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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