Sustainable Investment and Resource Use

Each year throughout the world, humans use some 40% of the total amount of terrestrial primary production. Global, national and local resource stocks, particularly renewable resource stocks, are being depleted. There are many explanations for this decline, but one two-edged sword which is emerging to the forefront of the debate is government policy. Despite well-intentioned government programmes and objectives, government policy has significantly added to and exacerbated other pressures on resources - including those owned by governments themselves. If the situation is to be improved then government policy - fiscal policy, monetary policy, regulatory policy and education policy - must be changed. This book is largely about those actions which governments can take to improve resource use by stimulating envrionementally positive forms of investment in order to achieve what is now known as sustainable development.
This work aims to alert the reader to the ecological dangers that the increasing world population, holes in the ozone layer and loss of species diversity will cause and examines the sorts of extra economic investment and growth that will be required to fight what may be irreversible change. The book emphasizes that it is critical that any planned investment take on an ecologically astute character which is "uncoupled" from environmental degradation and resource depletion.