Environmental state and information politics - Environmental Reform in the Information Age - page 161

as part of environmental reform? In the debates on e-governance and
mandatory disclosure programs, three sets of criteria seem to circulate
in defining successful informational regulation or governance: environ-
mental effectiveness, democracy and economic efficiency. On none of
the three criteria are easy answers possible. Although in general the
TRI disclosure programs are credited with environmental effective-
ness (see earlier), Grant and Jones ( 2004 ) are more sceptical regarding
that of the right-to-know programs and laws of states in the United
States, claiming that these had no significant net effects on plant toxic
emissions. In their evaluation of twelve new voluntary, collaborative
and information-based approaches in environmental policy - a slightly
different category from what I have focused on in this topic - Norberg-
Bohm and de Bruijn ( 2005 ) conclude that the environmental effective-
ness of these experiences is at best ambivalent. The debates around
new digital divides and informational overflow in e-governance show
similar ambivalences on the democratic dimensions of informational
governance, whereas the direct costs - at least for regulatory agencies -
may be lower. These ambivalences are expressed in calls for a better
evaluation of the costs and benefits - not only in monetary terms -
of various modules and forms of environmental disclosure arrange-
ments (cf. Beierle, 2004 ). Others, however, remain convinced of their
positive overall contribution, but stress the need for a better under-
standing of how these informational regulation programs work (e.g.,
Stephan, 2002 ). This discussion is not unlike the debate on environ-
mental effectiveness of conventional environmental policy instruments
and approaches during the past three decades, which have led to equally
diverging conclusions and doubts.
The next two chapters will further elaborate on the continuities and
discontinuities that come along with informational governance, with a
stronger focus on private market parties and civil society, respectively.