The findings hopefully will be transferable to other countries who have expressed interest. They are now widely applied in OECD countries and are a key pollution abatement instrument in most transition economies. They have also recently been introduced in developing countries, particularly in Latin America and East Asia. But poorly designed pollution charge programs may not yield measurable economic and environmental benefits. The full potential of market-based instruments can be achieved only in the overall context of sound macroeconomic policies.
Persuasive approaches can help make real progress in such situations.
At the same time, however, environmental regulators must have a battery of tools at their disposal to address the wide range of pollution problems and local circumstances. The skill lies in selecting those tools that can be most effective under the given circumstances. Persuasion can achieve much, and building a social consensus around achieving key environmental objectives provides a good foundation for making even more progress. But there will always be some polluters who resist persuasion and incentives, and for these there must be a credible threat of real punishment.