Sound economic policy is not at odds with environmental policy because the current global capitalistic system remains to be the leading cause of environmental degradation. Therefore, adoption of good economic policies will be a big boost to the environment and the economy as well in ensuring future sustainability. The economic balance is dictated using facts that relate to the measurement of growth in income of the population within a given region (Wright and Boorse, 2011). These elements vary with the requirements needed in maintaining environmental balance. The economy is based on the desire to measure the output against the input data that give the account of the consumption rate. This fact is not applied in determining the fate of the environment because they are not directly related.
The opposition rises from the fact that cost benefit analysis is a deeply flawed method that leads to biased and misleading results, and this is because it leads to unclear advantages and inferior results in terms of environmental protection and overall social welfare (Heinzerling & Ackerman, 2010). However, it is noteworthy that cost benefit analysis leads to efficient allocation of society’s resources because it allows careful identification of potential regulatory actions that are worth undertaking and in what way. Additionally, by accounting for environmental costs and capital, there is achievement of objective and transparent government decision making because this makes explicit the assumptions and methods that underlie regulatory actions (Wright & Boorse, 2011). This shows that an effective way of accounting will ensure that there is accommodation of all costs, which will then translate to true accounting profits and sustainable practices. This is because the economy is entirely dependent on the environment and because the environment stands as the principal source of almost all the requirements for a robust economy, a good economic policy will ensure a sustainable future.
References
Heinzerling, L. and Ackerman, F. (2010). Cost benefit analysis of environmental protection.
Retrieved from
< http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/publications/C-B%20pamphlet%20final.pdf>
Wright, R.T and Boorse, D.F. (2011). Environmental Science: Toward a Sustainable Future.
Addison Wesley.
