|
Indonesia�s
Program for Pollution Control, Evaluation, and Rating has shown to be
an effective policy instrument for improving compliance with
environmental regulations by capitalizing on the power of the media
and public opinion. |
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Promoting Public
Disclosure of Environmental Performance Information
What is the
purpose of environmental information disclosure?
Environmental regulation is a relatively recent
phenomenon, beginning in the 1970s in the United States and somewhat
later in Asia. The focus of early environmental regulation was on
compliance with regulations usually focused on end-of-pipe pollution
control within a single media. More recently in the United States and
Asia, there has been a marked shift from these command-and-control
approaches to pollution prevention strategies that encompass multiple
media. Traditional regulation is thus being broadened to include
market-based incentives, such as incentive taxes, emissions trading,
and pollution charges, that rely heavily on environmental information
sharing and voluntary compliance. In order to develop effective
policies, however, information on industrial environmental performance
needs to be accessible to all of the stakeholders who influence
industrial decisions.
What
is US-AEP doing to promote public disclosure of environmental
information?
US-AEP began working with Indonesia�s
Environmental Impact Management Agency (BAPEDAL) in 1997 to expand
BAPEDAL�s Program for Pollution Control, Evaluation, and Rating
(PROPER). PROPER uses an easy-to-understand, five-color coding system
to rate a facility�s wastewater pollution control, then discloses the
ratings to the public. When the program was launched in June 1995,
35.3 percent of the 187 companies involved were in compliance with the
government's water pollution regulations. Two years later, that
percentage had increased to 49.2 percent. With US-AEP assistance,
PROPER is now rating companies for control of air pollution and
hazardous waste. US-AEP is also supporting BAPEDAL's efforts to enlist
the greater engagement of Indonesia's nongovernmental organizations in
the PROPER.
PROPER has shown to be an effective policy
instrument for improving compliance with environmental regulations by
capitalizing on the power of the media and public opinion. Due to the
program's remarkable results, PROPER is now being emulated in the
Philippines, Mexico, and Colombia. In 1998, US-AEP will work with the
Government of Indonesia to share the PROPER experience more braodly
throught Asian.
US-AEP also is facilitating seminars and
workshops for Asians interested in learning more about environmental
information disclosure. In October, for example, US-AEP, through its
Environmental Exchange Program, sponsored a workshop in Washington,
DC, on "Industry Self-Monitoring and Disclosure" for Asian government
officials from Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong, and Bangladesh. The
workshop, covered a comprehensive range of topics designed to share
the U.S. experience in implementing environmental monitoring programs
for air, water, hazardous waste, and toxic substances, as well as the
Toxic Release Inventory. During the week, workshop participants
visited the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Unison Institute,
and the Chemical Manufacturers Association, and discussed experiences
in their own countries with obtaining and using environmental
information. |
