This article was written by Professor Mark Everard, IES Vice President, in response to circumstances that have been of interest to many IES members. It represents Mark’s perspective and is not an opinion of the Institution of Environmental Sciences as an organisation.

As a membership organisation, we provide a convening space where members and share their views and engage in healthy debate, so if you have a perspective on these (or any other) issues, please get in touch. We intend to publish a short series of papers from different IES members, leading to a discussion event later in the year where members can share their views.

In the article, Mark considers two major but conflicting conceptual influences which emerged into the policy arena and wider public understanding during the 1980s: monetarism and sustainable development. Mark reflects on "a resurgent era of unconstrained neoliberalism", suggesting a role for environmental science in response.