Environmental Protection

Graphics courtesy of OECD.orgOpens in new window United NationsOpens in new window (1992) defines environmental protection as “any activity that maintains or restores the quality of environmental media through preventing the emission of pollutants or reducing the presence of polluting substances in environmental media”.

This is mostly done in terms of legislations, i.e., Acts of Parliament made to regulate the relationship between people’s activities and the environment. Fisher (2003) summarizes it very well:

Environmental protection is thus all about regulating human activities that pollute and harm the environment.Fisher (2003)

Fisher (2003) then argues that environmental protection means little without answering the question: “protecting the environment from what?”

Various Acts that regulate environmental protection within Australia, e.g., the Environmental Protection Act 1986 (WA), Environmental Protection Act 1986 (Victoria), and Waste Management and Pollution Control Act 1998 (Northern Territory), for example, are all underpinned by waste and pollution as the focus parameters (issues).

This school of thought is however changing. Modern views recognize that our environmentOpens in new window undergoes various forms of degradation and need to be protected. The degradation could take various forms, e.g., burning of fossil fuels, pollution, deforestation, biodiversity loss, radiation spills or nuclear accidents, exhaust fumes from vehicles, etc. Therefore,

Due to various forms of human activities, environmental protection is needed and as Liu and Diamond (2005) points out, it should be treated as an integral part of sustainable economic development.

In these regard, the Western Australia’s Environmental Protection Act (EPA) 1986 (WA) provides for the prevention, control, and abatement of pollution and environmental harm, for the conservation, preservation, protection, enhancement and management of the environment. International environmental protection organizations such as the United State’s Environmental ProtectionOpens in new window and the United Nations Environment Programme agencyOpens in new window are few organizations committed to environmental protection issues at global scale.

Among the so many objectives of EPA 1986 (WA)Opens in new window are; to promote environmental awareness within the community and to encourage understanding by the community of the environment, to provide advice on environmental matters to members of the public, to publish reports on environmental matters generally, etc.

Also in the last decade for instance, China’s policies on environmental protection and sustainable development have been significantly improved.

Realistic steps and measures have been taken to foster environmental protection, which include:

• Adjustment of economic structure
• Reform of energy policy
• Development of environmental industry
• Pollution prevention and ecological conservation
• Capacity building, and international cooperation and public participation (Zhang and Wen 2008).

Environmental protections actions could be achieved under the following four instruments of control:

1.     Regulatory/command and control measures

Here, legally enforceable prohibitions are used and can take on various forms, for example:

These are the most common and widely used tools for environmental protection.

2.     Economic instruments/market-based measures

These are measure that aim to make cost of pollution integral to the production cost of various actors.

It is achieved by imposing penalties (monetary) on industries that emit pollutants in excess of prescribed levels, giving monetary incentives, e.g., tax waivers to those doing clean productions, and creating transferable and tradable rights, e.g., carbon trading.

3.     Voluntarism/Voluntary action measures

An entity has a choice on whether to participate but incentives are provided to those participating. They can range from (i) polluters acting on their own without involving the government, e.g., implementing ISO environmental management systems, (ii) voluntary public programs where the regulator determines the eligibility of participants, to (iii) bilateral agreements between polluters and regulators.

4.     Public participation/Information and education instruments

These include those actions that promotes environmental protection through improving of public awareness and understanding of environmental protection issues and challenges.

Various environmental protection and sustainability reports by governments and non-governmental organizations fall into this category. Their main disadvantage is passiveness; they rarely address the root cause of environmental degradation.

There is little evidence to suggest that various forms of environmental regulations instrument, when used in isolation, have the capacity to deliver tangible environmental improvements when applied to matters of non-point source pollution. Indeed, there is a substantial body of evidence reviewed which suggests quite the contrary.

Unless landholders have a self-interest in engaging in the desired environmental improvements, then information, education, and voluntarism alone will usually be unable to overcome the cost barriers (and sometimes conservatism) that often inhibit change.

For these reasons, such measures, should not be used as “stand alone” approaches for reducing non-point source environmental pollution. As Cohen (1998) pointed out:

Education, training, and voluntarism, may, nevertheless, have value in providing an important underpinning to other more interventionist approaches, and the necessary understanding without which landholders and others are unlikely to accept the need to change their practices.

What those more interventionist measures should be, how they should be designed, implemented and enforced, and in what source of sequence, and how to steer a middle course between the often competing demands of effectiveness, efficacy, equity and public acceptability should be the main subject matter of environmental project managementOpens in new window.

Examples of environmental protection is seen in the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (1999)Opens in new window, which protects the environment through isolation of pollution and/or contamination source, e.g.,

• Pollution prevention plan: Provides action plan against substances or group of substances and/or processes associated with these substances.
• Controlling toxic substance: Categorizes substances in form of lists based on their toxicity levels. Also specifies quantities that can be released into the environment alone and/or in combination with other substances.
  
  
  In case of entry/release into the environment, the Act calls for pollution prevention action. It also prohibits export of items on export control list.
• Animate products of biotechnology: Deals with the introduction of non-native species into Canadian environment, and ensures the protection of environment (ecosystem) by guarding against release of toxic quantities of living organisms that are not indigenous. It also provides accepted list of organisms and ways of seeking permit and conditions to be adhered to in order to bring in new organisms.
• Controlling pollution and managing waste: The Act identifies various chemicals and/or pollutants and outlines how they are to be used and disposed. It prohibits importation, use or manufacture of cleaning products (chemicals), water treatment chemicals, and nutrients (compounds, which if released into water would provide nourishment for growth of aquatic vegetation) in concentrations greater than prescribed for the product.

• The Act also protects marine environment from land-based sources of pollution, implements 1996 Protocol to the Convention on Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Waste and Other MaterialsOpens in new window, and prohibits export, import, and loading in Canada for disposal in waters within Canadian jurisdiction or use of a Canadian vessel for disposal in the international waters.
  
  The Act further provides standards for fuel and fuel products, vehicles, engine and equipment emission. Any adulteration of fuel or substandard vehicles, engines and equipment are prohibited in order to protect the environment.
  
  
  Also, pollution of international water and air is prohibited and measures are laid down on course of action to be taken in case it happens. Finally, the movements of hazardous waste and hazardous recyclable materials are prohibited without appropriate permit even for transit.

• Public participation: Public participation is given a prominent role in this Act through:

1. Provision for establishment of environmental registry where all the environmental related information is accessed
2. Giving private citizen the power to apply for investigation if they feel an environmental offence has been committed
3. Giving private citizens power to bring an environmental protection action, if the minister fails to act on application for investigation, by going to court, and
4. Provision of power to seek for compensation if one is aggrieved (or about to be aggrieved) by the Act, by going to court.

From the Act’s point of view, dealing with pollutants directly and environment indirectly makes it more effective, clearer, and more focused on protecting the environment. It does that in fewer articles compared to if one were to deal with environment directly and the pollutants indirectly.