Objective
This research will focus on the use of negotiated agreements as a policy instrument to deal with environmental problems It is the main goal of this proposal to push the analysis on negotiated agreements, as defined above, further in a co-ordinated and multi-disciplinary way. On the one hand through the enhancement of the theoretical framework with regard to negotiated agreements and on the other hand through the evaluation of existing negotiated agreements based on a confrontation between theory and empirical assessments. This, in order to set out policy options that will be extrapolated out of this research. These policy options will take into consideration the Community Framework that is in the process of being elaborated by DG XI. The purpose of these policy options is to add value to the Community Framework and to serve as a guideline for countries in the process of integrating negotiated agreements in their set of environmental policy instruments.
The central question of this research proposal is:
Which specific characteristics of negotiated agreements and which factors within the institutional-economic context wherein a negotiated agreement is used influence the performance of negotiated agreements?
The research design of this proposal consists of three elements, namely a theoretical analysis, an empirical analysis and an elaboration of policy options and a checklist. The purpose of splitting up the research design in a theoretical and empirical stage is to have an intense confrontation between theory and practice in order to test whether the theoretical assumptions are correct and to test the relevancy of these assumptions for the actual practice.
The theoretical analysis will be executed in a multi-disciplinary way building for the most part on existing literature. The basic research methodology for the empirical part will be a comparative case study analysis. At this time, we are considering to make a sample of the negotiated agreements that deal with the environmental problems with regard to the energy production and consumption (agreements on S02-, NOX-and C02- emissions, joint implementation and energy efficiency), with regard to packaging and packaging waste (agreements that set out quantitative and qualitative goals and voluntary recycling schemes) and with regard to the chemical sector (agreements on emissions, hazardous waste and batteries).
However, this is only indicative as the final selection of the negotiated agreements will be done during the first workshop of this project, which will enable us to take new evolutions into consideration.
In the end, the comparative case study analysis should enable us to advance policy options towards the European Union which will take into consideration the Community Framework that is now being elaborated by the special working group.
The purpose of these policy options is both to add value to the Community Framework and to serve as a guideline for countries in the process of using or planning to use negotiated agreements in their environmental policy.
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
9000 GENT
Belgium