1. Government Strategy for Sustainability Development
The UK strategy for sustainable development, “Securing the Future” was issued in March 2005. Sustainable consumption and production (SCP) was and is a key issue for UK action. A range of activity is indicated to take the SCP agenda forward including promotion through:
1 better products and services, which reduce the environmental impacts from the use of energy, resources, or hazardous substances
2 cleaner, more efficient production processes, which strengthen competitiveness,
3 and shifts in consumption towards goods and services with lower impacts.
2. Securing the Future
The forward to the official publication "Securing the Future" was written by the prime minister, Tony Blair, and is reproduced here as it provides a good overview and illustrates the aims of Government at that time (Securing the Future-Crown copyright 2005):
"In 1999 my government first set out our strategy to help deliver a better quality of life through sustainable development. Six years on we have reviewed that strategy to take account of changes within the UK – devolution to Scotland and Wales, and to regional bodies and local government – and internationally with the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002.
Make the wrong choices now and future generations will live with a changed climate, depleted resources and without the green space and biodiversity that contribute both to our standard of living and our quality of life. Each of us needs to make the right choices to secure a future that is fairer, where we can all live within our environmental limits.
That means sustainable development.
This is an agenda for the long-term. There is no magic wand that government or any one else can wave to make sustainable behaviour and activity the norm overnight. We will only succeed if we go with the grain of what individuals and businesses want, and channel their creativity to confront the environmental challenges we face. Development, growth, and prosperity need not and should not be in conflict with sustainability.
Over the past six years scientific opinion has moved decisively to an almost universal consensus that climate change is happening and is the result of human activity. That means we can move the debate from whether there is a problem to how to deal with it.
Yes, climate change represents a potentially catastrophic threat, but it is within our
control to address it – and address it we must. Climate change will not only affect the UK but all parts of the world, and it stands to most damage those areas least able to adapt to it particularly sub-Saharan Africa. However, we must also respond to this challenge at home.
Our 2003 Energy White Paper set us on a clear path to a low carbon economy. Our task now is to deliver at home and find ways to get international agreement through the G8 and other forums to strengthen the global effort to tackle climate change.
Although climate change is the most serious global environmental threat, promoting new, modern, sustainable ways of living, working, producing and travelling also stand to achieve wider benefits to human health and well being. We need to maintain our duty of care towards our natural resources, for our own benefit and for the benefit of future generations.
We are increasingly aware of the need to make care for the environment an integral part of policy making from the start, rather than dealing with the consequences of neglect down the line. We need to regard the local environment as a major public service (like the NHS or education) which benefits us every day. Looked at this way, it is clear why policies to promote better quality environments also have the capacity to have long-term social and economic benefits.
Often those people who are most economically and socially disadvantaged also live in degraded environments with fewer jobs, unsafe and ugly streets. Our goals are a strong economy, and decent homes in places with clean, safe and green public spaces, where people are able to lead healthy lives, and enjoy the environment around them. So our new strategy contains not only a commitment to create sustainable communities but a commitment to give a new focus to tackling environmental inequalities as well.
The response to the consultation for this strategy made clear that what was needed in this strategy was a move into action. So the strategy includes clear actions to promote sustainability by involving people, leading by example and by demonstrating our commitment to deliver:
· Our new Community Action 2020 programme will give people the opportunity in every community in the country to make a difference locally – or globally. We have seen what some communities have done with Local Agenda 21 – I want to see that energy, throughout the country, coming up with local solutions and actions – on transport, on waste, on energy and on creating places where people want to live.
· Government will lead by example. The UK Government buys £13 billion worth of goods and services each year. For the wider public sector this figure is £125 billion. We want to ensure that we spend your money sustainably, starting with a commitment to buy cleaner cars and by our new offsetting scheme to reduce the carbon impacts of unavoidable air travel.
In this document we show how every government department will contribute to this strategy. I want every government department to produce its own action plan by the end of the year so we can ensure delivery.
· To show we are serious about delivery, we will stop reporting our own progress and hand that task over to a strengthened Sustainable Development Commission, which will act as the independent “watchdog” of government progress.
This is a truly challenging agenda. It will involve working across departmental
boundaries and through all levels of government – from the neighbourhood to the
United Nations. It involves channelling the power of business by stimulating the market to innovate and to produce more cost effective and sustainable options for all purchasers.
It needs the commitment of voluntary groups, and it involves influencing the
individual everyday choices we all make. Most of all, it means focussing on long-term solutions, not short-term fixes. Targeting prevention now, rather than putting right later. Ensuring we get the full environmental, social and economic dividend from every pound we spend.
We have spent a long time getting to grips with the concept of sustainability. I want to declare a moratorium on further words. I want this new strategy to be a catalyst for action to secure our future."