Evolutionary strategies in environmental policy

Many of today's environmental problems can be attributed to a difference in the development of ecological and economic systems. Both kinds of systems develop over time, but so far they have followed different organizational principles with respect to the basic factors energy, matter, information, space and time. The types of environmental problems encountered pose particular difficulties because of the different temporal and spatial characteristics of markets and ecosystems. In the long run, cultural evolution, and hence economic development, cannot progress without considering fundamental laws and principles of nature. Equilibrium oriented concepts in environmental economics aiming at the internalization of externalities do not offer adequate solutions to these problems. Policy approaches favouring environmental standards, based on current knowledge and technology, equally are of little help: either the knowledge of complex interactions in natural systems is missing to exactly determine precise standards, or past and continuing processes, often time-delayed, make them obsolete. Chronic and pervasive environmental problems call for an enhancement of environmental policy that encompasses a process orientation while considering ecological principles of system development. Evolutionary strategies increasingly have to adapt economic patterns of development to ecological patterns of development. Environmental policy goals and corresponding instruments can be designed to continuously set signals for long-term structural change. The basic factor, energy, will be used to illustrate evolutionary strategies regarding direct and indirect effects. An analysis of the Scandinavian experience with carbon and energy taxes exemplifies first successful steps at implementation. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.