ENVIRONMENT AND THE ECONOMY
 

Good environmental policy delivers good economic policy. We must recognise and protect our natural inheritance with a range of measures. Economic policy should be constrained by and integrated with environmental policy so that natural capital is protected and restored. Economic policy can be adjusted to create better incentives for environmental management and to discourage environmentally harmful behaviour. Increases in output can only be sustained if they reduce both the per unit use of natural resources and the total impact on the environment.

Political Parties should commit to:
 

Following economic paths that reduce the total use of resources and the human impact on the environment. Any use of resources or the environment should not diminish the unique qualities of the environment, intrinsic values, or the ability of future generations to provide for their needs. Reaffirm and legally protect collective interests in, and future generations’ rights to, ecological functions and the maintenance and protection of natural capital, such as native forests, air and water quality, and well functioning natural biogeochemical cycles. Actions Shift the emphasis of taxation away from expenditure and jobs and instead onto charges for environmentally damaging activity. Require natural capital impact reporting of all public and medium and large scale private entities. Key actions: a) Amend the Public Finance Act and the Local Government Act to require disclosure in annual reports of public agencies’ environmental impact and use of natural resources; b) Require impacts on the environment to be reflected in national, public sector and private sector accounting and/or reporting; c) Require by the year 2002 that degradation or depletion of natural capital, including environmental debt, be accounted for and publicly reported in National and Public Accounts (including Gross Domestic Product, Gross National Product, and the balance of payments); d) Amend the Companies Act and Financial Reporting Act to require statutory disclosure of environmental impacts by companies in annual reports. 6. Require those who degrade, pollute or deplete to pay for their impact on the environment through the use of a variety of economic instruments. Ensure that: (a) Policy instruments are not used where these could result in concentration of adverse environmental effects or where they compromise public access to natural resources and natural services. (b) Any allocations of rights to resources or to pollute should, in the first instance, be made to the community and not to those already polluting or degrading the environment

For further information contact: ECO.