Our clean green image at risk says Commissioner

New Zealand urgently needs a National Environmental Reporting Act if it is to maintain its clean green image says the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Jan Wright.

The recommendation for the act, which would provide for regular national environmental reporting in line with other OECD nations, has been made in the Commissioner’s latest report which was tabled in Parliament today.

“Many New Zealanders may be surprised that we have no legislated process for regular national reporting on our environment but they would be more surprised and concerned to learn we’re the only country in the OECD who doesn’t.

“New Zealand makes a lot of its reputation as a clean and green country but without systematic state of the environment reporting we are potentially out on a limb in terms of our image and our trade.

“We need to legislate for coherent national reporting so we can make and test policy that works for our environment and our economy and we need to do so urgently.”

The recommendations from the report tabled today include:

• The Minister for the Environment drafts legislation that assigns roles and responsibilities for regular reporting on the state of the environment to different public entities.
• The Minister for the Environment ensures that indicators for assessing the state of the environment are reviewed, the underlying environmental statistics are significantly improved, and primary data is made publicly available on the internet.
• The Minister for the Environment assign the responsibility for state of the environment reporting to an agency or agencies that can provide the required independence and technical capacity.

ENDS

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