(a) to protect, restore and enhance
the quality of the environment in New South Wales, having regard to the need
to maintain ecologically sustainable development, and
(b) to reduce the risks
to human health and prevent the degradation of the environment, by means such
as the following--
• promoting pollution prevention,
• adopting the
principle of reducing to harmless levels the discharge into the air, water or
land of substances likely to cause harm to the environment,
• minimising
the creation of waste by the use of appropriate technology,
• regulating
the transportation, collection, treatment, storage and disposal of waste,
• encouraging the reduction of the use of materials, encouraging the
re-use and recycling of materials and encouraging material recovery,
•
adopting minimum environmental standards prescribed by complementary
Commonwealth and State legislation and advising the Government to prescribe
more stringent standards where appropriate,
• setting mandatory targets
for environmental improvement,
• promoting community involvement in
decisions about environmental matters,
• ensuring the community has
access to relevant information about hazardous substances arising from, or
stored, used or sold by, any industry or public authority,
• conducting
public education and awareness programs about environmental matters.
(2) For
the purposes of subsection (1) (a), ecologically sustainable development
requires the effective integration of social, economic and environmental
considerations in decision-making processes. Ecologically sustainable
development can be achieved through the implementation of the following
principles and programs--
(a) the precautionary principle--namely, that if
there are threats of serious or irreversible environmental damage, lack of
full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing
measures to prevent environmental degradation.
In the application of the precautionary principle, public and private
decisions should be guided by--
(i) careful evaluation to avoid, wherever
practicable, serious or irreversible damage to the environment, and
(ii) an
assessment of the risk-weighted consequences of various options,
(b)
inter-generational equity--namely, that the present generation should ensure
that the health, diversity and productivity of the environment are maintained
or enhanced for the benefit of future generations,
(c) conservation of
biological diversity and ecological integrity--namely, that conservation of
biological diversity and ecological integrity should be a fundamental
consideration,
(d) improved valuation, pricing and incentive
mechanisms--namely, that environmental factors should be included in the
valuation of assets and services, such as--
(i) polluter pays--that is, those
who generate pollution and waste should bear the cost of containment,
avoidance or abatement,
(ii) the users of goods and services should pay
prices based on the full life cycle of costs of providing goods and services,
including the use of natural resources and assets and the ultimate disposal of
any waste,
(iii) environmental goals, having been established, should be
pursued in the most cost effective way, by establishing incentive structures,
including market mechanisms, that enable those best placed to maximise
benefits or minimise costs to develop their own solutions and responses to
environmental problems.