The environmental implications of the ethical tenets of policies

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The study on the environmental implications of the ethical tenets of policies investigated theresearch thesis that it is essential to reveal the ethical dimensions of policies in order to adequatelyappraise the environmental implications of their further elaboration in the form of strategies andplans and their operationalisation in the form of programmes and projects. The substantiveanalyses of the study focussed on three premises that support the research thesis.The first premise claims that the current theory and practice of environmental assessment (EA)are inadequate for preventing adverse environmental consequences of development and supportingthe achievement of sustainable development. Comprehensive overviews of the two EA instrumentsof environmental impact assessment (EIA) and strategic environmental assessment (SEA) foundmany deficiencies in their application as well as limitations in their conceptualisation andphilosophical bases, thus confirming premise 1. Premise 2 contends that adverse environmentalimpacts of development activities at lower strategic and implementation levels cannot beeffectively contained unless the policy frameworks which provide their strategic direction havebeen fully appraised for their environmental implications. This contention was confirmed throughthe development of a two-pronged argument that (1) policies predetermine the environmentalimpact of development activities at the implementation level by providing strategic direction todevelopment planning, and (2) SEA is an inadequate instrument for effectively analysing theenvironmental consequences of policies, given its inadequacy to deal with values that underliepolicy approaches.The third main study premise states that the' ethical dimensions of public policies have specificrelevance for the potential environmental implications of these policies. As a first step in theargument developed to confirm this premise, a review of policy analysis and policy making provedthat these pursuits are inherently normative. Thereafter the nature of morality was explored,revealing that morality consists of three axes, i.e. the first level of moral obligations, or what isright or wrong to do; the second of moral motives, or ethical notions about what meaningfulhuman life entails, and the third of moral sources, or ethical notions about that which inspiresrespect and allegiance. It was further shown that all human actions are rooted in such ethicalnotions. Thus, it was argued, policy analysis and policy making also employ ethical notions as thejustification for choosing specific policy goals and the means for achieving these goals. Conceptions about a meaningful human life or the good life are primarily used for this purpose.The fact that these underlying ethical tenets of policies are normally not explicitly voiced ordebated in the policy formulation process necessitated an investigation into reasons for articulatingthem. It was found that value analysis could assist in evaluating the appropriateness of policies totheir social, cultural and political contexts, thereby improving their effectiveness. Next, the twokey concepts of quality of life and sustainable development that drive the current developmentparadigm were analysed in order to prove that they reflect rich conceptions of the good life.Further analysis of these concepts showed that they are inextricably linked to environmentalissues. This led to the conclusion that their operationalisation through policy implementationwould logically hold environmental consequences.The main finding of the study that the research thesis has been verified, is based on theconfirmation of all three study premises described above. An explication of the theoretical andpractical follow-up work that should be undertaken on the basis of the research thesis motivatedthe subsequent conclusion that the verification of the research thesis has generated a hypothesisfor further empirical research.On the basis of the findings, recommendations were made regarding the development andrefinement of an EA system embedded in a comprehensive environmental planning and resourcemanagement regime that forms one component of a holistic development approach based onsustainability. It was further recommenced that the proposed revised EA system should requireSEA of policies as the logical first step in EA, from were the results should cascade to EA atlower tiers of development. In addition, SEA procedures should be revised to developdifferentiated framework procedures for policies, plans and programmes respectively. Theprocedure for policy-SEA should incorporate an ethical analysis component in order to givepractical effect to the main conclusion of this study. A limited number of recommendationsregarding EA application were made, of which the most important is that EA practitioners shouldpresent interpretations of EA study results to decision makers in order to ensure thatenvironmental factors receive proper weighting during decision making about developmentactivities. Lastly, a proposal was made that an information, education and communicationprogramme should be designed and implemented with the aim of creating an atmosphereconducive to the acceptance of a revised EA system.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University