Select Committee on Environmental Audit First Report


The Scope of the Inquiry

1. Since its establishment in 1997, the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has scrutinised how Government departments and agencies incorporate sustainability into their operations and policy making. In recent reports, we have highlighted the need to integrate sustainable development principles across all sectors for progress to be made on sustainable development objectives, including in relation to trade and development. The EAC therefore set up a Sub-committee in February 2006 to study further the relationships between the environment, trade and development. The first Sub-committee inquiry examined how sustainable development, and environmental issues in particular, have been incorporated into the work of the Department for International Development (DFID). The second inquiry looked at the consideration of the environment in the international trade system and the World Trade Organisation.

2. Both of these inquiries drew heavily on the findings of the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), published in March 2005. The MA is a compelling analysis that not only describes the current and possible future state of the environment, but also what might be done to work towards environmental sustainability and poverty eradication. Given the defining nature of the MA, the Sub-committee became concerned that the watershed change in policy that it should have stimulated had so far not transpired. The Sub-committee therefore announced this inquiry to, inter alia, assess the impact of the MA in the UK and abroad, and to make recommendations as to how its conclusions might better be implemented.

3. The Sub-committee, chaired by Colin Challen MP, received 13 memoranda, and took oral evidence from 8 individuals, including Barry Gardiner MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. We are grateful to all those who contributed to this inquiry.


 
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Prepared 3 January 2007