Why we need quality environmental regulation
Ecosystems exist outside of private property rights. Water doesn’t follow property boundaries. Simply put, there will always be a role for regulation when it comes to environmental protection.
As a concept, it can invoke emotive responses, but in my almost two decades of working in environmental regulation it still continues to amaze me that the existence and/or absence of regulation is where the blame for a variety of environmental problems gets laid in Aotearoa New Zealand.
We still fail to ask the more intelligent questions about why things aren’t working, and if we do – we fail to have the systems in place to capture the information we need to answer these questions.
Where does this lead us?
To never-ending, expensive, and fraught policy development cycles that risk achieving no meaningful positive change for our environment or the communities that are regulated.
So what do I want to see?
Clear problem definition which is grounded in evidence.
Thorough regulatory impact analysis to ensure that all intended and potential unintended consequences are thought through at the outset.
Cost-benefit analysis that properly accounts for the costs of doing nothing – including efforts to quantity the costs of not taking action on future generations.
Implementation costs and considerations factored into the policy development stage.
Development of reporting indicators and measures of effectiveness at the outset of the policy development phase – not as an afterthought.
Reporting on progress and meaningful feedback loops into both future policy iterations and implementation over time.
Quality regulation design that makes compliance the default outcome rather than something that is assumed to happen merely because the regulation exists.
Environmental regulators held accountable for the important work they do by the communities they serve.
To say that we have too much environmental regulation/not enough regulation/poor regulation is under-cooking how complex the issues really are.
We need carefully crafted regulation. We need adaptive regulation. We need regulators to be staffed by competent and passionate individuals and supported by technology and systems to be able to do their job well.
I get that this is quite the wish-list in a world where ‘regulation’ seems to be a dirty word right now but hey, a girl can dream…
Amanda de Jong – February 2024
