Fourteen of Sweden’s sixteen environmental objectives are judged to be impossible to achieve by 2020 on the basis of policy instruments already decided on and measures planned.
With this call for proposals, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Swedish EPA) and the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SwAM) wish to support research that will enhance understanding of how policy instruments work and can be designed to work in practical efforts to safeguard the environment, and how they should be evaluated.
Challenges for environmental action
To achieve Sweden’s environmental objectives, there need to be properly functioning policy instruments that will effectively bring about measures contributing to that end. The 2012 in-depth evaluation of the environmental quality objectives (1) identifies both a lack of policy instruments and shortcomings in the instruments that are in place. The reasons for this differ from one objective to another, as does the gap to meeting the objectives. The specific shortcomings in the effectiveness and implementation of policy instruments also vary greatly between instruments and between environmental quality objectives. There is a great need for a better understanding of the links between policy instruments and goal achievement.
The most recent in-depth evaluation of the environmental objectives, from 2012, highlights Sweden’s Environmental Code as the most important administrative instrument, in that it forms the basis for the country’s environmental policy. The key instruments which the Code provides are the systems of permitting and supervision, and yet knowledge about how these instruments work in practical action to protect the environment is limited. Environmental supervision has recently been the subject of research, but there are few evaluations or empirical studies of how the Environmental Code in general, and the permitting system in particular, has worked in Sweden. A greater understanding of these issues is urgently needed, in order to identify measures that will remedy shortcomings in the implementation of policy instruments in this area.
The Swedish Government has a vision of a country with no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. To this end, the Swedish EPA, in consultation with other government agencies, has prepared a background analysis for a “roadmap” for Sweden,(2)containing proposals for policy instruments and for further efforts to develop such instruments. In various respects, a more in-depth analysis of policy instruments is needed. Among other things, instruments and measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions need to be analysed not only with regard to their impacts on those particular emissions. How can climate measures help to achieve other environmental quality objectives and to promote sustainable development? In an analysis of “climate policy instruments”, greater account needs to be taken of interactions (synergies and conflicts) with other policy objectives.
Priorities
Through this call, we – the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management – wish to create conditions for research projects that will contribute to an enhanced understanding of the reasons for possible inefficiencies and gaps to goal achievement within the system of environmental objectives. We are looking to support projects that will help provide a more nuanced picture of why, and how, policy instruments work or do not work in the context of practical environmental action. We want to know more about the incentive systems that will encourage actions and behaviours which result in policy instruments being used and having an impact. The hope is that the research funded will offer an example of good policy instrument analysis and demonstrate methods of evaluating instruments, as well as shedding light on how new policy instruments and combinations of instruments can be designed. We invite applications for projects addressing one or more of the questions below, in relation to one or more relevant environmental objectives:
- What factors and circumstances determine what are regarded as successful instruments of Swedish environmental policy? What yardsticks do we have to measure this?
- Analysis of selected existing policy instruments/packages of instruments: how they operate, and their effectiveness, potential and limitations in relation to goal achievement and to the context and the level of society where they operate. What obstacles might there be to additional instruments?
- The significance of social norms for successful implementation of policy instruments
- .How do we identify the best combinations of instruments at the local, regional, national, EU and global levels?
- The significance of goal conflicts and synergy effects for the implementation and effectiveness of different policy instruments. How can goal conflicts be handled and synergies be exploited in the design of new instruments?
We welcome both subject-specific and interdisciplinary studies, and especially wish to encourage researchers from different social science disciplines to undertake joint analyses. We are also keen to see cross-boundary approaches to the questions of interest, with researchers working on projects together with the wider community, and would in particular encourage researchers to involve officials at our own and other government agencies, in order to draw on our knowledge and experience.
Researchers awarded funding are expected to participate in the Swedish EPA’s annual conference and to set aside resources for interaction with public agencies and other stakeholders.
Preliminary timetable
27 June 2013 – Closing date for applicationsOctober 2013 – Decision on funding October 2013 (prelim.) – Research projects start
Contact
Tove Hammarberg, Swedish EPA
Phone: +46 10 698 1332
Email: Tove.Hammarberg@naturvardsverket.se
Read more:
(1) Naturvårdsverket (2012). Steg på vägen - Fördjupad utvärdering av miljömålen 2012, Naturvårdsverkets rapport 6500. http://www.naturvardsverket.se/Om-Naturvardsverket/Publikationer/ISBN/6500/978-91-620-6500-3/
(2) Naturvårdsverket (2012). Underlag till en färdplan för ett Sverige utan klimatutsläpp 2050, Naturvårdsverkets rapport 6537. http://www.naturvardsverket.se/Om-Naturvardsverket/Publikationer/ISBN/6500/978-91-620-6537-9/