2012
Chapter
A Handbook of Globalisation and Environmental Policy

Environmental Federalism in the European Union and the United States

By: David Vogel, Michael W. Toffel, Diahanna Post and Nazli Z. Uludere Aragon

Format:Print

Abstract

The United States (US) and the European Union (EU) are federal systems in which the responsibility for environmental policy-making is divided or shared between the central government and the (member) states. The attribution of decision-making power has important policy implications. This chapter compares the role of central and local authorities in the US and the EU in formulating environmental regulations in three areas: automotive emissions for health-related (criteria) pollutants, packaging waste, and global climate change. Automotive emissions are relatively centralised in both political systems. In the cases of packaging waste and global climate change, regulatory policy-making is shared in the EU, but is primarily the responsibility of local governments in the US. Thus, in some important areas, regulatory policy-making is more centralised in the EU. The most important role local governments play in the regulatory process is to help diffuse stringent local standards through more centralised regulations, a dynamic which has recently become more important in the EU than in the US.

Keywords

Natural Environment; Policy; Government and Politics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; European Union; United States

Citation

Vogel, David, Michael W. Toffel, Diahanna Post, and Nazli Z. Uludere Aragon. "Environmental Federalism in the European Union and the United States." Chap. 11 in A Handbook of Globalisation and Environmental Policy. 2nd ed. Edited by Frank Wijen, Kees Zoeteman, Jan Pieters, and Paul van Seters, 321–361. Cheltenham, UK, 2012.