The dutch national environmental policy plan: To choose or to lose

Abstract

This article focuses on the Dutch National Environmental Policy Plan (NEPP) which was introduced in 1989. The NEPP is important because it aims to apply the Brundtland Report's concept of sustainable development to the Netherlands ‐ a small and heavily polluted country. The article starts by analysing briefly the domestic political context from which the NEPP emerged; and sketching in the Dutch approach to environmental policy during the 1970s and 1980s. It then outlines the scope of the NEPP and the range of matters it covers. Next it concentrates on the policy‐making process that produced the plan, including, for example, the influence of vested interests in reducing the impact of the NEPP. Finally the discussion is widened to look at Dutch environmental policy and government relations with industry in the context of dominant economic paradigms.