Incorporation of Sustainable Development Concerns in Regulatory Impact Assessments

Abstract: Regulatory Impact Analyses (RIA) are carried out in order to determine how a project or regulation affects the economy, society and environment. Traditionally, RIAs are carried out through cost benefit assessments and by monetizing different variables in order to assist policymakers with their decision. The main disadvantage of it, is that highly relevant social and environmental factors are difficult to quantify, thus providing weak or "incomplete" support to policy-makers in their final decision and enabling long-term consequences. An option to improving RIAs, is by taking into account such factors with the introduction of Sustainable Development (SD) concerns early in the decision making process. This is a trend that has been gaining more momentum and support, especially in OECD and EU members. The shift towards the inclusion of such concerns at a regulatory and legislative level nonetheless still presents itself to be a challenge and has wide room for improvements. On this research, four different countries and the European Union are analyzed and compared, presenting their current RIA practices and how much they take into account sustainability concerns with the intent on showing where can they be improved and better included.