Concepts and their role in the evolution of modern environmental policy, with case studies of eleven influential concepts ranging from "environment" to "sustainable consumption." Concepts are thought categories through which we apprehend the world; they enable, but also constrain, reasoning and debate and serve as building blocks for more elaborate arguments. This book traces the links between conceptual innovation in the environmental sphere and the evolution of environmental policy and discourse. It offers both a broad framework for examining the emergence, evolution, and effects of policy concepts and a detailed analysis of eleven influential environmental concepts. In recent decades, conceptual evolution has been particularly notable in environmental governance, as new problems have emerged and as environmental issues have increasingly intersected with other areas. "Biodiversity," for example, was unheard of until the late 1980s; "negative carbon emissions" only came into being over the last few years. After a review of concepts and their use in environmental argument, chapters chart the trajectories of a range of environmental concepts: environment, sustainable development, biodiversity, environmental assessment, critical loads, adaptive management, green economy, environmental risk, environmental security, environmental justice, and sustainable consumption. The book provides a valuable resource for scholars and policy makers and also offers a novel introduction to the environmental policy field through the evolution of its conceptual categories. Contributors Richard N. L. Andrews, Karin Backstrand, Karen Baehler, Daniel J. Fiorino, Yrjoe Haila, Michael E. Kraft, Oluf Langhelle, Judith A. Layzer, James Meadowcroft, Alexis Schulman, Johannes Stripple, Philip J. Vergragt

Who speaks for the trees, the water, the soil, and the air in American government today? Which agencies confront environmental problems, and how do they set priorities? How are the opposing claims of interest groups evaluated? Why do certain issues capture the public's attention?
In "Making Environmental Policy," Daniel Fiorino combines the hands-on experience of an insider with the analytic rigor of a scholar to provide the fullest, most readable introduction to federal environmental policymaking yet published. A committed environmental advocate, he takes readers from theory to practice, demonstrating how laws and institutions address environmental needs and balance them against other political pressures.
Drawing on the academic literature and his own familiarity with current trends and controversies, Fiorino offers a lucid view of the institutional and analytic aspects of environmental policymaking. A chapter on analytic methods describes policymakers' attempts to apply objective standards to complex environmental decisions. The book also examines how the law, the courts, political tensions, and international environmental agencies have shaped environmental issues. Fiorino grounds his discussion with references to numerous specific cases, including radon, global warming, lead, and hazardous wastes. Timely and necessary, this is an invaluable handbook for students, activists, and anyone wanting to unravel contemporary American environmental politics.

Winner, 2007 Louis Brownlow Award presented by the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) and 2006 Best Book in Environmental Management and Policy, American Society for Public Administration. Environmental regulation in the United States has succeeded, to a certain extent, in solving the problems it was designed to address; air, water, and land, are indisputably cleaner and in better condition than they would be without the environmental controls put in place since 1970. But Daniel Fiorino argues in "The New Environmental Regulation" that--given recent environmental, economic, and social changes--it is time for a new, more effective model of environmental problem solving. Fiorino provides a comprehensive but concise overview of U.S. environmental regulation--its history, its rationale, and its application--and offers recommendations for a more collaborative, flexible, and performance-based alternative. Traditional environmental regulation was based on the increasingly outdated assumption that environmental protection and business are irreversibly at odds. The new environmental regulation Fiorino describes is based on performance rather than on a narrow definition of compliance and uses such policy instruments as market incentives and performance measurement. It takes into consideration differences in the willingness and capabilities of different firms to meet their environmental obligations, and it encourages innovation by allowing regulated industries, especially the better performers, more flexibility in how they achieve environmental goals. Fiorino points to specific programs--including the 33/50 Program, innovative permitting, and the use of covenants as environmentalpolicy instruments in the Netherlands--that have successfully pioneered these new strategies. By bringing together such a wide range of research and real world examples, Fiorino has created an invaluable resource for practitioners and scholars and an engaging text for environmental policy courses.

Who speaks for the trees, the water, the soil and the air in American government today? Which agencies confront environmental problems, and how do they set priorities? How are the opposing claims of interest groups evaluated? Why do certain issues capture the public's attention?;In this text, the author combines the hands-on experience of an insider with the analytic rigour of a scholar, to provide an introduction to federal environmental policymaking. A committed environmental advocate, he takes readers from theory to practice, demonstrating how laws and institutions address environmental needs and balance them against other political pressures.;Drawing on the academic literature and his own familiarity with current trends and controversies, Fiorino offers a view of the institutional and analytic aspects of environmental policy-making. A chapter on analytic methods describes policy-makers' attempts to apply objective standards to complex environmental decisions.;The book also examines how the law, the courts, political tensions and international environmental agencies have shaped environmental issues. Fiorino grounds his discussion with references to numerous specific cases, including radon, global warming, lead and hazardous wastes.