The first report of a new system of environmental-economic accounts for New Zealand shows the nation isn't doing enough to protect our natural world, experts say. But the fact the Government is issuing the reports is getting a warm reception.

The accounts showed the impact of what humans were doing to the natural environment and what was being done to mitigate that, as well as the importance of natural resources to the economy, according to Statistics New Zealand.

Environmental Defence Society executive director Gary Taylor said: "Clearly, New Zealand's environment is coming under increasing pressure as our population builds and the trend lines for climate emissions are still going up when they should be going down. Some of the other indicators show that we are not investing enough in protecting and enhancing our natural world."

KIRK HARGREAVES/STUFF University of Otago' Dr Viktoria Kahui said the report was "a positive step towards the growing consensus that our environment is a capital asset". (file photo)

The information would help those working to protect our environment, according to Taylor.

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"I think the assembly of this kind of data is very useful for policy makers. It's also particularly useful in targeting central and local government funding because it helps identify problem areas instead of guessing," he said.

ROBERT KITCHIN/STUFF Forest and Bird's climate change advocate Adelia Hallett.

"The key point here is that the economy is part of the environment, not the other way around, and this sort of analysis reinforces that proposition. We need to operate our economy within environmental limits."

The report provided values for resources like fish, timber, minerals, and renewable energy and how much they contributed to the economy. It also tracked local and central government spending on environmental protection.

Additionally, it assessed grassland and forest cover, changes in precipitation - rainfall, snow, sleet, and hail - as well as greenhouse gas emissions and more.

ALDEN WILLIAMS/STUFF Experts said having a healthy environment had value to it. (file photo)

Forest and Bird's climate change advocate, Adelia Hallett, said it was a "penny drop moment to have a Government department looking at these issues".

The report should make people stop and think, she said. Having a healthy environment had value to it.

It was a "fundamental acknowledgement" that the economy sat within the environment, not the other way around, as it was normally seen.

ROSS GIBLIN/STUFF Climate Change Minister James Shaw said the report was "particularly exciting because what it does is it starts to shape how the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment". (file photo)

Additionally, the report would help plan for the future, she said.

University of Otago Business School economics department senior lecturer Dr Viktoria Kahui said the report was "a positive step towards the growing consensus that our environment is a capital asset that provides us with the many things we need to survive and thrive; fresh air, drinking water, timber, fish, aesthetic beauty but also the capacity to assimilate waste such as water filtration from wetlands...



"Putting a monetary value on the environment can cause controversy between those who say nature has an intrinsic value that cannot be measured in monetary terms, and those who say it is the very lack of monetary value that makes it all too easy to ignore in business decision making."

However, the report avoided much controversy by, among other things, focusing on physical measures of land cover, timber and water, and where possible, the value of natural assets based on market values.

The report acknowledged the most significant gap in environmental accounts related to ecosystem service. Kahui said that could not be overstated.

"Physical measures of the quantity of water available do not take into account the quality of the water such as the rapid degradation of waterways from dairy farming and urban runoff. Land cover measures do not reflect the rapid loss in biodiversity of native fauna and flora, and none of the measures provided show the importance of the growing tourism industry, which thrives off the back of New Zealand's 'green and clean' brand, although this issue has been debated.



"If national accounts were to include the value of New Zealand's ecosystem services then we could see a major shift in view away from the consumption and production of goods and services as a catalyst for economic growth towards maximising the dividends of a well-functioning natural capital stock. This necessarily implies the improvement and maintenance of ecosystems, the minimisation of waste and the effective use of natural resources."

WHAT DOES THE CLIMATE CHANGE MINISTER SAY?

Climate Change Minister James Shaw said the report was "particularly exciting because what it does is it starts to shape how the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment and shows the interaction between how the economy operates and what happens in the environment as a result."

When it was pointed that the report was "messy" with statistics from different years, Shaw said: "Well, it's better to have some data than no data, and I think that's the thing about today's report.

"What we have is going to become part of the Treasury's investment statement, so it is actually entering the fiscal framework for the country through the Treasury's work, and I'm tremendously excited about that. But what it does demonstrate is that there are big holes in our information, in our data gathering, and obviously it is up to the government to plug those holes in the coming years," Shaw said.

In relation to the Government's carbon zero act, Shaw said it would "change the way that we report on what's going on in the environment, and it shows the relationship between that and the economy at large - and that is actually what we need to do if we're going to fix the environmental problem that we face as a country we need to think of it as an economic challenge because the consequences are as a result of our economic activities."