationship between refund amount and impact Product levies The impact of product levies and the relationship between taxes levied and consumption. Environmental quality promotion the effectiveness of promotion and awareness activities The informal sector ensuring measures targeted to the informal sector are not causing undue hardship Industrial promotion What types of industries are being attracted in terms of their environmental impacts? How is environmental equipment (supportive of cleaner industrial processes; or "end of pipe" technologies) treated under the policy currently in force? and How do locational incentives associated with the program affect the environment? For example, are new industrial zones being created where carrying capacity or environmental infrastructure is not consistent with the scale of industry being attracted. Are locational incentives spreading industry to such an extent that energy consumption is being inordinately increased?

D. Methods of assessing the effectiveness of policies/measures

Determining the impacts of economic policy measures on the preservation, degradation of the environment (qualitative, quantitative and checklist approaches)