Environmental Management and Economic Interdependence

The question of environmental management has been characterised in the previous chapter as primarily a problem of public policy. No matter what the organisation of production, whether market-orientated or centrally-planned, there is no inherent mechanism that tends automatically to curb environmental damage resulting from production and consumption, and to bring about the internalisation of the attendant social costs. The necessary decisions have to be taken in a public-policy context — under existing environmental conditions and employing policy instruments considered most appropriate — with full knowledge of the relevant costs and benefits to society.