Nappies and environmental policy

The UK Environment Agency's life cycle analysis of nappies concludes that neither type - disposable or cloth - is better or worse for the environment. The Women's Environmental Network disagrees, saying the report is analysis is seriously flawed.

As always there are bound to be valid arguments on both sides, as well as value judgements, boundary issues etc. The lesson for policymakers though is this: instead of trying to legislate for or against activities whose effect on the environment are not obvious, they should target environmental outcomes. Under a Social Policy Bond regime, people would have incentives to work out the best ways of achieving these outcomes. If you live close to a landfill site, for example, it might be better for the environment if you used disposable nappies rather than cloth. Only an outcome-based regime would reward people for taking a such a diverse, responsive approach.

With nappies, we are not talking about disaster scenarios. But the same mistake has been made with climate change. The politicians have decided that the way to prevent it is to cut back on anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. They have staked everything on this. Instead of targeting alleged causes, they should be rewarding people for achieving climate stability as cost-effectively as possible, however they do so. To see how, please read this published article about Climate Stability Bonds.