Environmental Federalism in the European Union and the United States

42 Pages Posted: 24 Mar 2010 Last revised: 5 May 2010

See all articles by David J. Vogel

David J. Vogel

University of California, Berkeley - Haas School of Business; University of California, Berkeley - Business & Public Policy Group

Michael W. Toffel

Harvard Business School

Diahanna Post

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Nazli Uludere

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Date Written: March 17, 2010

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 become recently become more important in the EU than in the US.

Suggested Citation

Vogel, David J. and Toffel, Michael W. and Post, Diahanna and Uludere, Nazli, Environmental Federalism in the European Union and the United States (March 17, 2010). Harvard Business School Technology & Operations Mgt. Unit Working Paper No. 10-085, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1573698 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1573698

David J. Vogel

University of California, Berkeley - Haas School of Business ( email )

545 Student Services Building, #1900
2220 Piedmont Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94720
United States

University of California, Berkeley - Business & Public Policy Group ( email )

545 Student Services Building
Berkeley, CA 94720
United States
(510) 642-5294 (Phone)

Michael W. Toffel (Contact Author)

Harvard Business School ( email )

Boston, MA 02163
United States
617.384.8043 (Phone)

Diahanna Post

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

Nazli Uludere

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

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