Compliance, Enforcement and Innovation

In the continuing trend of lower taxation regimes in economically advanced states, many regulatory agencies have suffered budgets cuts since the 1980’s. The resultant diminished power and resources of government regulators, has seen others move into the vacated regulatory space. Environmental NGO’s, commercial third parties, and business and industry self-regulators, have become important players in environmental regulation. For example, environmental NGOs, have become stronger and more effective and have sought not only to lobby governments and to pressure industry directly, but also to influence consumers and markets through strategies such as orchestrating consumer boycotts or preferences for green products. And in the realm of commercial third parties the example is the banks and insurance companies who seek to minimise their financial risk by scrutinising more closely the environmental credentials of their clients.