Renew On Line (UK) 27

Extracts from the July-Aug 2000 edition of Renew
These extracts only represent about 25% of it

3. Sustainable Economics "Not Too Difficult!"

"The Government must be bolder with its powers to move the economy in more sustainable directions. Our society is still using far too much energy and creating far too much waste. Road traffic is still escalating, adding to its toll of congestion and pollution. Inappropriate, intensive agriculture is damaging our countryside and destroying our wildlife". So said Derek Osborn, Chairman of the UK Round Table on Sustainable Development, introducing its new report, "Not Too Difficult".

He went on "These damaging trends cannot be reversed by timid measures at the margin. We need to set clear goals for transforming our society over the next 10 to 20 years and seek support from the whole of our society for the necessary changes. Taxes and charges can play a crucial role in changing relative prices and giving clear signals."

Commenting further, Chairman of the subgroup on Economic Instruments, Baroness Young of Old Scone, said: ‘To achieve sustainability we need to deploy all the mechanisms we can, including economic instruments. Concerns about the impact of environmental taxes on international competitiveness and social equity, and about tax effectiveness, have meant that progress has been slow to introduce effective economic instruments. This report shows how these concerns, both real and perceived, can be overcome. We want more such instruments to be rescued from the 'too difficult' box!"

The report recommendations include:

* integrating the Sustainable Development Strategy more closely with the Budget and spending processes;

* overcoming objections to economic instruments, including better public information and earlier identification and mitigation of potential drawbacks;

* assessing of economic instruments to determine their effectiveness in delivering sustainable development objectives, adding complementary measures where they are judged less than fully effective;

* establishing an independent advisory body on economic instruments, reporting to the Treasury.

The Round Table says that it found ‘no evidence of significant effects of sustainable development economic instruments on macro-economic competition’. But, it adds ‘where there is real evidence of likely damage to competitiveness, the Government should adopt measures which give firms some flexibility in how to respond.’

The Round Table was established in 1995, to encourage discussion on major sustainable development issues and to build consensus between people who have different perspectives and responsibilities. It has members drawn from local government, business, environmental organisations and other sections of the community. John Prescott MP, is President and Ministers seek to take part in plenary discussions as appropriate. However, this does not imply Government endorsement of the Round Table's recommendations. The Round Table is shortly to be subsumed into a new Sustainable Development Commission, as announced in the White Paper A better quality of life (May 1999).

Copies of Round Table report are available free from the secretariat, at: 5th Floor, Romney House, Tufton Street, London SW1P 3RA Tel: 020 7944 4964 Fax: 020 7944 4959   e-mail: ukround_table@detr.gov.uk

The summary and recommendations are available at:

http://www.open.gov.uk/roundtbl/hometb.htm

UK ‘missing out on the green wave’

The findings of the Economic and Social Research Councils £15m Global Environmental Change research programme were presented to a meeting of the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee recently.

The main point to emerge was that the UK was failing to take advantage of science and technology to develop innovations to protect the environment. According to GECP director Frans Berkhout 'there is a huge opportunity for the government to reduce pollution, spur business innovation and create jobs. With clean technologies presenting one of the fastest- growing global markets, the UK must not miss the green wave.'

Prof. Dennis Anderson, Head of the Centre for Energy Policy and Technology at Imperial College, warned that 'having lost our lead in wind power technology, the UK is in danger of missing out on fuel cells, solar energy, and the next generation of cleaner cars as well'.

For the full reports see: http://www.gecko.ac.uk