Public policy related to the environment includes measures intended to protect the natural environment in all its components (including air, water, soil, noise, climate and species). The quality of the environment affects everyone, and economic production and consumption can generate significant environmental degradation if public authorities do not intervene to prevent it. The scope of environmental policy thus extends from regulation and control of polluting activities, to the implementation of fiscal incentives for reducing emissions and encouraging innovation, through the establishment of market-based mechanisms such as carbon emission trading schemes.

IPP focus. Researchers at the IPP are particularly interested in measuring the environmental impact of consumer practices; the efficiency of consumer-oriented information policies such as labelling; the feasibility of a carbon tax and its impact on different groups; as well as the effects of urban sprawl on household energy consumption and emissions.