On the Assesment of Environmental Voluntary Agreements in Europe

Alternative Pollution Control Policies in Developing Countries

“…Studies of developing-country VAs echo key themes of the industrialized-country literature: VAs are unlikely to generate additional environmental benefits absent (i) preexisting formal or informal background pressures for emissions cuts; and (ii) design features that leverage these pressures, including quantified baselines and targets, transparency, monitoring, and some type of penalty for noncompliance (EEA 1997;Lyon and Maxwell 2002;De Clercq and Bracke 2005). Of course, these two requisites are closely related.…”

Voluntary and Negotiated Agreements

“…On the basis of these evaluations, a number of general lessons learned can be distilled. Note, however, that it is the combination of factors that makes a VA/NA a success, not an individual factor (De Clerq and Bracke, 2005). The key success factors supported by evaluations are as follows:…”

“…Various authors have evaluated and compared the design and implementation of environmental VA/ NAs in various OECD countries (e.g. Bressers and de Bruijn, 2005;De Clerq and Bracke, 2005;Price, 2005). On the basis of these evaluations, a number of general lessons learned can be distilled.…”

Voluntary environmental agreements in developing countries: the Colombian experience

“…For example, in a rigorous analysis of six European VAs, De Clercq and Bracke (2005) find that good overall performance is significantly correlated with -readiness to use severe alternative instruments.‖ Third, VAs have more effect when they require clear, specific commitments, including well-defined performance baselines and targets, timetables, monitoring, and enforcement mechanisms (EEA 1997;De Clercq and Bracke 2005;Hanks 2002). 6 4 For reviews, see Morgenstern and Pizer (2007), Croci (2005), OECD (2003), ten Brink (2002), and EEA (1997).…”