Archived press release

Sustainable Development Declaration

1 July 1998

An unprecedented group of organisations with members, supporters and customers numbering millions have joined forces to call for integrated Government action on sustainable development [1]. This is the first time that such a wide range of organisations,including banks and public sector bodies as well as non-governmental organisations and key individuals working on environmental policy, health, poverty and constitutional reform,have come together to back this central policy demand [2].

The declaration has been sent today to the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

While welcoming the Government's promise to put the sustainable development principle at the heart of Government, the declaration's 33 signatories are calling for the Government to establish three new key objectives of:

.inclusive social progress which recognises needs, provides opportunities and improves health for all;

.effective environmental protection and prudent use of resources within environmental limits;

.developing a high-quality, competitive and environmentally efficient economy to sustain and improve human well-being.

The groups are also calling for Government action to put sustainable development into practice:

.in setting clear and measurable targets for these three objectives of sustainable development which explicitly reflect environmental limits and the importance of increasing equity;

.in forthcoming legislative programmes beginning with the Queen's Speech in October 1998 and in White Papers to provide a supporting cross-cutting policy

framework for all programmes;

.in the outcomes of the Comprehensive Spending Review - with respect to both domestic and overseas spending and investment;

.in the 1998 Autumn Statement and subsequent Budgets with faster progress towards fair and environmentally efficient taxes and spending, the elimination of perverse subsidies and incentives and the establishment of new and helpful measures of progress and wellbeing;

.in measures to renew and enhance democracy and a sense of community in the UK,including the devolution of power and responsibilities;

.across all Departments' work programmes with more transparent and effective processes to ensure "joined-up thinking in government"; and

.in annual reporting by the Prime Minister to Parliament on progress towards these sustainable development objectives.


Full text of the declaration

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The groups' action forms part of their individual and collective responses to ongoing Government consultations over a new Sustainable Development Strategy.

2. Signatories to the joint declaration are:

Association of Local Authorities of Northern Ireland
Association for Public Health
British Medical Association (Public Health Committee)
Charter 88
Chartered Institute of Housing
Chartered Institute of Environmental Health
Christian Aid
Child Poverty Action Group
Church Action on Poverty
Civic Trust
Co-operative Bank
Council for the Protection of Rural England
Energy Action Scotland
Forum for the Future
Friends of the Earth
Green Alliance
National Housing Federation National Federation of Women's Institutes
Oxfam
Poverty Alliance
Public Health Alliance
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
The Princes Trust - Bro
The Wildlife Trusts
Triodos Bank
Save the Children
Sir Richard Southwood
Sustainable Agriculture Food and the Environment (SAFE) Alliance
United Nations Environment and Development - UK
UNISON
Women's Environmental Network
World Wide Fund for Nature

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