- Email: [email protected]
Municipal Waste Management in Europe
Book reviews
their spending power, seems as remote as the prospect of them commissioning a bronze statue of Jacques Chirac. Yet there is one emerging economic superpower that is still in a position to concentrate most of its spending one level below the political unit within which labor and capital are allowed to flow freely: the EU. The largess of its Common Agricultural Policy notwithstanding, the budget of the EC represents <2% of the total GNP of the EU. Granted, many of its Member States are not exactly models of frugality, but neither are their citizens as able as Americans, for practical linguistic reasons (no fewer than 11 mother tongues are spoken within the EU-15), to pick and choose in which country they will live and work. If there is an area for further research that is desperately needed, this is it: comparing spending patterns over time and under different degrees of fiscal subsidiarity and labor mobility in order to test the validity of the Finegan hypothesis. Forced to choose between the two books, this reviewer finds Finegan’s meaty tome the better value. Pye-Smith chose not to footnote his written sources nor even to provide a bibliography or list for further reading, which means that readers who might otherwise be inspired to enquire more deeply into the subject—presumably the objective of enlightenment—may simply give up. And, for those already steeped in the subject, the lack of an index further detracts from the book’s utility. Still, readers interested in subsidies and their environmental consequences would not be wasting money if they choose to add both of these timely volumes to their shelves. Ronald P. Steenblik OECD Trade Directorate, 2 rue Andre´-Pascal, 75775 Paris, Cedex 16, France E-mail address: [email protected]
doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2003.07.001 Municipal Waste Management in Europe N. Buclet (ed.), Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002, ISBN: 1-4020-0543-1, 208 pp Waste management has become a complex task. In Europe, enormous amounts of residues are being
215
produced, which need to be managed in an economical way while respecting the rules of the single European market and while not compromising the environment and public health. In this book, waste management is not reduced to an engineering problem: a multiplicity of factors, including environmental, economic and political, are considered. The authors emphasise this multiplicity of aspects relating to solid waste, analysing the organisation of waste management in terms of regimes (an operational concept embracing all of these aspects relating to solid waste). This is particularly interesting for those dealing with institutional questions. This book contains seven chapters covering the following material. Chapter I is an introduction, laying out a comparison of the national regimes of five European countries: France, Greece, Germany, Italy and The Netherlands. The analysis of national regimes and their interactions is essential to understand the conditions favouring the potential emergence of a European regime. Chapters II and III look at the interactions between the various national regimes, namely those interactions creating friction (and therefore demanding harmonisation) and the interactions for which harmonisation is quite a natural process, involving a progressive spreading of standards and technological and organisational solutions. Chapter IV offers an interesting analysis of a determining aspect of the harmonisation process: the European playing field of the adoption of Directives. Chapters V –VII outline a future vision of European waste policy. Chapter V synthesises the opportunities and constraints on implementing a European waste management strategy. The authors then consider the benefits that can accrue from the positive dynamics between waste management regimes. Summing up, the authors stress two important points: 1) There are numerous observable differences between the various national regimes considered. They represent different compromises and have evolved in such a way as to constitute coherent and balanced frameworks in which national actors operate.
216
Book reviews
2) There are multiple incoherencies between national rules and standards (which differ from one country to another) and the European political objective of a common market and common ground which guarantees a minimum level of environmental quality to all of the inhabitants of EU countries. From the interrelation of these two points, three scenarios are suggested: a) Solutions worked out at a national level are preferable to a European framework for the organisation of waste management. b) The field of waste should not be treated differently from that of commodities, therefore environmental protection could be provided within a general framework that gives priority to free trade principles. c) Prevention is the keyword in municipal solid waste management and for the dematerialisation process of the economy, involving a profound (re)organisation of economic and commercial activities (i.e. the adequate management of substances and material flows through the economic system). The final chapter (Chapter VII) further explores a notable attempt to identify different development options within each institutional trajectory and analyses the consequences of their various articulations. Significantly, scenarios are considered to highlight the capacity to maintain future options without creating divergences between current and potential trajectories Overall, I find the book admirable in both intention and content. The authors have done a great service to the debate on the organisation of municipal waste management in the EU. This book is both stimulating and informative and I recommend it very highly. Eduardo Barata Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de Coimbra and GEMF, (Grupo de Estudos Moneta´rios e Financeiros), Avenida Dias da Silva, 165, 3004 512 Coimbra, Portugal E-mail address: [email protected] doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2003.07.002
Policing international trade in endangered species. The CITES Treaty and Compliance Rosalind Reeve, Earthscan Publications Ltd. London, 2002, ISBN: 1 85383 8802
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is one of the oldest multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and arguably the most powerful. First drawn up in 1973 and entering into force in 1976, the Convention provides a specific tool to control and monitor international trade in plant and animal species. Implementation of CITES is a complex process covering a very wide range of species and products derived from them; with activities taking place at national and international levels; and with many different types of organisations involved in the decision making processes. The level of complexity has perhaps inevitably increased over the 30 years since CITES first came into being. Policing international trade in endangered species by Rosalind Reeve sets out to provide a comprehensive analysis of the system that has evolved to implement and enforce CITES, and to achieve compliance with its provisions. Compliance is generally understood in international law to be behavior that conforms with the specific rules set out by the MEA. In the case of CITES, compliance hinges on provisions relating to species listed in three Appendices, which contain in total over 30,000 species. Appendix I includes ‘species threatened with extinction which are or may be affected by trade’. International trade for ‘primarily commercial purposes’ in such species—including rhinos, tigers, marine turtles and a few rare and prized orchids—is, in effect, banned by the Convention. Appendix II includes the majority of listed species including, for example, the entire orchid family, except for the few species in Appendix I, all species of sturgeon and crocodiles. For these species, trade is only allowed with an export license issued by the range state following a determination that the export is nondetrimental to the survival of the species and the trade complies with national law. Appendix III species are listed unilaterally by individual countries that require international cooperation to control the trade. Rosalind Reeve clearly explains the full CITES compliance system setting out the primary rules of the
their spending power, seems as remote as the prospect of them commissioning a bronze statue of Jacques Chirac. Yet there is one emerging economic superpower that is still in a position to concentrate most of its spending one level below the political unit within which labor and capital are allowed to flow freely: the EU. The largess of its Common Agricultural Policy notwithstanding, the budget of the EC represents <2% of the total GNP of the EU. Granted, many of its Member States are not exactly models of frugality, but neither are their citizens as able as Americans, for practical linguistic reasons (no fewer than 11 mother tongues are spoken within the EU-15), to pick and choose in which country they will live and work. If there is an area for further research that is desperately needed, this is it: comparing spending patterns over time and under different degrees of fiscal subsidiarity and labor mobility in order to test the validity of the Finegan hypothesis. Forced to choose between the two books, this reviewer finds Finegan’s meaty tome the better value. Pye-Smith chose not to footnote his written sources nor even to provide a bibliography or list for further reading, which means that readers who might otherwise be inspired to enquire more deeply into the subject—presumably the objective of enlightenment—may simply give up. And, for those already steeped in the subject, the lack of an index further detracts from the book’s utility. Still, readers interested in subsidies and their environmental consequences would not be wasting money if they choose to add both of these timely volumes to their shelves. Ronald P. Steenblik OECD Trade Directorate, 2 rue Andre´-Pascal, 75775 Paris, Cedex 16, France E-mail address: [email protected]
doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2003.07.001 Municipal Waste Management in Europe N. Buclet (ed.), Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002, ISBN: 1-4020-0543-1, 208 pp Waste management has become a complex task. In Europe, enormous amounts of residues are being
215
produced, which need to be managed in an economical way while respecting the rules of the single European market and while not compromising the environment and public health. In this book, waste management is not reduced to an engineering problem: a multiplicity of factors, including environmental, economic and political, are considered. The authors emphasise this multiplicity of aspects relating to solid waste, analysing the organisation of waste management in terms of regimes (an operational concept embracing all of these aspects relating to solid waste). This is particularly interesting for those dealing with institutional questions. This book contains seven chapters covering the following material. Chapter I is an introduction, laying out a comparison of the national regimes of five European countries: France, Greece, Germany, Italy and The Netherlands. The analysis of national regimes and their interactions is essential to understand the conditions favouring the potential emergence of a European regime. Chapters II and III look at the interactions between the various national regimes, namely those interactions creating friction (and therefore demanding harmonisation) and the interactions for which harmonisation is quite a natural process, involving a progressive spreading of standards and technological and organisational solutions. Chapter IV offers an interesting analysis of a determining aspect of the harmonisation process: the European playing field of the adoption of Directives. Chapters V –VII outline a future vision of European waste policy. Chapter V synthesises the opportunities and constraints on implementing a European waste management strategy. The authors then consider the benefits that can accrue from the positive dynamics between waste management regimes. Summing up, the authors stress two important points: 1) There are numerous observable differences between the various national regimes considered. They represent different compromises and have evolved in such a way as to constitute coherent and balanced frameworks in which national actors operate.
216
Book reviews
2) There are multiple incoherencies between national rules and standards (which differ from one country to another) and the European political objective of a common market and common ground which guarantees a minimum level of environmental quality to all of the inhabitants of EU countries. From the interrelation of these two points, three scenarios are suggested: a) Solutions worked out at a national level are preferable to a European framework for the organisation of waste management. b) The field of waste should not be treated differently from that of commodities, therefore environmental protection could be provided within a general framework that gives priority to free trade principles. c) Prevention is the keyword in municipal solid waste management and for the dematerialisation process of the economy, involving a profound (re)organisation of economic and commercial activities (i.e. the adequate management of substances and material flows through the economic system). The final chapter (Chapter VII) further explores a notable attempt to identify different development options within each institutional trajectory and analyses the consequences of their various articulations. Significantly, scenarios are considered to highlight the capacity to maintain future options without creating divergences between current and potential trajectories Overall, I find the book admirable in both intention and content. The authors have done a great service to the debate on the organisation of municipal waste management in the EU. This book is both stimulating and informative and I recommend it very highly. Eduardo Barata Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de Coimbra and GEMF, (Grupo de Estudos Moneta´rios e Financeiros), Avenida Dias da Silva, 165, 3004 512 Coimbra, Portugal E-mail address: [email protected] doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2003.07.002
Policing international trade in endangered species. The CITES Treaty and Compliance Rosalind Reeve, Earthscan Publications Ltd. London, 2002, ISBN: 1 85383 8802
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is one of the oldest multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and arguably the most powerful. First drawn up in 1973 and entering into force in 1976, the Convention provides a specific tool to control and monitor international trade in plant and animal species. Implementation of CITES is a complex process covering a very wide range of species and products derived from them; with activities taking place at national and international levels; and with many different types of organisations involved in the decision making processes. The level of complexity has perhaps inevitably increased over the 30 years since CITES first came into being. Policing international trade in endangered species by Rosalind Reeve sets out to provide a comprehensive analysis of the system that has evolved to implement and enforce CITES, and to achieve compliance with its provisions. Compliance is generally understood in international law to be behavior that conforms with the specific rules set out by the MEA. In the case of CITES, compliance hinges on provisions relating to species listed in three Appendices, which contain in total over 30,000 species. Appendix I includes ‘species threatened with extinction which are or may be affected by trade’. International trade for ‘primarily commercial purposes’ in such species—including rhinos, tigers, marine turtles and a few rare and prized orchids—is, in effect, banned by the Convention. Appendix II includes the majority of listed species including, for example, the entire orchid family, except for the few species in Appendix I, all species of sturgeon and crocodiles. For these species, trade is only allowed with an export license issued by the range state following a determination that the export is nondetrimental to the survival of the species and the trade complies with national law. Appendix III species are listed unilaterally by individual countries that require international cooperation to control the trade. Rosalind Reeve clearly explains the full CITES compliance system setting out the primary rules of the