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Ecologically Sustainable Development
Since 1992 a comprehensive range of strategies and policies have been introduced to implement the National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development (NSESD). These include the Natural Heritage Trust, Council of Australian Governments' (COAG) Water Reform, the COAG Salinity and Water Quality Action Plan, the National Biodiversity Strategy, the National Greenhouse Strategy, Regional Forest Agreements, and the ongoing review of Commonwealth-State Service Provision. ESD principles have been incorporated into the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EBPC Act).
The Government's response to the recent Productivity Commission inquiry focuses on mechanisms to progress the implementation of ESD in the policy and operations of Commonwealth departments and agencies. These mechanisms include assessing ESD impacts in regulation impact statements, more emphasis on ESD by the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council, encouragement for Departments and agencies to implement environment management systems and join the Greenhouse Challenge program and the provision of an ESD support service for agencies. Other components of the response are annual ESD and environment performance reviews by agencies, five yearly State of the Environment Reports, further development of national headline sustainability indicators, and national leadership by the Australia Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in regard to environmental data management.
The Government's response is intended to emphasise that implementing ESD through Government policy processes is the responsibility of all Commonwealth agencies. The response supports the intentions behind the Report's recommendations. It attempts to integrate the recommendations with new Government mechanisms like the ESD reporting under the EPBC Act, and in many instances builds on the recommendations by proposing to investigate additional mechanisms to encourage greater implementation of ESD by Commonwealth agencies.
Guidelines of existing policy development and evaluation mechanisms (such as regulation impact statement guidelines and environmental impact assessment guidelines) should include specific reference to assessing the likely social, economic and environmental costs and benefits of proposals, in both the short and long term.
Support
The Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC) has recently demonstrated leadership in such areas as dry land salinity and greenhouse science. PMSEIC could consider further emphasis of the ESD dimensions of issues before Council. For example, PMSEIC could:
Support
The Government acknowledges the important contribution that the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC) has made to the consideration of ESD related matters. PMSEIC has addressed specific sustainable development issues such as dry land salinity, greenhouse science and natural resources management for sustainable agriculture.
PMSEIC will continue to provide advice on strategic matters relating to long term sustainable development, and facilitate interaction between leading experts and relevant ministers on ESD issues.
The government will request PMSEIC to give further emphasis to ESD as suggested by the Productivity Commission.
The Government will build on the Inquiry's recommendations by encouraging Commonwealth Departments and Agencies to join the Greenhouse Challenge.
The Greenhouse Challenge is a voluntary program where organisations set targets for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, implement reduction measures and report publicly on their progress. Departments and Agencies will reduce their Greenhouse gas emissions through activities such as increasing energy efficiency, switching to more greenhouse efficient fuels, and reducing resource consumption and waste generation. Many Departments and Agencies have already made significant gains in this direction and the Greenhouse Challenge is a mechanism for formalising those achievements.
The Government will encourage Commonwealth Departments and Agencies to implement environmental management systems based on ISO 14001 or an equivalent standard by December 2002. Portfolios will also be encouraged to accredit at least one of their larger sites to ISO 14001 or equivalent standard before December 2003. Agencies will report to their Ministers if there are particular circumstances such that the costs of these actions significantly outweigh the benefits of proceeding with these initiatives
An environmental management system is a structured process that Departments and Agencies can use as a means of minimising their environmental impact. An environmental management system, will assist organisations to identify environmental impacts, measure existing performance, set policies and targets for improving performance, develop actions to achieve those policies and monitor progress towards environmental improvement. An internationally recognised model for an environmental management system is the ISO14001 standard, which includes an ethic of continuous improvement through its systematic review cycle. Certification is one mechanism of external review of the implementation of the environmental management system and provides a public declaration of best practice environmental management.
The Government will also establish an ESD information and support service to provide strategic advice about integrating ESD into Government processes. The ESD support service will be established within the Department of the Environment and Heritage for a initial period of two years, and the outcomes and achievements will be evaluated at the end of this time.
The aim of the ESD support service will be to encourage ownership by all Commonwealth agencies of the responsibility to implement ESD through Government policy and decision making processes. The functions of the ESD support service will include:
New provisions under the EPBC Act will stimulate agencies to review their planning and policy processes by requiring all Commonwealth agencies to provide annual ESD and environmental performance reports as part of their annual reports.
The ESD reporting requirements will encourage agencies to establish systematic monitoring systems. They will also require the incorporation of ESD into good practice policy making by all staff. Regular reporting will encourage agencies to consider ESD implications during all stages of policies and programs.
In the longer term, the systems that agencies put into practice to meet the ESD reporting requirements will result in better institutionalisation of ESD into policy making, and thereby fulfil the intent of the Inquiry's recommendation 6.1. In addition, annual reporting is applicable to all Commonwealth agencies and does not require a specific trigger as may be the case with other policy assessment mechanisms such as regulation impact statements. The ESD reporting is likely to affect over 170 Commonwealth Departments, Parliamentary Departments, Commonwealth authorities and companies, and other relevant Commonwealth agencies. The first ESD and environmental reports are due at the end of the 2000-2001 financial year.
A set of headline sustainability indicators has been developed by the Commonwealth in consultation with the States, under the auspices of ANZECC. The set addresses the core objectives of the NSESD and over time will provide a broad overview of Australia's progress towards sustainability. The set is not designed to measure the ESD performance of Government programs, but rather to raise awareness of ESD issues, relationships and progress through all sectors of the community.
The Commonwealth Government, in cooperation with State and Territory Governments, should work to facilitate performance measurement and enable comparisons of the effectiveness and efficiency of Commonwealth, State and Territory policies and programs in ESD related areas such as the environment and natural resource management. Development of this new process should take into account the experiences and institutional and analytical frameworks of the Steering Committee for the Review of Commonwealth/State Service Provision (SCRCSP).
Having developed a framework, Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments should jointly determine priority areas for the performance measurement exercise. Once priority areas are identified, performance measurement and comparison should be carried out on an ongoing basis. It should focus on indicators of program efficiency (including resources used (inputs) and program policy results (outputs) in the short to medium term, and indicators of effectiveness - program or policy impacts (outcomes) against the longer term environmental and sustainability objectives.
Support further investigation of national comparative ESD performance measurement in consultation with State and Territory Governments
The Government will further investigate national comparative ESD performance measurement in consultation with State and Territory Governments through the Environment Protection and Heritage Council.
Data collection relating to ESD issues should be rationalised to avoid duplication of effort in some areas and gaps in coverage in others.
In the areas of the environment, natural resource management and sustainable development, primary responsibility for data collection and the development of environmental and sustainability indicators should remain with the custodian or lead agencies which have relevant expertise, such as Environment Australia, CSIRO, Bureau of Rural Sciences, Australian Geological Survey Organisation, Australian Surveying and Land Information Group, and relevant State and Territory agencies.
The ABS should work with relevant custodian or lead agencies to develop standard classifications and consistent measurement protocols for the collection of data and information relating to the environment, natural resource management and sustainable development. The collection and dissemination of these data and information should be conducted on an ongoing basis.
The ABS should also have the major coordinating role among the custodian or lead agencies involved in data collection in these areas. In addition, the ABS should have key responsibility for dissemination of data and information collected by itself and other agencies. As such it would have a one-stop access point for external users of such data and information. The current work of the ABS in this area should be given higher priority. This may require additional resources.
Support in part
In recognition of the importance of establishing a consistent data series on key environmental attributes, the Commonwealth Government should commit to producing a state of the environment report on a regular basis (for example, every five years). Through the appropriate ministerial council - such as ANZECC - consideration should be given to involving the States and Territories in this activity drawing on the mechanisms in place requiring the production of state of the environment reports in some States and Territories.
Support
An initial State of the Environment Report was released in 1996. New provisions under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) will see the Commonwealth producing a State of the Environment Report every 5 years. The first 5 year review will be released late in 2001.
7.1 The relevant ministerial councils should routinely, and as a matter of course, inform each other of ESD issues likely to have relevance and implications for other councils.
7.2 Recognising that all levels of Government have responsibility for ESD outcomes, Commonwealth, State and Territory governments should seek to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the processes of these ministerial councils with respect to ESD implementation. In particular, the individual councils might ensure they have clearly specified objectives with respect to ESD implementation, and that they are meeting them.
Support
Consistent with the principles of good practice policy making, departments and agencies should regularly, and as a matter of course, monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of the ESD related policies, programs and regulations. As such, the development of performance indicators against clearly stated objectives should occur early in the policy development phase.
In this regard the current processes and the framework of the National Land and Water Resources Audit (NLWRA) should be used as a model. A similar framework should be developed to cover areas such as air quality, fisheries, chemicals in the environment, and marine systems. Funding arrangements should reflect the fact that these activities must occur over long timeframes.
Support in principle for using key features of this model
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