Measuring Up: The Proposed National 'State of The Environment' Reporting System

Abstract

New Zealand is the only country in the OECD that does not have a specific legislative mandate requiring the regular collection and publication of national “state of the environment” information.1 In August of 2011 the Ministry for the Environment released a discussion document entitled “Measuring up: Environmental Reporting”. The discussion document outlines the proposals for an Environmental Reporting Bill that would implement a national “state of the environment” reporting programme. This article briefly considers those proposals and raises a number of preliminary questions that may need to be addressed if such a programme is to fulfill its potential usefulness.