Appendix 3: The UK government's sustainable development
principles
As set out in the 1999 UK Sustainable Development
Strategy, the Government has undertaken to take account in its
policies of ten sustainable development principles:
Putting people at the centre
Taking a long term perspective
Taking account of costs and benefits
Creating an open and supportive economic system
Combating poverty and social exclusion
Respecting environmental limits
The precautionary principle
Using scientific knowledge
Transparency, information participation and access
to justice
Making the polluter pay
In relation to future departmental annual sustainable
development reporting, it should be noted that, in March 2005,
the UK Government published Securing the Future, the new Sustainable
Development Strategy for the UK. This identified the following
five key principles for sustainable development:
- Living Within Environmental
Limits—Respecting the limits of the planet's environment,
resources and biodiversity—to improve our environment and
ensure that the natural resources needed for life are unimpaired
and remain so for future generations.
- Ensuring a Strong, Healthy and Just Society—Meeting
the diverse needs of all people in existing and future communities,
promoting personal wellbeing, social cohesion and inclusion, and
creating equal opportunity for all.
- Achieving a Sustainable Economy—Building
a strong, stable and sustainable economy which provides prosperity
and opportunities for all, and in which environmental and social
costs fall on those who impose them (polluter pays), and efficient
resource use is incentivised.
- Using Sound Science Responsibly—Ensuring
policy is developed and implemented on the basis of strong scientific
evidence, whilst taking into account scientific uncertainty (through
the precautionary principle) as well as public attitudes and values.
- Promoting Good Governance—Actively promoting
effective, participative systems of governance in all levels of
society—engaging people's creativity, energy, and diversity.
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