APPENDIX 2
Memorandum from the British Government
Panel on Sustainable Development
The British Government Panel welcomes the opportunity
to submit formal evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee
with respect to the Committee's inquiry into the Greening Government
initiative. The Panel has been requested to present formal evidence
on:
— the Panel's role in the Government's
pursuit of sustainable development;
— assessment of the Government's response
to the Panel's recommendations;
— Government's attitude to the Panel's
work in general.
PANEL'S
ROLE IN
THE GOVERNMENT'S
PURSUIT OF
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The Government Panel on Sustainable Development
was established by the then Prime Minister in January 1994 to
advise the Government on strategic issues arising from the Sustainable
Development Strategy and other post-Rio reports on climate change,
biodiversity and forestry.[1]
The Panel keeps in view general issues of economic
development and environmental protection, identifies major problems—or
opportunities—likely to arise, monitors progress and considers
questions of priority. The Government consults the Panel on issues
of major importance, and the Panel itself, raises issues that
it believes to be important with appropriate Ministers, whatever
the Department. The Panel can also advise the Government on a
confidential basis if requested to do so. It keeps in touch with
people in different sectors in Britain, and abreast of developments
in other countries.
The Panel comprises a small group of individuals
appointed by the Prime Minister with respect to their wide knowledge
and practical experience. Panel members combine their judgment
and provide the Government with collective advice. The Panel is
not expected to conduct analytical studies or write detailed reports,
which would duplicate the work of many other bodies, but draws
upon the experience of these bodies and the detailed work of others.
It meets formally at least four times a year.
The Panel's specific remit is:
— to keep in view general sustainability
issues at home and abroad;
— to identify major problems or opportunities
likely to arise;
— to monitor progress; and
— to consider questions of priority.
The normal practice is for the Panel to consider
four topics of its own choosing each year. The Panel then commissions
Government position papers on these topics via the Cabinet Office.
Subsequently the Panel seeks the view from the outside organisations
and individuals on the Government's position papers. The Panel's
deliberations and recommendations on the four topics are then
submitted to the Prime Minister in its Annual Reports, normally
published in January. An official Government response to the Panel's
recommendations is usually published in March.
Each year the Panel reviews progress by Government,
and other relevant organisations, in responding to its previous
recommendations. The Panel's view of progress in implementing
its recommendations is recorded in its Annual Reports. To date
the Panel has published four Annual Reports.
In its first and Appendices to the Minutes of Evidences the Panel made
recommendations on eight wide-ranging topics: environmental pricing
and economic instruments; environmental accounting; environmental
education and training; depletion of fish stocks; ozone depletion;
biotechnology; forestry; and disposal of radioactive waste. In
its third Report the Panel made further recommendations concerning
Government procurement policy; subsidies; climate change and long-term
energy supplies; the impact of agriculture on biodiversity; air
quality; housing and land use planning. The Panel's fourth Report
made recommendations on marine biodiversity; endocrine disrupting
chemicals; green architecture; and the Office of Science and Technology's
Foresight programme.
This year the Panel's chosen topics are: how
British policy on sustainable development could best contribute
to employment; how current and future work in Britain on environmental
issues should contribute to, and be co-ordinated with, work current
and expected in the European Union and the Commission following
the British Presidency; the consequence for land-use of legislation
governing national parks, common land and the green belt; and
community and intellectual priority rights with respect to biological
sources in the light of the Biodiversity Convention. In addition,
the Panel will look at the predict and provide approach
brought out in the current estimations over roads and housing
requirements; and advise, as requested by Mr Meacher, the Minister
for the Environment, on a near final draft of the Government's
Sustainable Development Strategy [the consultation for this was
launched by the Deputy Prime Minister in February].
The Government has responded formally to the
Panel's recommendations made its first three Reports. A Government
response to the Panel's fourth Report, published in February,
is expected shortly. Copies of the Panel's four reports and the
three Government Responses are enclosed with this submission.[2]
— Assessment of the Government's response
to the Panel's recommendations and Government's attitude to the
Panel's work in general
On the whole the Panel is favourably impressed
by the positive responses to many of the Panel's recommendations
by successive Governments. The following reviews briefly the Government's
response to the Panel recommendations made in its first three
Reports drawing on the recommendations made in its fourth Report
where these are relevant.
ENVIRONMENTAL PRICING
AND ECONOMIC
INSTRUMENTS
In its first and Appendices to the Minutes of Evidences the Panel called
for detailed work on environmental pricing, and advocated the
wider use of economic instruments to ensure that environmental
costs were properly taken into account. In its third Report the
Panel carried these recommendations further by setting out the
principle of taxing what was bad, and rewarding what was good.
It suggested that the Government should in future prepare and
publish an overall assessment of the environmental consequences
of measures in its annual budget.
Since then there has been significant progress,
with the introduction of a landfill tax, the creation of environmental
trusts, and the undertaking by the present Government to include
in its budget a report on the budget's environmental impact. All
these initiatives are welcomed by the Panel. In the Panel's fourth
Report it was recommended that the Government undertake a review
of the impact of economic instruments on the environment so far,
and look at measures to deal with such questions as pollution
of surface water, sulphur emissions, and the use of solvents.
The Panel is encouraged by the announcement in the March Budget
that a working group under Sir Colin Marshall is to be set-up
to consider the wider application of economic instruments to reduce
industrial greenhouse gas emissions.
ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING
In its Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence the Panel recommended that
the Government should develop systems of national accounts that
brought together the three aspects of sustainable development,
economic, environmental and social change. The publication of
pilot environmental accounts in 1996 was an important step forward.
The Office for National Statistics, in its next report, has undertaken
to bring in new material, including use of water resources, water
pollution, and trade in natural resources.
While welcoming this progress, the Panel, in
its fourth Report, continued to recommend a comprehensive system
of national accounts whereby the whole range of factors could
be seen and judged in relation to each other. It also continued
to recommend the inclusion of information about the production
and disposal of radioactive wastes in the accounts.
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
AND TRAINING
In its first Report, the Panel made four main
recommendations: a comprehensive strategy for environmental education
and training; a comprehensive database to draw attention to the
many resources available; early action on the Toyne Committee
Report;[3]
and endorsement of the Talloires declaration[4]
by universities and institutions of higher education. Since then
progress has been patchy and superficial.
In its fourth Report, the Panel welcomed the
establishment of a new panel in September 1997 to strengthen partnership,
focus and co-ordinate activities, and recommend to the Government
action on education in sustainable development in England and
Wales.
DEPLETION OF
FISH STOCKS
In all four of its Reports the Panel has drawn
attention to the continuing decline in fish stocks worldwide,
and the lack of any coherent policies, long or even short-term,
for their sustainable management. In no area taken up by the Panel
has there been such little progress.
The Panel has made a number of recommendations.
Among them was for the Government to establish a new advisory
forum to promote consensus on controls to achieve sustainable
fisheries and the creation of an Intergovernmental Panel on the
Oceans, analogous to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The Panel strongly reaffirms these recommendations which, as yet,
have not been acted on by Government.
OZONE DEPLETION
The Panel has also taken up the problems of
ozone depletion in all of its Reports and made a number of recommendations.
Some progress has been made, but the Panel continues to stress
that particular attention to the need for greater efforts in dealing
with the illegal trade in ozone depleting substances, the need
to phase out the use of such harmful substitutes for CFCs and
HFCs, and the need for a national research strategy, with priorities,
to determine the scope of the problem caused by ozone depletion
in Britain and Europe generally.
BIOTECHNOLOGY
Following the recommendations in the Panel's
third Report, the previous Government organised a national conference
in March 1997 to establish likely developments in biotechnology,
in particular Genetically Modified Organisms, their benefits and
broad implications for human health and environmental safety,
and how these will influence the principles on which biotechnology
regulation is based. The present Government is still examining
the issues raised in the report of this conference. When the Panel's
fourth Report was published, in February, the Panel was advised
that Government would be announcing its response shortly.
FORESTRY
In its Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence the Panel recommended the
Government should draw up a national forestry strategy. Although
there has been little apparent progress since then, the Panel
welcomes the agreement at the G8 Denver Summit meeting of industrial
countries of June 1997 to launch an action programme for forests.
The Panel also welcomes the present Government's decision to publish
its own programme to meet the objective fixed at Denver by the
end of 1998.
DISPOSAL OF
RADIOACTIVE WASTE
In its last three Reports the Panel has drawn
to Government's attention the issues of the future role of nuclear
power, the options for handling radioactive waste and the danger
of nuclear weapon proliferation. All are issues which the Panel
believes the Government needs to tackle urgently. The Panel awaits
with interest the report of the House of Lords Select Committee
on Science and Technology on the management of radioactive waste
in Britain, expected in autumn.
GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT
POLICY
In its third Report, the Panel made a number
of recommendations concerning Government procurement policy: that
the Government should actively promote sustainable development
through procurement policies, and require other public bodies
to do likewise; monitor its success at integrating environmental
factors into its purchasing decisions; announce when environmental
policy and practice of firms competing for public contracts would
be made, and the central requirement in bidding for new contracts
to require suppliers to develop and maintain an environmental
policy during the life of a contract; and join with other countries
in the European Union, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development to promote initiatives on green procurement.
The Panel has welcomed the Government's intention
to monitor and report success in integrating environmental factors
into purchasing decisions, and the setting up of a Government/Industry
working group to look at the issues. Nevertheless, in its fourth
Report the Panel expressed serious misgivings over the Government's
statement in its response to the Panel's third Report that Government
procurement rules did "not permit dilution of money considerations
by assessing environmental aspects for potential suppliers irrespective
of the relevance of this to the contract". The Panel continues
to believe that the Government's approach should be broadened,
and Treasury guidance amended accordingly. The Panel in its fourth
Report again proposed that a target date should be set whereby
environmental policy and practice of firms competing for public
contracts would become an essential element in the assessment
of bids.
SUBSIDIES
In its third Report the Panel recommended that
the Government should set up a task force to draw up, within a
year, aims and principles for the future use of subsidies. While
agreeing that it should draw up such aims and principles, the
Government preferred to deal with the issue as part of the Government's
current comprehensive spending review rather than setting up a
task force for the purpose. In its fourth Report, the Panel questioned
whether this piecemeal approach would be effective. However, the
Panel has welcomed: the Government's agreement that all proposals
for new subsidies should be subject to environmental appraisal
whenever there was likely to be a significant environmental effect;
and, the commitment to greening Government generally.
CLIMATE CHANGE
AND LONG-TERM
ENERGY SUPPLIES
In its third Report the Panel made a number
of recommendations relating to long term British energy supplies
in the light of issues raised by likely human-induced climate
change, and measures taken to cope with it. The third Conference
of the parties to the Climate Change Convention which took place
in Kyoto in December 1997 gave rise to a mixed bag of results,
some encouraging, others disappointing. The Panel has welcomed
the Government's approach, in particular through setting targets
for reduction of atmospheric carbon emissions, which it hopes
will lead to effects during the current British Presidency of
the European Union, and its commitment to an energy policy designed
to produce cleaner, more efficient energy use and production.
THE IMPACT
OF AGRICULTURE
ON BIODIVERSITY
In its third Report, the Panel made proposals
for replacement of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the
European Union by a European Rural Policy. The Panel has welcomed
the Government's commitment to continue to pursue reforms to the
CAP. In its third Report the Panel also recommended that environmental
requirements should be attached to agricultural support payments
so that payments were conditional on the farmer meeting minimum
agreed standards set out in codes of practice. In its response
to this recommendation, the Government has stated that it would
not be practical or desirable to make support payments conditional
on codes of practice. The Panel does not agree and continues to
believe that support payments should be linked to Codes of Good
Practice.
AIR QUALITY
The Panel has welcomed the Government's reactions
to its proposals on improvement of air quality, and its efforts
to achieve further tightening of standards within the European
Union. There are few environmental hazards which make so strong
a public impact, and the measures proposed by the Government are
impressive.
HOUSING AND
LAND USE
PLANNING
In its third Report, the Panel raised the issue
of the use for development of green field against brown field
sites. In its fourth Report the Panel renewed its concern about
some of the planning assumptions arising from the previous Government's
paper on Household Growth: Where Shall We Live?[5]
The Panel continues to be sceptical about the figures underlying
forecasts of future housing needs. Such assumptions about pressures
on the housing market require routine critical scrutiny, and should
not be used for planning purposes.
12 May 1998
1 Sustainable Development: The UK Strategy.
Cm 2426. HMSO, 1994. ISBN 0-10-124262-X.
Climate Change: The UK Programme.
Cm 2427. HMSO, 1994. ISBN 0-10-124272-7.
Biodiversity: The UK Action Plan.
Cm 2428. HMSO, 1994. ISBN 0-10-124282-4.
Sustainable Forestry: The UK Programme.
Cm 2429. HMSO, 1994. ISBN 0-10-124292-1. Back
2 Not reproduced. Back
3 Environmental Responsibility. A Review of the 1993 Toyne Report.
Shirley Ali Khan. HMSO, 1996 ISBN 0-11-753298-3. Back
4 University Presidents for a Sustainable Future: The Talloires
Declaraton. Tufts University European Center, 1990. Back
5 Household Growth: where shall we live? Cm 3471. The Stationery
Office, 1996. ISBN 0-10-134712-X. Back
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