Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Informational regulation is then defined as rules and institutions requir-
ing mandatory disclosure of information on environmental practices or
performance of regulated entities to third parties. With informational
regulation, standard conventional regulatory practices of states, such
as standard setting, licensing and enforcement, are complemented or
partly replaced by new informational dynamics in which other non-
state actors play a significant role: 'regulation by revelation' (Florini,
2003 ).
In the conventional regulatory system, the state relies on state-
run, expert-led and natural science-based monitoring systems to see
whether, where and when state regulation and enforcement needs to
be intensified and policies have to be adapted. Under conditions of
informational regulation new monitoring systems and mechanisms
and new enforcement dynamics start to appear, and not only in the
advanced industrialised settings. 6 Information disclosure to the public
is then seen as a more effective enforcement mechanism than classical
enforcement via the state. For instance, complaint systems (via letters,
telephone lines and/or the Internet) and surveys are actively stimulated
and organised by state authorities to set priorities in policy making,
but also - when publicised widely - to assist conventional enforcement
activities. According to Graham ( 2002 : 10-11), mandatory disclosure
strategies differ in three ways from conventional governmental envi-
ronmental policies. First, these strategies influence environmental risk
levels not through legislative or regulatory processes by the state but
through nonstate public pressure. Second, the 'regulators' are not gov-
ernments but the countless actions of numerous nonstate actors that
are empowered by knowledge and information to change purchasing,
investments, voting, collective actions and so on. Third, these systems
extend beyond the reach of the government and beyond the national
boundaries.
With the new information technologies this public disclosure, right-
to-know and informational regulation has recently taken a major
step forward. Especially since the 1998 UN/ECE Århus Convention, 7
6
See O'Rourke ( 2004 ), Phung Thuy Phuong and Mol ( 2004 ), Dasgupta and
Wheeler ( 1996 ) and Brettell ( 2004 ) for examples of complaint systems and
community-driven regulation in Vietnam and China, two still strongly
state-dominated systems. See also Chapter 10 .
Under the UN ECE Å rhus Convention, a protocol has been negotiated in Kiev
in 2003 on “Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers.” In 2004, thirty-seven
7
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