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What is sustainable development?
Sustainable development allows people to meet their basic needs and enjoy a good quality of life without compromising the quality of life of future generations.
In the last 20 years, it has become clear that our current model of development is unsustainable. The negative effect our consumption patterns have on the environment and the climate suggests we’re living beyond our means.
The Stern review on the economics of climate change looks at the effect of climate change and global warming on the world economy. Nicholas Stern’s team concluded that one per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) needs to be invested each year to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Failing to invest, the report says, risks global GDP being 20 per cent lower.
The UK Government, Scottish Executive, Welsh Assembly Government and the Northern Ireland Administration have agreed a set of principles that provide a basis for sustainable development policy in the UK, spearheaded by the new Department for Energy and Climate Change.
Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC)
The Department brings together much of the Climate Change Group, previously housed within The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), with the Energy Group from the former Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR).
The UK Government, for the first time anywhere in the world, is introducing a long-term legally binding framework to tackle the dangers of climate change.
The Climate Change Bill was published in 2008 to address both the causes and consequences of climate change. It creates a new approach to managing and responding to climate change in the UK.
The Road to Copenhagen: In December 2009, Denmark will host a major UN conference on climate change. This is a crucial opportunity to agree a new global agreement to come into effect when the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012.
The Department has also set out its own contribution to sustainable development.
“I can tell you with assurance that global, sweeping, concerted action is needed now. There is no time to waste.
“Slowing and even reversing the effects of climate change is the defining challenge of our age.”
- UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, launching the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 17 November 2007.
