GEPL335/535: Australian Air Quality and Behavioral Change Report

This report examines the effectiveness of Australian environmental legislation in promoting behavioral changes related to air pollution. It begins with an introduction to the Australian government's role in setting air quality standards and emission controls, highlighting the significance of state and t...Read More

Environmental planning and
administration

Contents
Environmental planning and administration....................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Statement.........................................................................................................................................4
Main body........................................................................................................................................4

Introduction
The Australian federal government is considered to be working with the state and the territory
government with the objective of setting the rules regarding the air quality and the emission
control. This is seen that the Australian government is very much concerned for the amount of
the air emission and the quality of air that is within the environment. This is considered that the
state and the territory governments are considered to be the responsible for implementing various
measures to protect the air and to monitor the obligations. It is considered as the duty of the
people of the country to follow the rules and the guidelines that are made by them so that they
are able to protect the environment in which they live. This is considered that the law is
mechanism that helps in bringing the behavioural change in the relation to the environment. The
report is based on the protection on the regulation of the air pollution which helps to change the
behaviour of the people of the country and to abide by the laws that are made by the government
so as to protect the environment.

Statement
“The Law is a mechanism for implementing behavioural change in relation to the environment.
Using an example (select one area of environmental law you are interested in), how effectively
has Australian domestic legislation (State or Commonwealth) resulted in behavioural change?”
Main body
This is seen that there are various regulations that are made by the government to regulate the
emission of the polluted air in the environment and also to help in making the environment more
clean. Hence the government of the country has made various guidelines that are majorly made
for the business owners who are having the industries in the country so as to reduce the emission
of polluted air in the environment. The environmental protection act 1993 is considered as the
main legislative foundation that helps in regulating the air quality in the country1. This is
considered to be the general duty of all the citizens to protect the air and practice the reasonable
steps to prevent or minimise the environmental harm. This also helps in developing the specific
protection of policies and the environmental health.
There are various policies that are made by the government some of which includes
 Environmental protection policy 2016: It is considered as the policy that came into
existence on July 2016 and helps in providing the legislative basis for the air quality
regulations and the management of the state. The policy included the criteria for
developing effective condition so as to assist businesses and the factories to reduce the
risk that is associated with the air emission quality. This was done through the help of the
system of licensing. This way the behaviour of the individuals were changed towards the
emission standards and the basic equipment’s were installed in the premises of the
factories through which they were able to minimise the carbon effluents in air2. Hence
some of the changes that were proposed by the air quality policy includes,
1 Broome, R. A., Fann, N., Cristina, T. J. N., Fulcher, C., Duc, H., & Morgan, G. G.
(2015). The health benefits of reducing air pollution in Sydney,
Australia. Environmental research, 143, 19-25.
2 Xia, T., Nitschke, M., Zhang, Y., Shah, P., Crabb, S., & Hansen, A. (2015). Traffic-
related air pollution and health co-benefits of alternative transport in Adelaide, South
Australia. Environment international, 74, 281-290.

o Regulation of the sale and installation of the wood heaters and the sale of
firewood.
o The streamlining of the council management and burning of the wood in the open
through consistent and coherent regulation across the state, this helped in ensuring
the ability to burn of bushfire
o The stack emission limits were also settled so that health and the environment
protection could be achieved.
Hence this can be said that through this policy and change in the emission rules various
organisation and the companies helped in corporation and achieving the objective of maximising
the environmental protection.
Also the national environmental protection measures for the air toxics were prepared in the year
2004. One more regulation that included the national environmental protection measure for the
diesel vehicle emissions were done which helped in exhaust emission from the diesel vehicle
through the process of compliance with the service emission standards3.
The government also made the national clear air agreement which focused on the actions to
reduce the air pollution and improve the quality of the air in society. This was done through the
co-operations of the industries and the government of the country. This agreement helped in
bringing a significant change in the behaviour of the industrialist and hence this helped to
achieve the objective of maximising the environmental protection.
The companies in the country took various step due to this regulation which includes that the
companies strengthened the sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide standards jointly so as to protect
the environment of the country. Also the initiatives were taken to reduce the localised emissions
which includes the non-road diesel engines in its category. The review were done on the fuel
quality as this was important for the purpose of the positive air quality outcomes. Also the focus
was done on strengthening the knowledge and the education level and awareness for the air
quality so that the behaviour of the people of the country changes4.
3 Jeuland, M., Pattanayak, S. K., & Bluffstone, R. (2015). The economics of household
air pollution. Annu. Rev. Resour. Econ., 7(1), 81-108.
4 Sullivan, R. (2017). Corporate responses to climate change: achieving emissions
reductions through regulation, self-regulation and economic incentives. Routledge.

So this was seen that the change in the policy was bringing the change in the behaviour of the
people of the country and this helped in making the air quality better and environment protection
more effective. The people of the country were now helping as they started moving to the
electric vehicles rather than the vehicles that leads to the air pollution. This was also seen that
citizens of the country installed the devices at their home chimneys that helped them in reducing
the amount of carbon emission and to reduce the amount of sir pollution that is communicated
through this process5.
So this can be said that government of the country performs the function of the making the laws
and the standards through which they are able change the behaviour of the citizens and making
the positive impact on the performance of their duty to achieve environmental protection.
5 Vince, J., & Hardesty, B. D. (2017). Plastic pollution challenges in marine and coastal
environments: from local to global governance. Restoration ecology, 25(1), 123-128.

Image source: https://www.der.wa.gov.au/your-environment/environmentally-sensitive-areas

Conclusion
From the above analysis and the report this can be said that the government of the country
performs various objectives of making the behavioural change in the minds of the people so as to
protect the environment of the country. This is seen that there are various rules and policies that
are framed by the government so as to protect the air from being polluted and hence these are
supposed to be followed by the citizens and mainly the organisation that are working in the
country. The factories and the industries are now using the techniques and the machines that
helps in reducing the carbon emission in the environment making the air polluted.