Greening the Australian Welfare State: Can Basic Income Play a Role?

A key policy and indeed political challenge at the start of the twenty-first century is how to create conditions for human flourishing within the ecological limits of a finite planet (Jackson, 2009). Meeting this challenge will require the social and economic dimensions of public policy to be integrated with the environmental dimension and vice versa, so that moves toward a greener economy do not exacerbate social inequalities and injustices within and between countries. Without an integrated public policy framework a vision of fair, prosperous, and sustainable communities is unlikely to become a meaningful reality in developed and developing countries (Gough, 2011; Stern, 2009; Mapes & Wolch, 2011). Research from the Asia-Pacific region clearly shows that the countries best prepared for the low-carbon economy are those that recognize the inextricable link between economics, resource security, and policy coordination and are taking action accordingly (The Climate Institute, 2013). The country’s leadership in China, for example, has committed to low-carbon growth, improved energy efficiency, cleaner energy generation, and the development of carbon markets. China’s per person emissions (CO2 from energy and cement only) were around 7 tonnes, while Australia’s were around 19 tonnes, among the highest in the world (The Climate Institute, 2013).