Māris kļaviņŠ, azamat azizov, JĀnis zaļoksnis environment, pollution, development: the case of uzbekistan

 11.4. 
 Environmental policy
The aim of environ mental policy is to identify and resolve 
environ mental problems, establish a system of environ mental 
legislation and set tasks to ensure environ mental quality. Environ-
mental policy should promote the participation of the public in 
solving environ mental issues and ensure the integration of environ-
mental protection and nature conservation issues in all economic 
sectors.
Environ mental policy provides a framework for the environ-
ment and natural resource use, so that an adequate economic 
structure and social security could be established for the needs 
of society. Environ mental policy has more general and broader 
functions than environ mental management. The latter provides for 
the practical implementation of the former. The purpose of environ-
mental management, in turn, is to ensure that national economy 
utilises the natural resources efficiently, that the necessary goods 
are manufactured and the necessary services – received, and that 
pollution is reduced to the level which is not harmful to human 
health and ecosystems. In a word, environ mental policy can be 
considered as environ mental protection and conservation strategies.
Environ mental policy provides a framework for setting objectives 
and tasks for environ mental protection and for ensuring the improve-
ment of environ mental quality. Environ mental policy consists of se-
veral interrelated stages that form a cycle.
At  an  early  stage  of  policy-making,  usually  an  understanding 
emerges that there is an environ mental problem. Then the problem 
to be solved is defined more exactly through collecting and analysing 
the  known  facts,  data  and  information.  After  that,  the  environ-
mental policy planning documents are being developed – concepts, 

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ENVIRONMENT, POLLUTION, DEVELOPMENT:  THE CASE OF UZBEKISTAN
guidelines, strategies, programmes and plans, subsequently to be 
approved by the parliament or government.
Stage 2
Implementation of the policy
Stage 3
Putting the policy into effect
Definition of a problem
Formulation of a policy
Stage 1
Evaluation of the policy
Monitoring
Stage 4
Medium-term  policy  planning  documents  usually  reflect  the 
current situation, formulate environ 
mental policy objectives, 
challenges and directions for action to attain these objectives. In 
many cases, the overarching objective of environ mental policy is to 
build a framework for the preservation and restoration of environ-
mental quality as well as for sustainable use of natural resources, at 
the same time limiting the impact of adverse environ mental factors 
on human health.
Some of the key problems to be solved are:
 
Š
air quality standards in major cities are frequently exceeded, 
and transport emissions make the largest proportion of air 
pollution;
 
Š
eutrophication of inland waters is increasing, and it is largely 
caused by agricultural activity; this factor, in turn, adversely 
affects water quality in the Baltic Sea;
 
Š
in the situation of economic crisis, the use of recycled 
materials cause a problem; considering the substantial drop in 
prices and demand, the attainment of waste recycling targets 
are also becoming problematic;
 
Š
planning documents for economic sectors do not sufficiently 
reflect various environmental factors – air quality and noise 
in  traffic  planning  documents,  geological  and  flood  risks, 
industrial accident prevention measures;
 
Š
society’s lack of understanding about the dependence of 
long-term availability of natural resources on the forms and 
methods of current economic activities;
 
Š
lack of long-term, systematic scientific studies on the potential 
impacts of climate change on the environment in many of the 
EU  Member  States,  climate  change  risks,  effects  of  climate 
impact mitigation measures on economy, as well as lack of 
economic and social adaptation measures and programmes 
prepared for their implementation;