Dr. Joy E. Hecht

Economic approaches to environmental governance:
Lebanon


Economic Approaches to Environmental Governance in Lebanon

From 2014 to 2017, I worked with the European Union-funded "Support to Reforms / Environmental Governance" (StREG) project in the Lebanese Ministry of Environment. I was the economist on the team, looking at opportunities for Lebanon to introduce economic tools that may strengthen its environmental management.

My work focused in three areas; solid waste management, quarries, and industrial pollution. In each area I began with an assessment of the challenges Lebanon is facing, and the tools used elsewhere in the world to address similar concerns. Many tools that are effective elsewhere will not work in Lebanon, because of difficult broader governance challenges faced by the country. Some, however, do have some potential to be applied in Lebanon; for these, more detailed assessments were carried out to analyze their potential to contribute to environmental management in the country.

Three assessment papers were produced:

"Economic Instruments for Managing Industrial Pollution: Global Experience and Options for Lebanon." February, 2015.

"Economic Instruments for Quarry Management: Global Experience and Options for Lebanon" November 2014.

"Economic Instruments for Solid Waste Management: Global Experience and Options for Lebanon" November 2014.

This led to preparation of two more detailed assessments:

"Economic Instruments to Create Incentives for Recycling in Lebanon." By Naji Chamieh, Mohamad Ghassan Abiad, Fadi Doumani, and Karine Abdelnour-Tohme. March, 2016.

"Using Fiscal Instruments to Control Quarry Proliferation." With Issam Srour and Ali Termos. October, 2016.

The initial analysis of industrial pollution led to preparation of a decree setting out the terms for implementation of Article 20 of Law 444 on the Environment, which authorizes financial incentives for pollution reduction. This decree went into effect in November, 2016 as Decree 167-2016. The full text is available here in Arabic and English.

For further information about this work, please contact me.