The incoming government should make sustainable development a benchmark by which all policies are measured, the national sustainable development council said today.
Professor Frank Convery, chairman of Comhar, said the "environment, economy and society at large" would benefit but "time is now critical".
Comhar today submitted a range of proposal to prospective government parties.
The agency urged the incoming minister for finance to implement a polluter-pays policy and a green purchasing policy in which government "uses its power in the market place to support enterprise and products and services that conserve the environment".
"Whatever shape the new government takes, it will have the opportunity to make sustainable development the fulcrum around which national policy in all areas can be built," Prof Convery said.
Good planning was also intrinsic to the creation of an environmentally efficient transport infrastructure, he added.