Select Committee on Environmental Audit Twelfth Report


INTRODUCTION

    "…at the World Summit on Sustainable Development we agreed a most impressive Plan of Implementation. We were rightly ambitious, we achieved much. But the real measure of success will be in how far we can shift from fine words, to action on the ground".

    The Rt Hon. Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

    Commission for Sustainable Development, New York, April 2003

1. For two weeks in August and September 2002, Johannesburg was host to the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) - the largest and most important gathering on sustainable development since the landmark Rio Earth Summit ten years earlier. Over a hundred Heads of State and Government, including the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, came together with parliamentarians and representatives from United Nations Agencies, multinational financial institutions, business, regional and local government, non-governmental organisations and individual activists. They discussed how to tackle on-going global problems such as poverty, lack of access to clean water and sanitation and the unsustainable use of natural resources. At the Summit, they sought to identify priorities and initiate implementation plans for future global, national and regional efforts to attain sustainable lifestyles consistent with economic development, environmental protection and social justice.

2. The UK Government was one of 180 participating nations to sign up to the resulting political declaration, Plan of Implementation, and range of partnership initiatives which represent the main summit commitments. Our inquiry has examined the follow-up action being taken by the UK Government to implement these commitments, and its arrangements for monitoring and reviewing progress. The commitments cover an extensive range of issues and policies. We have taken an overview of the general UK approach rather than investigating specific topics.

3. We launched our inquiry on 28 October 2002.[1] In November 2002 we took evidence from officials from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to gain an early indication of the Department's thinking on the implementation phase of Summit commitments. In February 2003, we heard from Rt Hon. Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and head of the UK delegation to Johannesburg. We also took evidence from a range of stakeholders who had participated in the Summit including NGOs, the Sustainable Development Commission and representatives from business. We were especially pleased to have the opportunity to hear a non-UK perspective on WSSD follow-up from the Canadian Commissioner of Environment and Sustainable Development as well as the Chair and members of the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development.

4. This inquiry follows on from our scrutiny of the preparations for the summit which we reported upon in March 2002.[2] In August 2002 a small delegation from the Committee attended the Summit to observe first hand the UK's role in the proceedings and to participate in the associated parallel events. The delegation's report was published in December 2002.[3]

5. We are grateful to Mr Derek Osborne CB, Chairman of UNED-UK, for his continuing input into our WSSD-related work.


1   See Environmental Audit Committee press release 042, New inquiry - call for evidence-World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002:Turning rhetoric into reality, 28 October 2002. Back

2   Environmental Audit Committee, Third Report of Session 2001-02, UK preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, HC616 and Cm 5558, The Government's Response to the Environmental Audit Committee Third Report (2001-02): UK Preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Back

3   Environmental Audit Committee, Second Report of Session 2002-03, Johannesburg and Back: The World Summit on Sustainable Development - Committee Delegation report on proceedings, HC 169, December 2002. Back


 
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Prepared 23 October 2003