Still the century of ‘new’ environmental policy instruments? Exploring patterns of innovation and continuity

We re-examine the political interest in and use of ‘new’ environmental policy instruments and other non-regulatory modes of governance. We start by taking stock of the dynamic debate that has emerged around this topic since the turn of the century. We then contextualise that debate by examining subsequent challenges to, and transformations in, state-led governing and the broader and widely acknowledged rise of ‘new governance’, highlighting the mismatch between the animated discussion of new instruments amongst policymakers and academics and the less active adoption and performance of them in practice. We make an overall assessment of the role of instruments – both ‘old’ and ‘new’ – in the wider debate about governance, and suggest some promising steps that could be taken by both practitioners and scholars better to understand and possibly even utilise more new environmental policy instruments in the future.