The
Winnipeg-based Centre for Public Policy released a report last
month on the often unintended consequences of environmental
policies.

The study, Envionmental Policy and Unintended
Consequences, from Ben Eisen and Kenneth Green,  examines
a series of case studies drawn from around the world. Those case
studies demonstrate how the law of unintended consequences has
often frustrated policymakers in the area of environmental
policy.

“However beautiful the strategy, you
should occasionally look at the results.” Winston
Churchill

Specifically, these case studies demonstrate how well-meaning
efforts by governments to protect the environment have, on
occasion, backfired, resulting in severe harm to human beings and,
in some instances, to the natural environment regulators sought to
protect.

Examples of unintended consequences include:

An environmental disaster on
Macquarie Island

How the Australian government’s effort to protect local
vegetation by destroying the rabbit population on an island near
Antarctica backfired and brought the island to the brink of an
“ecosystem meltdown” and threatened local bird species with
extinction.

 

The great golf cart boom of 2009

An American subsidy designed to promote the purchase of electric
vehicles for the sake of energy conservation was exploited by
clever golf cart salesmen who recognized that their products fit
under the government’s definition of an electric car. The salesmen
began to give away “free” golf carts to consumers, with the entire
bill being passed along to the government.

 

Biofuel subsidies

The subsidization of biofuels such as ethanol have led to
the destruction of rainforests, increased greenhouse gas emissions,
a wasteful use of freshwater resources, and increases in the price
of food that hurt the world’s poor. Fuel economy standards,
highway fatalities, and increased driving. This case study looks at
how fuel economy standards for cars increased driving and helped
create the SUV boom.

How energy-efficiency
appliance subsidies create GHG emissions Rebates and
subsidies that encourage the purchase of new, energy-efficient
refrigerators often lead to increased energy consumption, as many
consumers keep the older machine as a “beer fridge” and run two
refrigerators in their homes rather than one.

The ban on DDT and the
resurgence of malaria

A ban on DDT has had tragic unintended consequences in
poor countries, leading to the resurgence of malaria and thousands
of unnecessary deaths.

Perverse incentives and the
Endangered Species Act

The presence of endangered animals on one’s property can greatly
restrict an individual’s freedom to use that property for
commercial purposes. Some landowners go to great lengths to prevent
the animals from coming onto the property in the first
place-including destroying any habitat that may be suitable for
them.

How forest fire prevention
policies backfired

Aggressive fire management policies in the United States led to the
rapid buildup of “forest fuel,” causing bigger and more destructive
forest fires.

Fuel economy standards,
highway fatalities and increased driving

How fuel economy standards increased driving, created the
SUV boom and killed thousands on our highways.

“Sometimes, these consequences have been a distortion of
economic incentives leading to lost economic production or wasted
government resources. In other cases, the consequences were much
more severe, leading to illness and death for thousands of human
beings,” write the study’s authors.

 

“Policymakers need to incorporate the  law of unintended
consequences in the development of environmental policy; that law
demonstrate the need for humility and caution on the part of
policymakers when they consider interventions in enormously complex
social, economic and ecological systems for the sake of
environmental protection.”

 

The policy series, Environmental Policy and Unintended
Consequences-Eight Case Studies from Around the World, can be found
target=”_blank”>HERE.