Manual on the Development of Cleaner Production Policies ... - Unido

DEVELOPMENT OF CP POLICY
MODULE 3: CP POLICY DEVELOPMENT CYCLE
Planning is the stage when consultation with stakeholders is crucial. Goals and schedules should be
both realistic and implementable; before the action plan and programme are finally accepted for
implementation, stakeholders should give their views on their feasibility. It may be necessary to
negotiate realistic targets with industries and plants and then insist that these targets be met.
At this stage, it might be useful to focus on specific sectors, e.g. improving the environmental
performance of particularly polluting enterprises/sectors, once more stressing the financial benefits to
be gained from Cleaner Production. Efforts at this level can bring results quickly, even when the
policy framework is weak. It is advisable to design actions and mechanisms that will bring
stakeholders together and encourage voluntary participation in various actions. This may result in
enhanced general support for CP implementation across different sectors.
It is necessary to recognize the need for reasonable transition arrangements and to allow adequate time
for compliance. Instruments should emphasize opportunities rather than obligations and it is useful to
provide advice as well as enforce permits. At the same time, efforts should be made to strengthen
environmental agencies so they can develop their technical and monitoring capabilities.
Finally, the design of the action plan and programmes should take into account environmental
effectiveness, economic efficiency, ease of administration and the political acceptability of the
proposed measures (for further details, see the section on the evaluation of policy effectiveness later in
this module).
SLIDE: Organize human and financial resources
• Beware of using lack of money as an “idea killer”;
• Put incentives in place;
• Modify existing financial schemes to support CP;
• Check foreign assistance programmes;
• Assign existing personnel or use volunteers.
A lack of resources can stifle any initiative, but lack of resources is also
frequently used, or abused, as a justification for inaction. With this slide, stress
the possibility of using existing financial mechanisms—modified if needed—
to support CP. Implementation should be demand and efficiency driven, so that
some of the costs are covered by beneficiaries.
Background
“We can’t afford it”, or “we have no people to do it with” are two of the most frequently used “idea
killers”. Experience shows, however, that shortage of money or manpower is not the reason why a
company does not implement cheap, low hanging fruit, CP options that cost next to nothing and would
actually bring savings. Even though a lack of money and human resources may indeed be an obstacle
to carrying out specific activities, it should not be used as an excuse for inaction.
CP policy implementation does not have to be expensive and this can easily be confirmed by a costbenefit
analysis. When considering how to finance CP implementation, financial incentives are a
useful starting point. CP implementation should be a demand- and economic efficiency-driven
process. It is vital to get the external incentives for enterprises right and also to ensure that other
policies do not create disincentives; mainstreaming CP is also important in the context of financing.
Decisions on taxes, pollution charges and financing schemes may be more significant than
environmental regulations. Ministries of finance should think of taxes as a way of changing behaviour
and not just generating revenues.
PAGE 72