Over recent decades national environmental policies have converged. This book analyses the international and domestic driving forces behind this process.

1. Introduction: theoretical framework and research design Duncan Liefferink, Helge Jörgens and Andrea Lenschow; 2. Is there convergence of national environmental policies? An analysis of policy outputs in 24 OECD countries Katharina Holzinger, Christoph Knill and Thomas Sommerer; 3. Regulation of industrial discharges into surface water Stephan Heichel, Jessica Pape and Jale Tosun; 4. Taming the 'tiger in the tank': explaining the convergence of limit values for lead in petrol Per-Olof Busch; 5. Cross-national convergence of traffic noise policies Dieter Pesendorfer; 6. National policies for cleaning up contaminated sites Sietske Veenman; 7. Converging ideas about risk regulation? The precautionary principle in national legal systems Dieter Pesendorfer; 8. From the outside in: explaining convergence in the legal recognition of the sustainability principle Per-Olof Busch and Helge Jörgens; 9. Complex causation in cross-national environmental policy convergence Andrea Lenschow, Duncan Liefferink and Helge Jörgens.