Recommendations
To follow up our inquiry work over the last five
years, the next Government must:
a) In its input to
the EU and UN, actively lead and champion the inclusion of ambitious
SDG targets for biodiversity and air quality, having a separate
climate change goal, and addressing inequality reduction alongside
efforts to tackle extreme poverty. It is imperative that ambitious
and measurable SDGs are secured at the UN General Assembly in
the autumn. The next Government must also start work on Financing
for Development immediately after the Election, and ensure a coherent
and ambitious approach to the opportunities for embedding sustainable
development offered by the forthcoming UN conventions and conferences.
(Paragraph 22)
b) Co-ordinate all
departments to pursue policies that are consistent with sustainable
development and the agreed SDGs, and transparently report performance
against our domestic indicators. (Paragraph 23)
c) Ensure that young
people in the UK are engaged with the SDGs and involved in the
development of national implementation policies and targets. (Paragraph
24)
d) Make a commitment
to 'education for sustainable development' and integrate it consistently
across primary, secondary and tertiary education, with a duty
for teaching sustainable development added to the National Curriculum.
(Paragraph 25)
e) Lead from the front
in the EU and UN, building on the recent three-party climate change
pledge, in order to help secure an ambitious international agreement
that limits global warming. (Paragraph 26)
f) As an early priority,
set out new policies to deliver the carbon budgets, focussing
on residential and commercial energy efficiency, electrification
of heat and transport, power sector decarbonisation and reducing
energy demand. (Paragraph 27)
g) Consider and act
on the Committee on Climate Change's advice on the fifth carbon
budget promptly. It must not repeat the lengthy hiatus that occurred
in securing the agreement of the fourth budget and which served
to damage renewable energy business confidence. (Paragraph 28)
h) If the energy sector
is to achieve the agreed carbon budgets, set out a clearer direction
with a consistent focus on renewable energy in place of fossil
fuel energy. It should set a carbon-intensity target under the
Energy Act 2013 as an early priority. (Paragraph 29)
i) Reconsider UK Export
Finance's remit which allows it to support fossil fuel energy
projects abroad. And at home, set out a clear and straightforward
position on the role of subsidies for new nuclear and renewables.
(Paragraph 30)
j) Respond quickly
and positively to the advice on the National Adaptation Programme
from the Adaptation Sub-Committee later in 2015, and indeed to
our recent report on climate change adaptation. (Paragraph 32)
k) Reconsider the
current arms' length approach which leaves Arctic regulation of
UK-based oil companies to the Arctic states during the next revision
of the Arctic strategy. (Paragraph 33)
l) Set out an Environment
Strategy, setting out the actions needed to embed environmental
protection into policy-making, and underpinned by an independent
'office for environmental responsibility'. (Paragraph 34)
m) Quickly consider
the NCC's position, and put it on the long-term footing needed
to take forward their recommended 25-year plan to improve our
natural capital. (Paragraph 35)
n) Set out clear policies
in regard to biodiversity offsetting, the use of neonicotinoid
pesticides, environmental safeguards for HS2 and other major infrastructure
programmes, fracking and forestry (including its position on the
2015 review of EU timber regulations). It should also act early
on to give long term financial certainty for Kew Gardens (potentially
with DfID providing some of its funding) and for the Wildlife
Crime Unit. (Paragraph 36)
o) Complete the revision
of the Air Quality Strategy, currently underway, and reach decisions
on a potential national framework for low emission zones and a
rebalancing of the tax treatment of diesel and petrol. It will
have to urgently consider its approach to meeting EU air pollution
targets to reduce the likelihood and scale of possible infraction
fines, and before the end of 2015 set out clear demarcations in
responsibility for tackling air pollution between central and
local government. (Paragraph 38)
p) Review its environmental
research resources to ensure that it has the necessary future
capacity to give itself, and the public, sufficient independent
assurance on the effective operation of environmental protections
(Paragraph 39)
q) Demonstrate its
commitment to a green economy that balances the three elements
of sustainable development—economy, environment and society,
and produce a green skills strategy to ensure that skills and
training provision supports the aspirations of green economy policies.
(Paragraph 40)
r) Reactivate the
Green Economy Council and put it at the heart of the Government's
further work on the green economy. (Paragraph 41)
s) Give early consideration
to granting the Green Investment Bank borrowing powers, to allow
it to significantly scale up its investments. (Paragraph 42)
t) Produce
a green finance strategy that ensures that markets price-in the
cost of carbon, and creates greater market certainty and a more
favourable investment outlook for low-carbon energy by clearly
setting out policies on the linkages between the green economy,
climate change action and Industrial Strategies. (Paragraph 43)
u) Engage quickly
with the already underway negotiations of the EU/US Transatlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership, and work with the European Commission
to ensure that there is no 'race to the bottom' in environmental
regulations. (Paragraph 44)
v) In light of the
recent decision of the European Commission to drop a prospective
directive on the circular economy from its 2015 Work Programme,
consider what action it might take at national level to facilitate
a circular economy, with less waste and greater resource efficiency.
(Paragraph 45)
w) Introduce a system
to address sustainable development policy gaps in departmental
plans, and initiate action to improve government sustainable procurement
standards. New departmental targets for emissions, waste, water
and procurement must be introduced after the Election. Targets
should be established as long term goals aligned with UK sustainability
and emissions commitments, with interim milestones for each five-year
Parliament. (Paragraph 48)
x) Immediately start
to use the increasingly available well-being data to identify
new policies. Well-being and inequality will be increasingly urgent
public policy issues and these considerations must increasingly
influence policy decision-making. (Paragraph 50)
Our work over this Parliament has identified additional
issues in which further work and a more fundamental debate will
be needed in the next Parliament:
y) Greater effort
will be needed to ensure that a more appropriate balance between
the three pillars of sustainable development is followed in identifying
policies and in policy-making, and existing major policies such
as the National Planning Policy Framework refocused to follow
a genuinely sustainable approach. (Paragraph 58)
z) A clearly understood
concept of the precautionary principle will need to be articulated
and agreed by the Government and stakeholders, to reduce the likelihood
of environmental risks being insufficiently addressed. (Paragraph
62)
aa) New avenues will
need to be opened to engage proactively young people and civil
society in the sustainability agenda and ensure that their perspectives
are able to inform policy-making. (Paragraph 65)
bb) The debate on
the appropriate respective roles of central and local government
will need to be resolved, to place environmental risks with those
best placed to manage them and to avoid uncertainty over responsibilities
preventing necessary action. (Paragraph 70)
cc) There will need
to be further debate on both the risks and the benefits of valuing
ecosystem services, and the scope for taxes and fiscal incentives
to help rather than hinder environmental protection. (Paragraph
74)
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