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Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environmental Audit Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2004
Total Pages: 60
ISBN-13: 9780215020178
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIncorrect session years, 2002-03, given on title page
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2006-06-28
Total Pages: 68
ISBN-13: 9780215029478
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe regular annual report, the Sustainable Development in Government report, covering the whole of central government on environmental and sustainable development issues, is seen as a success in the "greening government" initiative since 1997, along with the Framework for Sustainable Development on the Government Estate. Reporting by individual departments is less satisfactory. The Framework contains targets for departments on public reporting of their sustainable development impacts, but they are neither demanding nor specific. Some significant areas of departmental activity fall outside the parameters for sustainable development reporting, for example involvement in PFI contracts, and the Committee wants departments to be able to report on these matters. The UK Sustainable Development Strategy required all departments and executive agencies to produce an annual Sustainable Development Action Plan (SDAP) by December 2005. The Committee is disappointed that 14 departments and agencies did not meet this deadline. The Committee would like SDAPs to be published alongside the departmental annual reports in the spring. This report also includes, as an annex (p. 11-41), the National Audit Office briefing, detailing the findings of its review of annual sustainable development reporting by UK government departments in 2004.
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2011-03-22
Total Pages: 40
ISBN-13: 9780215557056
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Localism Bill will devolve powers to councils and neighbourhoods and aims to give local communities more control over housing and planning decisions. It includes measures to reform the planning system, the provision of housing and a range of local authority governance issues. The Bill will abolish Regional Spatial Strategies (which set a regional-level planning framework for England) and will establish neighbourhood plans and neighbourhood development orders, by which it is intended that communities will be able to influence council policies and development in their neighbourhoods. The Government intends to introduce a 'presumption in favour of sustainable development' as set out in the Conservative Party's 2010 Green Paper 'Open Source Planning' and then in the Coalition Agreement. The presumption does not feature in the Localism Bill, although it will be included in a new National Planning Policy Framework. Evidence taken by the Committee highlighted a number of potential risks with the proposed reforms. These included: fairness in influencing neighbourhood development; monitoring the cumulative impacts of locally determined planning decisions; and the application of sustainability and climate change duties to neighbourhood planning. The Committee feels that the Localism Bill must provide a statutory duty to apply the principles of sustainability in the planning system and other functions of local government and provide a commitment to define the term 'sustainable development' in the planning context. This would include in the Bill the five internationally recognised principles of sustainable development as set out in the 2005 Sustainable Development Strategy. This should then be developed for the National Planning Policy Framework
Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environmental Audit Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2008
Total Pages: 128
ISBN-13: 9780215523907
DOWNLOAD EBOOKSince last investigated in 2003, the Export Credits Guarantee Department has continued to make progress on sustainable development that deserves to be recognised. Sound foundations have been laid and mechanisms put in place that offer a good framework for further action. There is still room for improvement in the way sustainable development is incorporated into the agency's decision-making and the ECGD must ensure its activities are in line with wider Government aspirations on sustainable development. The challenge is for the ECGD to demonstrate that sustainable development is given appropriate weight within its current remit and that it does nothing that would actively undermine this principle. In particular, the ECGD should identify areas where its environmental standards could be tightened. More rigorous standards can then be applied across its portfolio, including to aerospace exports. The ECGD must improve the transparency of its assessment processes and increase the level of disclosure of project information. It is important that the department does more to attract renewable energy and other projects that support sustainable development; support from Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR) will be vital in taking this forward. The ECGD's approach to sustainable development is all the more important because of its ability to influence and raise standards internationally. A bolder approach from the ECGD on sustainable development issues and transparency will be vital in improving the performance of Export Credit Agencies in general.
Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environmental Audit Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2005
Total Pages: 52
ISBN-13: 9780215022400
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis is a follow-up to the Committees report (HCP 98, session 2002-03, ISBN 021501328X) which looked at the outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), which took place in Johannesburg in 2002. This report examines the UK implementation of the WDC commitments. A briefing by the National Audit Office (included in this report) reviews the co-operation between the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the UN Sustainable Development Commission (SDC). The WSSD Table of Commitments should be regarded as a delivery mechanism, even though it was not drafted clearly enough. UK Government departments should incorporate WSSD commitments more vigorously into their departmental activities, and there should be more comprehensive and frequent progress reports for the benefit of Parliament, the general public, and the SDC.
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2011-01-10
Total Pages: 152
ISBN-13: 9780215555816
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFunding of the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) will cease at the end of March 2011, and Defra's capability and presence to improve the sustainability of Government will be increased. Whilst regretting the Government's decision to stop funding the SDC, the Committee sees an opportunity to reassess and revitalise the architecture for delivering sustainable development. The experience of SDC's work within Government departments to improve their sustainability skills and performance is at risk of being lost, so the Government must ensure that this knowledge and expertise is absorbed by departments. Sustainable development needs to be driven from the centre of Government by a Minister and department with Whitehall-wide influence. They must be capable of holding all departments to account for their sustainable development performance. The Committee does not think Defra is best placed to lead this drive, and recommends that the Cabinet Office assume this role. And the Treasury could use its position to continue to develop 'sustainability reporting' by departments, strengthen the system of impact assessments and the 'Green Book' investment appraisal methodology for policy-making, and embed the results of the Government Economic Service review of the economics of sustainability and environmental valuation into those impact assessments and appraisals. Greater political leadership from the top should be brought to bear. The Government must introduce a full set of indicators to measure sustainable development that can be used to develop policy and must provide a new strategic underpinning for its commitment to sustainable development as an overarching goal of Government policy-making.
Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environmental Audit Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2013
Total Pages: 32
ISBN-13: 9780215064516
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis report examines how well new processes and systems for embedding sustainable development are working in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. This is the first report of its kind - examining an individual department in this way - by the Committee. It examines BIS performance against sustainable operations targets, the role of a 'Sustainability Champion' and a Sustainability Committee in BIS, and how well sustainability considerations are taken into account in policy-making case studies. These case studies included the Regional Growth Fund and the Industrial Strategies initiative. They found that overall the Department was delivering on their sustainable operations targets, although that was in part the result of reductions in staffing and the size of the BIS estate. On policy-making, however, analysis of specific case studies indicates that environmental and social aspects of sustainability are not getting the same attention as economic factors. The assessment process needs to be reformed to do so. Defra and the Cabinet Office should challenge other government departments which have similar grant schemes to do the same. They are also disconnected from the BIS Business Plan process, weakening the main vehicle by which Defra and the Cabinet Office challenge the sustainability-proofing of BIS policy-making. BIS, including its agencies and NDPBs, should produce sustainable development strategies, to provide a reference point for sustainability initiatives by senior management and the sustainability champion, and to allow all staff to readily understand the wider sustainable development imperatives
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: European Scrutiny Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2006-06-26
Total Pages: 168
ISBN-13: 9780215029386
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThirty-first report of Session 2005-06 : Documents considered by the Committee on 14 June 2006, including: A citizens agenda - delivering results for Europe; Preliminary draft budget 2007, report, together with formal Minutes
Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environmental Audit Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2004
Total Pages: 52
ISBN-13: 9780215018496
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe phrase greening government was coined by the Committee to describe the objective of ensuring environmental concerns are incorporated into all aspects of government policy, in terms of appraisal and development, as well as in operational aspects of departmental performance (such as recycling waste and reducing energy consumption). Following on from the Committee's previous report on the Greening Government Initiative (HCP 961, session 2002-03; ISBN 0215013786) (November 2003), this report focuses on the progress made during the period from April 2002 to March 2003. The Committee concludes that, although progress continues to be made in some areas, there is a perceptible loss of overall momentum, particularly in embedding sustainable development within government policy making.
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: European Scrutiny Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2005-11-14
Total Pages: 84
ISBN-13: 9780215026224
DOWNLOAD EBOOKPages 3 to 7 of this report discuss the Commission's communication on reducing the climate change impact of aviation. Although fuel efficiency of aircraft has increased by more than 70 per cent over the past 40 years, this has been more than offset by the even higher growth in traffic. Whilst the Community's total emissions of greenhouse gases controlled under the Kyoto protocol fell by 5 per cent between 1990 and 2003, those from international aviation increased by 73 per cent. Aviation, though, remains largely outside the measures which have been taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Commission proposes including aviation within the Community's emissions trading scheme, and will introduce legislative proposals to this effect by the end of 2006. The Committee recommends the communication for debate in European Standing Committee A.
