Response

Societal responses show the extent to which society responds to environmental concerns. They refer to individual and collective actions and reactions, intended to:

• mitigate, adapt to or prevent human-induced negative effects on the environment;
• halt or reverse environmental damage already inflicted;
• preserve and conserve nature and natural resources.

• Examples of indicators of societal responses are environmental expenditure, environment-related taxes and subsidies, price structures, market shares of environmentally friendly goods and services, pollution abatement rates, waste recycling rates, enforcement and compliance activities. In practice, indicators mostly relate to abatement and control measures; those showing preventive and integrative measures and actions are more difficult to obtain.