State of Environment reporting now in Government’s hands

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Jan Wright, delivered her presentation on State of the Environment reporting to select committee this morning.

The presentation to the Local Government and Environment committee reiterated the need for a national environmental reporting act and outlined the Commissioner’s report on the issue that was tabled last month.

Dr Wright says the lack of legislated reporting marks us out amongst many of our trading partners. “New Zealand is the only country in the OECD that does not have legislated State of the Environment reporting despite the fact we trade so readily on our clean green image.

“Consistent and reliable national environment reporting is important for both our environment and our economy because without it we risk being unable to match our brand with reality and have difficulty measuring the effectiveness of environmental policies.

“It is encouraging that both the select committee and the Minister for the Environment have responded positively to my recommendations and it is now up to the Government to act on them.”

A copy of the presentation is available here.

A copy of the full report, How Clean is New Zealand?, is available here.

ENDS

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