JOSÉ I. DUARTE ECONOMIST, MACAU BUSINESS SENIOR ANALYST -
jid@macaubusiness.com
Walk the talk H
aving recently attended another event where environmental issues were at the heart of the presentations and debate, I was asked about
environmental policy in Macau. It is a topic that is more troublesome than you might expect. There is probably no topic on which there is greater general
agreement about the basic principles than environmental protection and ensuring quality of life for all. But you would be naive if you did not realise that the
unanimous and enthusiastic support of almost everyone depends on a bit of a trick. At best, nobody should ever try to
defi ne too precisely what we mean by these expressions. At worst, it would be unwise to look too carefully into what people or organisations proclaiming to have green credentials say and actually do. We regularly have events in Macau or
in neighbouring regions to discuss how to promote environmental protection. Myriad social or political organisations, research institutions, think tanks, expert analysts, and public speakers are dedicated to the environment - you name it, they deal with it. Governments worldwide pledge their commitment to environmental protection and there is hardly any major political statement on the future (or strategy, if you wish to sound more impressive) that does not liberally refer to it and underline how important it is. And yet...
A world of words Macau fi ts neatly into this trend. Public surveys clearly show that we are all concerned about quality of life and environmental protection. These issues are priorities. Various professional and social organisations promote them. The government never fails to order new surveys or create new research or consultative bodies to deal with them. There is hardly a single policy address in which the
relevance of these issues is not underscored and the commitment to them proclaimed in the most unambiguous terms. And yet... It appears there is one world of words and another,
altogether different, world of deeds. Few things tell us more about this duality than the sad fate of the present legal framework as it applies to matters of environmental protection. Almost 20 years ago – in 1991, to be precise – the
Legislative Assembly approved a law outlining general principles and objectives for the protection of Macau’s environment. The law is still in force, at least formally. Sure, as a framework
law, it states mainly general principles and goals. Its application depends on the subsequent approval of specifi c regulations to turn the guidelines into practical and effective rules.
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THE GOVERNMENT CONSTANTLY STRESSES ITS COMMITMENT TO CARING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT ALTHOUGH THE REALITY SHOWS US OTHERWISE
Creaking framework The law identifi es several areas where specifi c legislation is required, laying down the basis for a vast amount of lawmaking. However, most of the required subsidiary legislation has failed to materialise and none has been produced since 1997. Is it not a telling fact that on the website for the Offi cial Gazette there is only one law listed under the heading ‘Defi nition of Environmental Policy’? Let us, out of curiosity, focus briefl y on two aspects of
environmental protection that are particularly revealing about its practise (or rather, non-practise) in Macau. First, there are the environmental
assessments. The law fl atly states that, as a rule, no “plans, projects, works and actions likely to impact on the environment, health or quality of life” can be approved or initiated without an environmental impact assessment being carried out. I wonder if any assessment of this
kind has ever been done in Macau, let alone published. There is no dearth of works or projects that even under not- too-stringent conditions would need to meet the requirements set down by the law.
Toppled pillar Second, there is a central role assigned to environmental policy. According to the law, environmental protection is defi ned as the “guiding” principle for all government activity and should form part of the annual policy address. Also, every
year, the head of the government should present a report on the state of the environment to the Legislative Assembly. This being the law and knowing what the reality is, nothing
more needs to be said. Environmental policy in Macau, as defi ned 20 years ago,
had another pillar besides the law. That pillar was the now defunct Environmental Council, conceived as an autonomous public institution endowed with various broad powers to develop policies to promote environmental protection and to monitor their implementation. This body never had the human or fi nancial resources
it needed to meet its responsibilities, even assuming that its members had the will to do so. Nowadays, most of its work falls within the ambit of a bureau more concerned with the uncontroversial topic of environmental education than with the drafting of policy that may provoke an argument. It has not prevented the government from hailing the present arrangements as a “reinforcement” of the importance of environmental protection in public policy. Is there a moral to this story? Maybe it can be summed
up by a small piece of Portuguese folk wisdom: ‘How well preaches Friar Thomas! Do as he says, not as he does!’
OCTOBER 2010
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