Achieving Environmental Objectives in a Cost-efficient Way

In the wake of the Earth Summit of 1992, OECD countries renewed their efforts to preserve the environment, adopting ambitious objectives and introducing new policy instruments. This chapter reviews performance and objectives in five key environmental areas: climate change, air pollution, water pollution, waste management and natural resource management, and provides data on the costs of environmental policies. On the basis of thirty country reviews, the chapter then examines the extent to which the various instruments used for environment protection (such as voluntary agreements, regulation, environmental taxes and...