The Influence of Pollutant Emitters on Environmental Legislation

Abstract

In the creation of legislation, the top of the iceberg, what we see, is the finished legislation. But what goes on under the sea level can sometimes be unclear. The area of environmental legislation has captured the attention of many, amongst others, pollutant emitters. This thesis investigates how pollutant emitters argue for changes in environmental legislation at the European level. The investigation is done by looking into the perspectives and arguments of specific industry groups and comparing them to the final decisions by the Commission on three different environmental legislation proposals. The industry groups of interest are business associations representing corporations or industries concerned with climate-forcing assets. The project has focused on three strategies for explaining pollutant emitters’ argumentation: direct influence, discourse, and depoliticizing. Gaining insight into the strategies is done by organizing the data into moral, economic, and scientific perspectives by the associations and the Commission in the proposals for legislation. The research finds that the Commission considers economic and scientific perspectives raised by the associations greater than moral concerns. Additionally, the thesis identifies the importance of ways of arguing, and how they affect the decision-making of the Commission. Positive perspectives receive more attention. While there are some indications for the direct influence and depoliticizing, discourse-based strategies are most prominent as pollutant emitters attempt to justify their behavior and influence the European Commission’s policymaking process.