For sale: the right to pollute?
By Bronwen Beechey
MELBOURNE — Companies may be able to buy and sell the right to pollute the environment in the future, if federal environment minister Ros Kelly has her way.
According to the Australian of April 29, Kelly was highly impressed with US President Clinton's announcement last week of a "green gross domestic product" policy. This includes tradable permits to emit pollution, which would supposedly mean that clean industries would profit from selling pollution rights.
Environmental activists contacted by Green Left Weekly do not share Kelly's enthusiasm for the idea. Paul Adams from the Hazardous Materials Action Group described the proposal as "disgusting", and Peter Allen from the Australian Conservation Foundation commented, "The idea of buying the right to pollute the environment is no longer acceptable".
Many people believe that the current level of pollution emission allowed in industries is already unsafe and environmentally damaging.
Allen points out that APPM has two mills in Tasmania that are exempted from state pollution controls, and that many other companies simply flout the law. "This proposal seems to be an attempt to accommodate those industries that are not willing to move to clean production rather than reward those that are."
Adams sees considerable potential for abuse in the proposal.
"One danger is that small to medium sized companies might take the option of selling their pollution rights to monopolies which already have an appalling record on the environment. There is also the possibility that large companies could set up bogus companies in order to buy a larger share of the rights — the whole system would be totally open to corruption."
Adams questions the attitude of both US and Australian governments. "Both take a market-driven, economic rationalist approach to the issue, trying to put an economic value on the environment. Experience has shown that this approach can't resolve the problem. We need to be looking at the forms of production and the means of production. Ultimately it means a very different kind of society to the one we're in."