Understanding the Efficacy of Environmental Policy Instruments: the APRAISE 3 E Method (original) (raw)

This paper presents a new concept, the APRAISE 3E method, to assess the performance of environmental policy instruments. The concept aims at an improved understanding of the economic, social and environmental context of a policy, as well as of the design, implementation and evaluation cycle of policy instruments and possible interactions with other policy instruments. As such, the APRAISE 3E method helps to explain possible differences between observed and expected or targeted results. With these insights, policy makers can subsequently make better informed assumptions about the efficacy of an environmental policy instrument. Efficacy, as defined in this paper, refers to policy makers' anticipations prior to the implementation of a policy or policy instrument in terms of expected effects and impacts. The actual outcome may differ from the anticipated outcome of a policy or policy instrument due to a range of possible reasons, such as: lower or higher than expected economic growth, increased or decreased environmental awareness among consumers, stronger or weaker enforcement procedures, or positive or negative interactions with other environmental policy instruments. The paper briefly presents the APRAISE 3E method and will apply it to examples of small hydropower expansion in Austria and Slovenia. Special emphasis is given to contextual factors and policy instruments interactions. The method allows to conclude whether the policy instrument was susceptible to impacts of contextual factors or showed adaptability and flexibility and where adaptions need to be made in order to increase the efficacy and thus the effectiveness and efficiency of environmental policy instruments.

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