Sunday, June 6, 2010

Present policies and future targets

The international community who through the Rio Declaration and Agenda 21 has tried to reach on a set of principles and actions needed to move the world in more sustainable direction. There are several environmental problems on the world. First of all, particular habitats or ecosystems have generally received less attention. Stratospheric ozone loss and global climate change are two other complex global environmental problems on which the international community has taken action. The Kyoto Protocol in 1987 is an encouraging example of collective international action deal with a global environmental problem of great significance. Most industrialized countries agree to reduce their collective greenhouse gas emissions by five percent on 1990 level. Unfortunately, this international action has not been nearly so effective.

Australia has developed many valuable and important environmental strategies and programs. The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry, for example, has responsibility for a number of important initiatives such as Land care. Many kinds of policy initiatives are significant, strongly to be supported and significantly to be praised. Many program s also have made a genuine difference. There are several reasons why current policies will not achieve ecological sustainability. First, existing policies do not deal comprehensively with the identified problems. One basic task is to deal with the specific problems related to settlements, atmosphere, biodiversity, land, inland waters and estuaries and seas. Second, many programs are inadequately resourced and implemented. Third, Australia does not have an effective legislative or administrative base. Furthermore, existing policies have not seriously begun to tackle the reduction of pressures on the environment. There is very little strategic commitment at policies. In addition, Australia has no systematic monitoring program to provide the feedback needed to asses whether programs are really working and to ensure that they are refashioned and reorganized where it is necessary. Finally, there have been very few unambiguous successes in reversing adverse environmental trends. A distinction needs to be made between the quality of the policy initiatives, the degree to which they are being actively implemented and the degree to which they are achieving real success.

There are two ways to get it. One is to evaluate, build on and improve existing programs. A comprehensive assessment of past success and failures is a key task for the future. Building on successes of any kind should remain a kernel of future environmental policy. The other is to recast the whole strategic direction of environmental degradation. The government, as policy maker, needs to have a policy goal, to set targets for the achievement the goal, to have a suite of measures, and to have very good feedback loops. It is argued by expert that setting stretch goals is a device that major corporations are using with considerable success to improve both environmental and business performance.

There are four main reasons why public policy targets are needed for all the key dimensions of degradation in Australia. First, the setting of targets will force concentrated attention on all the issues that need to be dealt with and on the actions needed to meet the targets. Second, a comprehensive list of medium-term targets will give both specialists, such as the scientific community. Third, setting targets enables state of the environment reporting and monitoring to be carried out with real purpose. Fourth, setting targets and then asking the whole society to focus attention and generating real creativity in finding solutions. Targets also need constant review to ensure that they are purposefully related to the goals embodied in the principles.

One approach to futures thinking to futures thinking, which is parallel arguments have developed in recent years from futures thinking, is to generate scenarios about the future. Scenarios are especially valuable for the exploration of multifaceted futures, that is for the exploration of the way different goals and objectives can be considered at the one time. However, scenarios have their limitations. First, all scenarios depend upon a set of basic assumptions. Second, only a limited number out of a multiplicity of alternatives can reasonably be examined. Third, scenarios are not in themselves plans of action. Another approach is to consider and compare alternative futures.

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