About the Project

Scientific Objectives

ABSTRACT

Economic policy instruments (EPI) have received widespread attention over the last three decades, and have increasingly been implemented to achieve environmental policy objectives. However, whereas EPI have been successfully applied in some policy domains (such as climate, energy and air quality), their application to tackle water management issues (drought/water scarcity, floods, water quality control) are beset by many practical difficulties. EPI-Water sets to assess the effectiveness and the efficiency of Economic Policy Instruments in achieving water policy goals, and to identify the preconditions under which they complement or perform better than alternative (e.g. regulatory or voluntary) policy instruments. Using a common multi-dimensional assessment framework, the project will compare the performance of single economic instruments or their apposite combinations with the performance otherwise achievable with regulatory (command & control) interventions (such as water restriction/rationing, licensing or permitting), persuasive instruments or voluntary commitments. Furthermore the project will identify remaining research and methodological issues that need to be addressed, in particular with regards to the further development and use of national accounting, for supporting the design, implementation and evaluation of EPI in the field of water management.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

The main aims of the EPI-Water project are:

  • to assess the effectiveness and the efficiency of Economic Policy Instruments in achieving water policy goals; and
  • to identify the preconditions under which they complement or perform better than other (e.g. regulatory) policy instruments.

The specific objectives of the project include:

  • Using a common multi-dimensional assessment framework, compare the performance of single economic instruments or their apposite combinations with the performance otherwise achievable with regulatory (command & control) interventions (such as water restriction/rationing, licensing or permitting), persuasive instruments or voluntary commitments.
    In particular:
    • Analyse the extent to which economic instruments contribute to achieving water policy goals (e.g. good ecological status of water bodies, flood protection, reducing risk & uncertainty in water availability), either directly (via changing use/consumption behaviour) or indirectly (via raising financial resources for implementing water policy protection measures);
    • Analyse the efficiency implications of economic instruments, that is to what extent they contribute to an optimal allocation and use of water resources (or goods and services provided by aquatic ecosystems) also in situation in which not all use- and non-use values are known or fully accounted for.
  • Identify the preconditions for economic instruments (or group of instruments) to be implementable, effective and/or efficient in given socio-economic, hydrological, cultural and institutional conditions of Europe , be it in isolation or in combination with command and control mechanisms.
  • Identify remaining research and methodological issues that need to be addressed, in particular with regards to the further development and use of national accounting, for supporting the design, implementation and evaluation of EPI in the field of water management.

 


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