Smart Regulation and the Revised Batteries Directive: The Future of Voluntary Agreements

Abstract

Summary: This article is more than mere analysis of law and policy in relation to the revised Batteries Directive. It describes the practical, legal and economic underpinning of voluntary agreements, also known as environmental agreements. It seeks to reveal that voluntary agreements provide a useful complementary tool to command and control models and economic instruments. The key elements of a voluntary agreement that could be implemented under the revised Batteries Directive have also been drafted and provided. This voluntary agreement is sufficiently flexible so that it may be applied by stakeholders to many other areas of environmental law whether at the Member State or European Community level. The author argues that in some cases they provide advantages over command and control models by aiming for an 'environmental consensus' that anticipates and plans for strategic interventions to reduce or prevent environmental pollution within a more flexible framework that allows for a confluence of science and industry know-how while reducing regulatory and related cost inefficiency. This first part of the two-part article includes coverage of economic instruments; producer responsibility voluntary agreements schemes; and deposit return systems.