How many people doing what in Australia?

So should we increase Australia’s population, which primarily means increasing immigration?

If we retain the present economic conditions the resounding environmental answer would have to be no. However, a higher population is possible with less environmental impact than we have now. But this would involve fundamental reforms that would both environmentally modernise and enhance the productivity of our economy.

Let’s look at the current OECD environmental data.

Australia is the highest per capita greenhouse gas emitter.

Australia has the third highest greenhouse gas emissions per unit of GDP behind only the ex-Soviet bloc economies of the Czech Republic and Poland.

These two measures together indicate that we are close to being the least energy efficient country in the OECD.

We are the second highest producer of waste per head behind the USA.

Australia is the driest inhabited continent. Yet we use more water per head than any other continent except north America.

A report to the recent World Economic Forum has shown that Australia lags badly in terms of environmental performance compared to similar countries, and on some factors, with the whole rest of the world.

While we perform very well on a few indicators, especially relating to science and food, we were badly ranked on many.

Of 142 countries Australia was:

• 128^th in reducing air pollution.
• 125^th in conserving biodiversity.
• 125^th in reducing waste and consumption pressures.
• 105^th in eco-efficiency.
• 134^th in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.