Environmental Policy and Environment-oriented Technology Policy in Denmark

Abstract

In Denmark the executive power of the government has been administered under a ministerial system since the first constitutional act of 1849. Today, the Danish government encompasses 18 ministries. The two most central ministries with respect to environmental policy (EP) and technology policy (TP) are the Ministry of Environment, established in 1971, and the Ministry of Trade and Industry, which has existed since 1908. A general industry policy to promote certain structural and technological inventions and innovations has existed in Denmark to various degrees since the beginning of the twentieth century. Several R&D, information, and standardisation institutions were established during the last century along with a number of taxation, subsidy, and service schemes (Christiansen, 1988). However an explicit policy area concerning TP did not come into being until the beginning of the 1970s, and an environment-oriented TP was first launched in 1985–1986. In terms of an EP, some health orders and regulations over nuisance and discharges into urban watercourses date back to the middle of the nineteenth century, the first law on nature preservation was passed in 1917, and the first act concerning urban planning and development was passed in 1925. However, a genuine policy on environmental protection started as late as 1972 with the first Environmental Protection Act, and the establishment of the Ministry of Environment that covered all fields of EP. Since then, a comprehensive set of regulatory, monitoring, research, and subsidising institutions have been developed within the ministry. A consensus-oriented policy style ensured an economic-technological concern in environmental regulation from the start, as Danish industry and trade organisations were consulted on standards and the enactment of new initiatives. Nevertheless, it could be argued as to when a deliberate technology orientation for EP started. Besides an investment scheme for purification treatment utilities in 1975, it was only in 1985–86 that a number of R&D and innovation programmes on clean technology were started. Accordingly, we will, in what follows, focus on EP and TP and their respective crossover since the mid 1980s.¹