Guide to 'Social response' section
The public, businesses and government take numerous measures to reduce or prevent environmental pressure and to improve the quality of the environment. This reaction to environmental problems is known as the 'social response'. It includes, for example:
- drafting legislation and regulations, and setting goals and standards;
- implementing and enforcing laws, rules and goals;
- changing the behaviour of people, companies and organisations;
- taking measures, particularly of a technical kind.
Index Social response
- Guide to 'Instruments' section
Policy instruments are intended to encourage the public and companies to change the way they behave and to make it possible to take technical measures. The instruments include laws, goals, subsidies, levies, education and agreements between the government and the corporate sector. In addition to information about the deployment of instruments, this section also contains information about the implementation and enforcement of the environment policy. - Guide to 'Measures' section
Technical measures have a direct effect on production and consumption levels, environmental pressure, environmental quality or the impact of these things on nature or public health. Insulating housing reduces energy consumption. Low-emission animal accommodation reduces emissions of ammonia. Separate waste collection saves resources and energy. And using water carefully prevents desiccation. - Guide to 'Costs and financing environmental management' section
This section describes the financial cost of dealing with environmental problems for the entire economy and for separate sectors or target sectors. The use of specific financial instruments, such as green taxes, levies and subsidies, are dealt with in the section relating to instruments.
Position of social response in the environmental chain
Reasons for tackling environmental problems
Dead trees in forests, the loss of plant and animal species, the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, loss of sleep as a result of noise, a fireworks factory in a residential area: these are all reasons to tackle the deterioration of the environment. The action people take to tackle environmental problems is known as the 'social response'.
Social response affects all links in the chain
Measures for tackling or preventing environmental problems can target any level of the environmental chain. Savings in the use of energy and water or reductions in the amount of waste affect production and consumption (Societal developments section). The development of cleaner cars, low-emission animal accommodation or the use of air filters on chimneys can reduce emissions (Environmental pressure section). Environmental quality can improve as a result of water treatment, cleaning up soil and positioning noise barriers (Environmental quality section). We can tackle one-off effects by, for example, cutting peat, introducing cattle and medical care (Impact section).
