Sustainability
Reviewing New Zealand's progress towards sustainability has been a key part of the PCE's role, since the publication of our 2002 report Creating our future: Sustainable development for New Zealand.
More general information on sustainability and on how you can make a difference can be found at www.sustainability.govt.nz
As part of the review we set up an online Sustainability Forum, which closed in September 2007. Participants' feedback contributed to the final report. Below are the topics that were discussed.
We began by posing these comments and questions:
The "unsustainable way of life of developed nations like ours" points to a great environmental challenge
(Prime Minister Helen Clark on 28 October 2006.)
How should New Zealand prepare? What are your views about sustainable development?
Background papers
Twenty-three background papers written for the review added to its breadth and depth. Topics range from housing, corporate reporting, fisheries, biodiversity, climate change, nature-based tourism and measuring real wealth to studies from Lyttelton, Kaikoura, North Shore and Christchurch.
The Issues
These topics were discussed as the forum ran:
Issue 1 - Pushing the limits
Can humans live beyond the planet's ecological limits? Sustainability has as much to do with economics and politics
as it does the environment, says Parliamentary Commissioner Dr Morgan Williams.
Issue 2 - Losing sight of the food chain
Eighty-seven percent of New Zealanders now live in towns and cities: have we lost our connection with the natural
capital that ultimately sustains us? Pursuing cheap and reliable food supplies and a high standard of living has a cost, says PCE principal investigator Philippa Richardson.
Issue 3 - Trade-offs: lifestyles vs environment
What lifestyle tradeoffs would you be prepared to make for the environment? Does sustainable development have to be
a compromise or trade-off between environmental, social, cultural and economic interests? If so, why?
Issue 4 - Making sustainable decisions
What are the merits and drawbacks of sustainable development as a basis for decision-making? How well understood is
sustainable development anyway? Because sustainable development is not well understood, or it has multiple interpretations, is that a barrier to applying it in decision-making?
Issue 5 - Learning for sustainability
What has been learned by those who have adopted sustainable development principles? What else do we need to learn?
Are the principles underpinning sustainable development still relevant for addressing global issues such as climate
change? If not, what are the alternatives?
Issue 6 - Kaitiakitanga and sustainability
Should New Zealand embrace the Maori concept of kaitiakitanga? What similarities/differences are there between
sustainable development and kaitiakitanga?
more about Pushing the limits
