Making inventory of economic instruments for sustainable development

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.

The Environmental Programme for Europe recommends the promotion the wider use of market-based instruments and the phasing out of market disturbing subsidies with negative environmental implications so as to complement administrative regulations and any voluntary arrangements, where appropriate, and to provide an incentive for industry and consumers to behave in an environmentally sound way and take into account environmental costs, and for industry, in addition, to meet or exceed existing standards, in a cost-effective manner, and to accelerate technical progress.