Abstract

Voluntary environmental agreements (VEAs) are agreements among the corporate, government and/or non-profit sectors not required by legislation that aim to improve environmental quality or natural resource utilization. VEAs represent a new environmental policy approach and have experienced recent growth in many countries and regions, such as the USA and the European Union. These agreements are diversified and incorporate various kinds of objectives, incentives and procedures. This paper analyses the main characteristics of VEAs, introduces a definition that identifies the main characteristics of these agreements, examines their evolution, analyses (through a classification scheme) current adoption trends, identifies some important links between VEAs and the environmental regulatory framework and makes suggestions for future research.

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