Environmental negotiated agreements in the Netherlands

Abstract

Governance for sustainable development requires new approaches to governance that go beyond the government versus market debate. Negotiated agreements and other new policy instruments have become quite popular in environmental governance, although not without debate. Based on the official evaluation of the Dutch system of environmental negotiated agreements, two central questions are answered. What is the degree of success (criteria for effectiveness, efficiency and positive side effects for learning and flexibility) of the use of negotiated environmental agreements in the Netherlands, and to what background factors is the degree of success related? What role is played by follow-up implementation after the agreements are signed and what is the interaction with other instruments? The assessment of the negotiated agreement as an instrument of environmental governance is generally positive.