Enforcing environmental laws is a central part of EPA's Strategic Plan to protect human health and the environment. EPA works to ensure compliance with environmental requirements. When warranted, EPA will take civil or criminal enforcement action against violators of environmental laws....

AgSTAR promotes the use of biogas recovery systems to reduce methane emissions from livestock waste. Biogas recovery also helps achieve other social, environmental, agricultural and economic benefits. AgSTAR assists those who enable, purchase or implement anaerobic digesters by identifying project benefits, risks, options and opportunities. AgSTAR provides information and organizes events to creat...

Voluntary environmental programs (VEPs) are institutions for inducing firms to produce environmental goods beyond legal requirements. A comparative perspective on VEPs shows how incentives to sponsor and participate in VEPs vary across countries in ways that reveal their potential and limitations. Our brief survey examines conditions under which VEPs emerge, attract participants, and improve parti...

The energy performance behind every ENERGY STAR label is independently verified, whether on a product, a home, a building, or a manufacturing plant. By safeguarding the integrity of ENERGY STAR, EPA can support the thriving private market that has been built around its performance-based definitions of leadership in energy efficiency. Learn more about how EPA works to ensure that consumers and busi...

The EU ETS is a cornerstone of the EU's policy to combat climate change and its key tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions cost-effectively. It is the world's first major carbon market and remains the biggest one....

In 2014, Chile passed a large tax reform which notably included the introduction of three new environmental taxes: A carbon tax, a tax for local pollutants and a tax for new vehicles. Chile’s environmental framework has been widely strengthened through the introduction of the new green tax regime, procuring additional, cost-effective instruments for the environmental authorities to fulfil their ob...

The ARP was the first national cap and trade program in the country and it introduced a system of allowance trading that uses market-based incentives to reduce pollution. Reducing emissions using a market-based system provides regulated sources with the flexibility to select the most cost-effective approach to reduce emissions, and has proven to be a highly effective way to achieve emission reduct...

Countries around the world agreed to reduce fossil fuel subsidies. It is one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that they want to reach by 2030. The maps here show two indicators to track this goal. They are part of our SDG-Tracker where you find all of the available measures to track the SDGs. In many countries fossil fuel subsidies are extremely high. The New York Times reports that in ...

A new World Bank report examines how subsidy reform can help safeguard the world’s foundational natural assets—clean air, land, and oceans. These assets are critical for human health and nutrition and underpin much of the global economy. But subsidies for fossil fuels, agriculture, and fisheries are driving the degradation of these assets and harming people, the planet, and economies. This money -...

This report models the climate change mitigation potential of fossil fuel subsidy reform across 32 countries. The results show how much greenhouse gas emissions—both in per cent as well as in absolute terms—countries can save by 2030. In addition, the model also calculates the subsidy savings countries can gain from fossil fuel subsidy reform. Countries can further increase their emission reductio...