Policy integration strategy and the development of the ‘green economy’: foundations and implementation patterns

Abstract

In several countries, the remarkable development of the ‘green economy’ in recent years has gone hand in hand with the implementation of strategies of integration (more or less rapid and thorough) of public policies linked to the environment. This policy integration strategy is generally a necessary condition for the encouragement and viable development of new environmental technologies and competitive green sectors. However, as emerges from the extended review of the theoretical and empirical literature on which this paper is based, the success of this policy integration strategy is based more on the design, timing, coherence (spatial and temporal) and the pragmatism of policies undertaken by the public authorities, than on the scale of the resources committed – even if the latter count.