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V. Role and assessment of policy measures

This module discusses the role of various policy measures for integrating environmental considerations into economic decision-making processes. The module is divided into four sections. Section A outlines various policy measures and techniques for accounting for environmental issues in decision making and planning, while Section B discusses the use of some of these measures in combination. Section C presents criteria by which the policies may be evaluated. The concluding session discusses methods for assessing the effectiveness of these environment-related measures.

A. Role of various environment-related measures

• Command and control instruments
• Market Based Instruments including fiscal measures (tax, subsidies etc.)
• Other environment-related policies, including poverty alleviation, family planning programmes and banking procedures

B. The use of measures in combination

C. Criteria for evaluating the policies or measures

D. Methods of assessing the effectiveness of policies/measures

• estimating the behavioural responses of firms and households, including income/price elasticity
• determining the efficiency of measures (cost-benefit analysis)
• determining the impacts of economic policy measures such as fiscal, tax, subsidy policies and trade policies on the preservation, degradation of the environment (qualitative, quantitative and checklist approaches)
• measuring impacts of policies through techniques such as multi-criteria analysis and CGE models, and action impact matrices
• strategic (area) environment assessments and their integration into planning
• sector (product) environment assessments

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