The Sustainable Economy Program aims to identify options for Australia to make a rapid transition to an environmentally and socially sustainable economy. Australia has tremendous opportunity to leverage its abundant natural resources and skills in innovation to build a fair, sustainable and prosperous economy – one that provides a secure future for all Australians. Yet to do so, we need to get the policy settings right.

The Sustainable Economy Program is underpinned by an understanding of the problems caused by systemic short-termism in both the public and private sectors and by the failure to value public goods which are hard to measure or monetise. The Program will address these problems in two ways:

Valuing What Matters
The economic invisibility of resource depletion and pollution leads to systemic failures in public and private decision making. As a result, we lack a coherent set of policies for sustainably managing our natural capital. Valuing What Matters will demonstrate the value of Australia’s natural wealth in order to promote better decision making about how we manage our natural capital.

Greening Our Economy
Australia is not doing enough to build a diverse economic structure that can thrive in a resource- and carbon-constrained future. Our poor resource productivity and dependence on commodities is a potential vulnerability in a world of volatile prices and rapid capital flows. Greening Our Economy will identify enabling policies and conditions to tip the economic playing field towards activities that support the transition to a fair, sustainable and prosperous economy.

The Sustainable Economy Program has been funded by your donations. CPD would particularly like to thank Graeme Wood for his important contribution to the advancement of a new economic agenda in Australia.

Unsustainable debt: Australia’s own subprime crisis

Australians are addicted to debt but we can’t afford to keep borrowing at current levels forever. A new report by a leading economist has found that in just 18 months time we may be spending as much of the national income on interest payments as we were in 1990 – when interest rates were at 17 per cent. The report also finds that Australian households are now poorer after interest payments than they were in … more

The risk society

It’s October 2007, and Newcastle has just been hit by another massive storm. As the flood waters recede, politicians from all sides line up to give their condolences – but in a break from tradition, they fail to announce any financial assistance for the flood victims. “Natural disasters are a part of life” says Prime Minister Howard, “we expect responsible families to plan ahead for this kind of thing”. Premier Iemma echoes the sentiment: “the … more

Greenhouse solutions: breaking down the barriers

The enhanced greenhouse effect is arguably the most dangerous environmental problem and the most difficult political issue to be faced by the world in the 21st century. It is threatening biodiversity, human health, social equity, infrastructure and the economy. Over the past decade, there have been many signs that global climate change is occurring rapidly and may even be accelerating. The Arctic ice cap has been visibly shrinking, glaciers are melting and their flow rates … more

 

Reality Check | 1-2pm Friday 27th April | Sydney

Is Australia’s economy as healthy as it seems? The Centre for Policy Development invites three experts to examine the risk factors: carbon addiction, chronic overwork and a decade-long debt binge. Join Ian Dunlop, Dr John Buchanan and Dr Steve Keen as they don their stethoscopes, diagnose the diseases and scribble out some prescriptions for lasting economic health. But will Australia’s political parties take their medicine? Date: Friday April 27th Time: 1-2pm Venue: UTS Haymarket Campus, … more

Towards a realistic climate change policy

‘Don’t blow it – good planets are hard to find’ TimeRecent reports on climate change have confirmed what has been intuitively and practically evident for many years, namely: Carbon emission from human activity is leading to increased atmospheric carbon concentrations. This is very likely to be causing major climate change which will become dangerous and potentially catastrophic if carbon concentrations are allowed to continue rising. The evidence is sufficiently clear that urgent precautionary measures should … more

Debt Freedom Day Report 2007

February 25th was Debt Freedom Day for 2007: the day Australia had earned enough income to fund the annual interest on its loans. The good news is that the day has finally arrived. The bad news is that it has been so long in coming. Except for a brief fall in 2000, when official interest rates were cut as the GST was introduced, the date of debt freedom has been steadily receding since 1997. Then, … more

 

REAL WORLD ECONOMICS: Competition and Cohesion

Introduction Economic policy is likely to remain the central policy concern, notwithstanding terrorism, climate change and family values. Some commentators, who are already comfortably off, may argue that further economic growth will not result in a commensurate increase in well-being, but even they must acknowledge that it is difficult to maintain well-being and a fair distribution of incomes in a depressed economy. Judging by their behaviour, most people want further material gains, while the capacity … more

The fine art of environment policy

Designing the right policy mix for any given situation is an art, not a science. Our failure to master this art may be partly due to the way we view policy. Obviously there are many choices to be made about the right mix of policy mechanisms to apply over different scales or to different issues. The current policy maker’s dilemma is how to make these decisions using the best theoretical and practical information available. Policy … more

Environment policy in Australia: beyond ‘business as usual’

The Centre for Policy Development is running a series of articles and discussion papers looking at how we can move beyond our current impasse on environmental policy. This series will attempt to unearth the basic principles that Australia’s policy makers need to uphold if true sustainability is to be achieved. We invite you to contribute your ideas in response to the questions raised below. Background Given the various ‘report cards’ on the state of Australia’s … more