Sustainable Policy Perceptions in the Atlantic Basin Green Policy Index

Scientic Paper, nº. 18

The Green Policy Index works with the premise that policymakers would benefit from a clearer outline of the perception of those working in the sustainability field. It aims to examine perception of governmental policy-openness, likely timescales for policy implementation and perceived attitudes towards potential environmental harm. By mapping out the views of people who work closely with sustainability issues in Atlantic Basin countries, we consider that it is possible to gauge how favourable - as regards principle - and/or cautious - as regards
implementation – Basin countries are to environmental policy options. Environmental concerns are likely to increase in the future and those who have not had the forethought to invest in sustainability will be faced with ever smaller margins of flexibility. Depending upon how intensively and collectively - or not - sustainability policies are implemented, relations between Atlantic Basin countries will gradually become either conflictual or synergistic. From the GPI we intend to determine the potential roadblocks and points of contention that ought to be considered in the drawing board phase of green policy planning for the Atlantic Basin as a whole. It ought to be noted, however, that although we are working with the hypothesis that the polling of SD experts on sustainable policies will yield useful material, this research should be viewed as a pilot investigation into the desirability of producing the GPI on a more regular basis. In short, we aim to discover whether it is possible to collect and present useful information on green policy by polling SD experts, and, if so, whether   various stakeholders would support the development and/or deployment of an annual survey to capture the full spectrum of green policy perception.