Är LOVA ett effektivt styrmedel? En utvärdering av styrmedlet LOVA och dess arbete i Skåne län 2009-2014

Sammanfattning: Eutrophication is one of EUs most severe environmental problems. It is therefore of great importance that governments have well functioning environmental policy instruments to manage this problem and it is essential to assess these instruments. This study evaluates the Swedish environmental policy instrument Local Water Protection Project (LOVA), which aims to reduce the release of the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus to the Baltic Sea. The aim of this study is to evaluate LOVA and suggest improvements for the future design of the instrument. By combining the framework from Harmelink et al. (2008) with the criteria presented in Mickwitz (2003) framework for evaluating environmental policy instruments, an analytical framework has been created to evaluate LOVA. To answer if LOVA fulfill the different steps and criteria, an interview study has been made that involves different stakeholders. In order to evaluate all criteria and steps, scientific articles about environmental policy instruments together with official reports from the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management and the Swedish Environmental Agency has been analyzed. The results show that LOVA is a well functioning and effective instrument in general but improvements can be made, in particular when it comes to equity and flexibility. There can also be improvements in presenting the effectiveness of the instrument since many actors today base their calculations on different models which have caused uncertain results. Therefore a standard setting of calculation models must be created for different types of projects so the instruments effectiveness can be presented in a more certain way. The equity problem is mostly caused by the counter funding since it´s easier for bigger municipalities to cover the cost. The equity problem can although be alleviated since the money end up where greatest environmental benefits are made. The flexibility problem is mostly caused by political uncertainty. According to this it’s recommended to secure the instrument over longer periods of time.