Law changes needed for effective environmental policy – experts

Experts want law changes that would fix major gaps in New Zealand’s environmental data and close loopholes between the country’s  state-of-the-environment report and Government policy.

The Environmental Reporting Act (ERA) requires the Ministry for the Environment’s (MfE) to produce a three-yearly report on the state of the environment, though the Government is not required to respond to the findings of the report.

The ministry collects existing data from external agencies rather than generating data of its own for the report.

Centre of Research Excellence Te Pūnaha Matatini’s principal investigator, Dr Troy Baisden, says the ERA should require stronger monitoring of the environment and should more directly inform government policy.

He says the report needs to be based on the freshest data possible for the Government to know if current environmental policies are meeting the mark.

“We need nationally mandated, consistently performed environmental time series, simply to know where we are at with policy.”

In 2019, the Government watchdog warned inconsistencies in data could lead to poor policy and irreversible environmental damage.

The latest report revealed data from 2019 and 2020, was being used to inform current summaries on fertiliser trends and the state of sensitive water bodies such as estuaries.

“There’s never been a permanent monitoring programme for our lakes. There’s nothing consistent for our estuaries," Baisden said.

“In many cases, we’re lucky to have any data at all.”

Baisden wants to see the changes recommended six years ago put into place, including support for environmental monitoring that requires funding and making reporting less frequent to allow for greater recognition of changes in trends.

“Three years simply isn’t enough time to pick up trends in most environmental data sets, even if they’re well funded. And ours aren’t well funded.

“In fact, most contributions to the report aren’t funded at all.”

Chief science advisor at the MfE, Alison Collins, said she wanted to see the ERA updated and the ministry no longer a “passive harvester”.

“I’m certainly a proponent for more active monitoring and to get more data, and access to more data.”

Collins also wants to see more time between reports.

“The environment doesn’t respond overnight, so it’s more sensible for us to report [five years apart].”

Baisden said he believed delays in updating the act came from reluctance and inability to fund those changes.

“It’s a matter of prioritising it [in] legislative goals of Government. In the meantime, we don’t have good information on trends of the environment or what existing policies are really achieving.”

Collins said the country's “natural assets" were at risk and delays in meaningful environmental policy would have undeniable impacts on New Zealanders.

“It’s becoming very real now with things like Cyclone Gabrielle estimated to be costing between $700 million and $1.1 billion in terms of recovery costs.

“Building the evidence base as best we can is important in being able to articulate what’s needed next.”