O Programa Município VerdeAzul é um exemplo de Programa Ambiental Voluntário criado pelo Governo do Estado de São Paulo com o objetivo de incentivar e apoiar os municípios na melhoria da gestão ambiental local. Os Programas Ambientais Voluntários são mecanismos de política ambiental amplamente utilizados junto ao setor privado para induzir, as empresas a adotarem ações voluntárias que promovam a qualidade ambiental e o uso sustentável dos recursos. Todavia, esses programas podem ser efetivamente direcionados a organizações públicas, especialmente no contexto da descentralização da gestão do meio ambiente no Brasil, que exige a coordenação de centenas ou milhares de órgãos públicos envolvidos em diferentes realidades municipais. O crescente uso dos Programas Ambientais Voluntários tem suscitado variados estudos, no entanto, permanecem dúvidas, principalmente, a respeito das razões pelas quais as instituições participam de programas do tipo, especialmente instituições públicas. Nesse sentido, o objetivo desta pesquisa é examinar os fatores que contribuem para a participação voluntária das Prefeituras do estado de São Paulo no Programa Município VerdeAzul. Para alcançar o objetivo, foram aplicados questionários e realizadas entrevistas com três grupos de municípios do estado. Os resultados encontrados evidenciam que fatores como a quantidade de funcionários, a existência e atividade do Conselho e Fundo Municipal de Meio Ambiente, a compreensão e concordância com os objetivos do programa, a qualidade da comunicação intersetorial na prefeitura, o envolvimento da alta administração, o comprometimento dos funcionários com o programa, o tempo de experiência dos interlocutores e suplentes na função e o tamanho populacional são fatores que influenciam a participação e o desempenho dos municípios no programa. Ademais, os resultados revelaram que os fatores que mais motivam a participação das prefeituras são de cunho ambiental e financeiro e que os serviços mais valorizados estão relacionados a melhorias econômicas e de imagem. Como conclusão e recomendações merecem destaque a necessidade de melhoria da transparência do processo seletivo para repasse de recursos, a diversificação dos benefícios financeiros, a participação dos governos municipais no design do programa e na definição dos critérios de avaliação, o investimento em monitoramento, fiscalização e motivação da alta administração e a flexibilização dos critérios de acordo com as realidades municipais / The \"Município VerdeAzul\" Program is an example of Voluntary Environmental Program created by the State Government of São Paulo in order to encourage and support municipalities in improving local environmental management. The Voluntary Environmental Programs are environmental policy mechanisms widely used to promote environmental outcomes in the private sector. However, these programs can be effectively used in the public sector, especially in the national context of environmental management decentralization, which requires the coordination of hundreds or thousands of public agencies that are entrenched in unique contexts. The increasing use of Voluntary Environmental Programs have motivated the emergence of several studies, however, questions remain, especially about the decisions of public institutions to participate in program like these. In this sense, the objective of this research is to examine the factors that contribute to the voluntary participation of local governments of the state of São Paulo in the \"Município VerdeAzul\" Program. To address the major goal, we surveyed local governments and conducted semi-structured interviews with three different groups of local government. The results show that factors such as number of employees, the existence and activity of the Environmental Local Council and Municipal Fund for the Environment, understanding and compliance with the program objectives, the quality of intersectoral communication at City Hall, the involvement of top management, the level of employee commitment, how long the local representative have been working with the program and population size are factors that influence the participation and performance of the local governments in the program. Moreover, the results revealed that the factors that motivate the participation of municipalities are environmental and financial oriented and that the most valuable services are related to economic and image improvements. The recommendations to improve the efficacy of the program include: to improve the transparency of the selection process for the transfer of funds, diversification of financial benefits, the participation of municipal governments in program design and in the process of definition of the evaluation criteria, investment in monitoring, inspection and motivation of top management and the promotion of the flexibility of criteria in accordance with local realities

This dissertation consists of three empirical analyses examining the interactive and evolving nature of government regulations and how the regulated industries respond to the changes in the regulatory climate. Using the U.S. pulp and paper mills as an example, the three essays bring together a number of strands of literature in environmental economics and policy studies discussing how changes in the U.S. environmental policy are shaped by industry concerns and which strategies firms choose in order to adjust to the changes in policy. Essay 1 examines if, in addition to the standard input factors, indirect costs associated with tax and environmental policies affect papermakers’ ‘stay put’ investment decisions. The findings suggest that state environmental stringency has a negative impact on investments, but it is statistically insignificant and higher taxes do not deter investments. The Essay 2 studies whether voluntary abatement and prevention efforts at pulp and paper mills affects regulatory stringency they face. The analysis tests the hypotheses of ‘responsive regulation’ and whether regulators are driven by numerical pollution targets or budgetary constraints. The findings suggest that voluntary pollution abatement and prevention have greater impact on regulatory stringency than government budgets. Finally, Essay 3 analyzes the relationship between pollution prevention (P2) policy instruments and adoption of P2 modifications. The study tests the hypotheses of whether P2 policy instruments have positive impact on P2 adoptions. The results suggest that the policy instruments have different effects on different types of P2 modifications and that regulatory and political threat is a strong predictor of P2 adoptions.