Title: Ex-post estimates of costs to business of EU environmental legislation 
Resource Type: document --> technical publication --> report 
Country: EU Projects 
Year: 2006 
Availability: This report was commissioned by: European Commission, DG Environment, Unit G.1 Sustainable Development & Economic Analysis, under a framework contract No ENV.G.1/FRA/2004/0081. 
Author 1/Producer: Frans Oosterhuis (IVM) 
Other Authors/Producers: Véronique Monier and Cécile des Abbayes (BIO) Benjamin Görlach (Ecologic) Andrew Jarvis and James Medhurst (GHK) Onno Kuik (IVM) Robin Vanner and Paul Ekins (PSI) Jochem Jantzen and Henk van der Woerd (TME) Peter Vercaemst, D. Huybrechts and E. Meynaerts (VITO) Reviewed by Reyer Gerlagh (IVM) 
Author / Producer Type: EC Project 
Publisher: IVM, Institute for Environmental Studies 
Publisher City: Vrije Universiteit De Boelelaan 1087 1081 HV Amsterdam The Netherlands Tel. ++31-20-5989 555 Fax. ++31-20-5989 553 E-mail: info@ivm.falw.vu.nl 
Report / download web link (=direct link): http:///download/projekte/1750-1799/1750/1750-01_final_repor ...  
EUGRIS Keyword(s): Contaminated land-->policy and regulatory
Contaminated land-->Wider impacts / sustainability-->Economic
 
Short description: A project carried out by a European consortium compared ex-ante and ex-post estimates of environmental regulation costs and offered a number of recommendations to improve their accuracy. The impact of implementing environmental policies is central to the debate on economic competitiveness and environmental sustainability. The project reports conclude that some ex-ante overestimation is inevitable, and that the new EU regulatory flexibility could make accurate predictions even more di fficult. Nevertheless, a number of recommendations are offered which, the authors say, could improve accuracy levels: •Cost estimates should draw on as many sources as possible •As green policies become more flexible, cost estimates should be updated frequently. 'Feedback loops' should be set up to update cost predictions in light of experience •This could eventually lead to 'rules of thumb' for factoring as yet unknown technological innovation, economies of scale and 'learning curve effects' into initial cost estimates •It should be mandatory to analyse actual, as well as predicted, costs of policies so comparisons can be made and lessons learned. 'Before-and-after' comparisons must compare like with like •Sensitivity analyses should be used to identify the parameters most likely to influence costs. A better understanding of business behaviour and likely responses to policy is also urged •Finally, costs must be clearly defined and should always include avoided costs such as lower energy usage. 
Link to News Items(s):   Europe - the costs of EU environmental policies to business
Submitted By: Professor Paul Bardos WhoDoesWhat?      Last update: 31/10/2006

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