Abstract
Policy instruments are used to cause societal change and achieve specific policy goals. Within eco-awareness policy context, they serve as tools to effectively address eco-education matters. While ample policy taxonomies exist for environmental concerns as air pollution or eco-education, no comprehensive eco-awareness-related taxonomy exist for Kazakhstan’s context. Therefore, in line with this research gap, this paper attempts to construct the first eco-awareness-based policy taxonomy. For that, 20 eco-awareness-based academic papers are analyzed, and 30 Kazakhstani eco-experts invited to assess thoroughly each policy instrument’s compatibility as an eco-awareness-raising tool. Finally, each PI is then assessed according to nine assessment indicators ranging from legitimacy and transparency to equity and effectiveness. According to the expert’s analysis results, public awareness campaign and direct state provision policy types topped the list among all nine indicators. Here, nationwide public cleaning quests and training of eco-experts and eco-journalists were considered as the most effective, well-enforced, and socio-politically legitimate. The results obtained are extremely valuable for local environmental policy makers, who could further refine and extend the taxonomy. Keywords: policy instruments; policy taxonomy; assessment indicators; eco-awareness policies.