Introduction: The Twin Environmental Crises and Wishful Thinking

Current approaches to environmental stewardship are demonstrably failing given existential threats of climate change and biodiversity loss. This book addresses the urgent question: how can governments be made more accountable for their environmental stewardship? It proposes three inter-related areas for action: (i) national State of the Environment reporting; (ii) expanded environmental target setting, integration in a dashboard of key national indicators, and reporting; and (iii) using a government’s most important policy statement and its most powerful strategy and policy integration instrument—fiscal policy and the annual budget cycle—to mainstream environmental goals, progressively eliminate harmful tax and expenditures policies, put a price on pollution, promote sustainable development, and provide environmental public goods. The Introduction sets out a high-level theory of change, discusses the roles of government, markets, and civil society, and presents an overview of the book.