Tailor-made environmental governance: on the relevance of the covenanting process

The application of Voluntary Agreements (VAs) in environmental policy has changed from a gentlemen's (sic) agreement, via an emphasis on the agreement as a new policy instrument, toward an innovative governance strategy. This strategy reflects a new perception of the manageable society, customized to the present state of the environment and state – market relations in advanced industrial societies. Its main characteristic is the bottom-line of consensual techniques combined with regulatory techniques. Based particularly on Dutch experiences with both environmental covenants and long-term agreements on energy efficiency improvement, this paper sketches the elements of the strategy. It is also shown that the agreement itself is of less importance than the covenanting process. Practical experiences show that a well structured dialogue between public and private parties creates opportunities for an effective joint policy undertaking. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment.