Recommendations
13. The
Government, despite its innovative work on developing Natural
Capital Accounts, is not currently showing sufficient leadership
around biodiversity and environmental protection. It should actively
champion this area in the Sustainable Development Goals in international
negotiations, so that the 'green thread' that runs throughout
the Goals leads to real improvements in environmental protection
and improved outcomes by 2030. (Paragraph 18)
14. The Government
should publically support a separate climate change goal in the
SDGs given the importance of reaching an ambitious global climate
change agreement in Paris next year. It should also re-consider
and rapidly phase out its continued subsidies to carbon intensive
energy sources in line with the commitments made at Rio +20 and
the Secretary General's call to phase out "harmful subsidies".
The Government needs to do more domestically to support the transition
to a low carbon economy, including urgently working with the FCA
to make it easier for community groups to register as energy co-operatives.
The Government should clearly set out the steps it is taking to
achieve this. (Paragraph 27)
15. The Government's
renewed focus on income poverty should not view economic development
in isolation, but equally consider the environmental and social
impacts of this economic activity and promote low carbon growth.
It should demand the highest standards of environmental protection
in trade deals, and ensure unequivocally that there is no potential
for these to be undermined through dispute settlement mechanisms.
(Paragraph 29)
16. The UK should
lead international efforts to improve air quality in cities in
developing countries, where an increasing number of people live.
This could include international knowledge sharing around effective
low emissions zones, low-emissions transport, and vehicle and
fuel standards to save lives. (Paragraph 31)
17. The Government
should accelerate its work on resource efficiency and the circular
economy, including through negotiating ambitious targets within
the European Union. The Government should expand the requirement
for corporate sustainability reporting beyond carbon emissions.
Defra should ensure that this agenda is embraced across Government,
and DFID should review its aid programmes to find opportunities
to fund circular economy approaches. As it considers how best
to support its future aid programmes to promote economic growth,
it needs to learn lessons from the environmental degradation that
has frequently accompanied rapid economic growth. It should ensure
that all projects funded with UK aid, from international to community
level, including the components implemented by delivery partners,
are screened for climate and environment risks. It should also
ensure that economic development related programmes fully safeguard
biodiversity and tread a new path which de-couples economic growth
from natural resource use. (Paragraph 38)
18. The UK is right
to have a focus on completing the task of the MDGs in eliminating
'extreme poverty', but this can best be achieved as part of a
wider focus that includes tackling inequality to help deal with
both poverty and social cohesion. The UK should support the inclusion
in the SDGs of a range of inequality indicators to measure and
monitor inequality, and should design programmes to tackle both
extreme poverty and inequality simultaneously. (Paragraph 45)
19. It is important
that the UK respects the wider international consensus established
around the 17 Open Working Group goals, in order for the process
to have national ownership and legitimacy. The Government is right
to seek an SDG framework that can be compellingly communicated,
but any continued argument for a smaller number of Goals, in the
face of the Secretary General's recent guidance, risks creating
unnecessary divisions between countries when it should be seeking
to build support for ambitious action. At the forthcoming European
Council, and beyond, the Government should push for an EU position
which favours a comprehensive coverage in the SDGs of all pillars
of sustainable development as set out in the Open Working Group's
17 Goals. (Paragraph 53)
20. Defra should now
start to play a stronger role, in collaboration with the Cabinet
Office, in working with all departments, including the Treasury,
to consider the domestic implications of the goals and pursue
policies consistent with sustainable development. (Paragraph 57)
21. The Government
should report clear annual results summaries for the International
Climate Fund, which detail the impacts that the programmes have
had. It should particularly ensure that expenditure on forestry
programmes has clear impact indicators. (Paragraph 65)
22. The Government
should publish an annual report outlining its spending on biodiversity-
related projects overseas, and the impact these have had. It should
prioritise funding to support the establishment of Marine Protected
Areas in the UK overseas territories, such as Pitcairn, and explore
with the World Bank and others the most appropriate ways of sustainably
financing and managing these. (Paragraph 68)
23. The ONS and Defra
(as the lead department for domestic sustainable development)
need ensure that the appropriate data and systems are in place
to monitor and report on the UK's delivery of SDG targets. It
should review the UK's Sustainable Development Indicators and
ensure that these reflect the key nationally-relevant SDG indicators,
including on sustainable consumption and production. (Paragraph
75)
24. Given the global
significance of the Sustainable Development Goals and their powerful
vision for the next 15 years, the Government should do more to
engage young people in the UK with the new goals, and with the
concepts of sustainable development. This should include taking
Education for Sustainable Development seriously, and integrating
it into the National Curriculum, and supporting the NUS' proposals
for a new accreditation scheme and questions in the National Students
Survey. It should look to maximise the value of the International
Citizens Service, by integrating the proposed Sustainable Development
Goals into the material that young people use to prepare for their
period of ICS service, and supporting them in sharing these messages
about sustainable development more widely in their communities.
The Government should also review the channels it uses to promote
the ICS to ensure it has as wide a geographic reach across the
UK and across all parts of society as possible. It should embrace
creative and powerful ways of communicating the urgency of sustainable
development, such as the approach taken by the Hard Rain project,
and its proposal to promote the SDGs simultaneously in universities
around the world. It needs to engage all stakeholders, including
businesses, schools and higher and further education colleges,
and NGOs to raise awareness in the run up to the UN General Assembly
and Paris Climate Change conference at the end of 2015, and beyond.
(Paragraph 83)
| 
