Economic instruments are considered key to effectively implement environmental policy because they enable actors to choose between different alternative behaviours and encourage innovation. In this context, the project ÖkonRess aims to develop feasible instruments that foster efficient resource use. The different instruments shall be integrated in a policy mix that efficiently combines the instruments, minimizes trade-offs and maximizes synergies.

Both relevant European policies - in particular the Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe [pdf, 180 kB, English] - and national policies mainly the German Resource Efficiency Programme ProgRess [pdf, 2.5 MB, English] call for the development of economic instruments. With a special focus on ores, industrial minerals and construction minerals, as addressed by ProgRess, the project assesses a wide spectrum of economic instruments applied in environmental policy as to whether they are appropriate or would need to be revised in order to successfully tackle inefficient resource use. For this purpose, at first relevant fields of action will be identified and existing national and international experience with economic instruments be analyzed. This then constitutes the basis for developing feasible instruments and assessing their ecological and socio-economic effects by means of evironmental-economic modelling.

In the context of the project, Ecologic Institute

• leads the analysis of national and international experiences by means of literature review, content analysis and expert interviews
• is responsible for developing two feasible economic instruments.