Public Policy for Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze how the concept of environmental sustainability should be taken into account in public policy. Ideas such as ematerialization, Porter-hypothesis, double dividend theory which overcome the conventional way of thinking, namely the tradeoff between environmental conservation and economic growth have common standpoint whose environmental policy target is integrated with other social objective such as employment and/or social welfare. Multiple objectives of public policy are one of the driving forces for the policy and institutional innovation in the society. Although the target of third environmental basic plan in Japan is to realize sustainable society, there is no concrete policy guideline to achieve the target in the plan. Sustainable development theory developed by Partha Dasgupta is applied to the issue how can we construct sustainable community, because the theory defines the criteria which could judge whether the community is sustainable or not. According to the theory, local public policy promoting sustainable community should be implemented in two ways. One is to encourage the increase in the capital assets such as natural capital, manufactured capital, human capital and knowledge in the community. Another is to improve the institutions which allocate those capital assets to produce goods and services in order to enhance the quality of life of the people in the community. These two ways should be integrated systematically into public policy. Local government has a crucial role in the transition process towards sustainable community. Capacity development of local people in the community together with the enrichment of intellectual base and social infrastructure is also indispensable to the transition.