Environmental Policy Integration for Sustainable Technologies: Rationale and Practical Experiences at EU Level

Abstract

This chapter explores the issue of environmental policy integration and its relevance for a governance approach oriented towards the development of sustainable technologies. It begins by asking why the traditional model of sectoral environmental policy has come under increasing attack, especially from an innovation perspective. The chapter aims to make the concept of environmental policy integration more tangible by describing its key elements and how it is thought to contribute to better governance. It focuses on to the practical experiences with environmental policy integration in EU policy-making. Environmental policy integration can generally be taken to describe the inclusion of environmental concerns in processes and decisions of public policy-making which are predominantly charged with issues other than the environment. The experience of the EU shows that environmental policy integration, while signalled in cornerstone EU legislation, such as the Single European Act and the Amsterdam Treaty, and promulgated by a welter of new functions and procedures, has proven difficult in practice.