The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists has released a report titled Blueprint for a Healthy Environment and a Productive Economy which calls on the Federal Government for tax reforms including eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and giving tax incentives to landowners to restore and protect environmental assets.
The group claims the tax reforms will ensure a productive economy and a healthy environment over the long term.
Contributors to the report include:
- Former Treasury Secretary, Dr Ken Henry,
- Professor Bruce Thom, former Chair of the Australian Coasts and Climate Change Council,
- Professor David Karoly, one of the lead authors of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The report states:
‘As our population and incomes grow our demands will place even more pressure on our environment. Climate change will add a whole new dimension to these pressures with major shifts in weather systems, increased risks from higher temperatures, sea level rise and more extreme droughts, floods and bushfires.’
The report says what is needed is ‘a national commitment to long-term reforms that build a productive economy that conserves natural capital rather than degrading it.’
More information is available at –