Estratègies per al desenvolupament sostenible - Generalitat de ...

7. The Financial Basis of the StrategiesNo strategy for sustainable development can succeed without financial backing.This is borne out by the experience of Agenda 21, which lost credibility as thegap between what was required and what was available became more apparent.The pronouncements and programmes of Agenda 21, though individuallyreasonable and compelling, when taken together and without a reference tosources of financing, appear little more than a wish list of things good to havebut beyond our reach 15 . In earlier strategies “finance” tasks were often limitedto adding up the cost of recommended actions and proposing increases in thegovernment budget. While it is important to mobilize finance for a sustainabledevelopment strategy, in particular to get the formulation process started, thisis not sufficient. As the concept of a sustainable development strategy hasmoved away from a focus on producing a plan document (often containing oraccompanied by a suite of proposed projects) to a more process-orientedapproach, so the financial challenges have changed.It is no longer simply a case of mobilizing funds for such projects or activities,with the government in the lead implementing role. A strategy is now seen asbeing more about setting a vision with broad directions, agreeing the attributesof a path towards sustainable development, and putting in place the keymechanisms. So attention must be given also to the financial mechanismsneeded to internalise environmental and social costs in order to achieve thenecessary changes in direction. Responsibility still lies primarily with governmentto introduce the required measures, but the aim is also to change financialbehaviour, particularly within the private sector; for example, to make pollutersand beneficiaries of environmental services pay.In its “Five Years after Rio” Report, the World Bank highlighted the need toremove perverse subsidies, impose environmental taxes and apply more adequateuser charges as policy instruments that could ensure financial sustainability.These instruments can be complemented by a range of others that can strengthenthe financial base for sustainable development strategies: for example, markets15 Panayotou, T (1994), Financial Mechanisms for Agenda 21 (or How to Pay for SustainableDevelopment), Harvard Institute for International Development, Massachusetts. 173