In recent years, voluntary approaches to emission reductions have
increasingly been adopted by major companies all over the world and have
increasingly been supported by regulatory bodies and public
administrations. Despite this world-wide effort to achieve a better
environmental performance through voluntary approaches, economic
analysis has somehow neglected the importance of voluntary approaches as
an environmental policy instrument. This book is a first attempt to fill
this gap by gathering together all major experts in the fields and by
providing a detailed analysis of all main aspects characterising the
design and implementation of voluntary approaches in environmental
policy. The book, which is the outcome of cooperation between the École
des Mines of Paris and the Fondazione ENI E. Mattei, within the EU
Concerted Action on Market Based Policy Instruments for Environmental
Protection, contains both theoretical analyses and case studies. The
chapters of this book therefore provide a useful assessment of the main
features and of the potential implementation problems of a new,
important and promising environmental policy instrument.