4. Role of State and Regulatory Instruments

The aim of this chapter is to obtain present information about the environmental legislations and the overall development of standards and norms relevant to the transport industry in Germany, India, China, and Brazil. It is evident that Germany, as part of a bigger commitment by Europe, led the way in setting performance targets, imposing binding emission limits, and helping the industry adjust to all these changes. The other countries followed this path making necessary technical changes to the regulations to suit local needs. The implementation and adoption of new measures were done at different times in these countries. Even though India has had a structured vehicular pollution control plan since early 1990s, it was very slow in keeping pace with the changing environment and industrial development. China, on the other hand, joined the regulatory bandwagon very late but it took the right decisions within the last decade to catch up with others. The Brazilian case was slightly different from its counterparts. Brazil, like India, started early and, like China, decided to push its reform agenda in the right direction in the 1990s and early 2000s. However, Brazil failed to keep the momentum going because of which it now lags behind other countries in adopting stricter regulations.