Environment Law Update: Miscellaneous 4

United Kingdom

Corporate social responsibility

A report entitled "Business and Society: developing corporate social responsibility in the UK", has been published by the Government. It is aimed at helping businesses to improve their social, environmental and local economic impact and their influence on society, social cohesion and human rights. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming increasingly important to shareholders, customers, employees and other stakeholders. The report offers advice to businesses on how they can benefit from CSR and features some of the best examples of good practice in the UK. Some new initiatives, including measures to help smaller businesses evaluate their CSR performance and guidance to pension fund managers on international and sustainable development, are also included. By working in partnership with businesses, the Government hopes its proposals for CSR can be taken forward in a mutually beneficial way. The report has been welcomed by Business in the Community's Business Impact Task Force, a business-led group that brought together best advice on CSR activities for the report. It points to a growing interest from businesses in these issues and sees it as an area where British companies have a strong track record, being well placed to contribute to future international good practice. Comments on the report are invited from individuals, businesses and non-government organisations.
(DTI, 16 March 2001)

Environment Agency

The EA has launched "An Environmental Vision: the Environment Agency's contribution to Sustainable Development" which sets out its long term policy for protecting and improving the environment and the pursuit of sustainable development. It sets out nine goals for achieving a healthy and diverse environment. The report takes into account the responses made to a consultation paper issued in June 2000. The EA also plans to publish a series of documents during 2001, setting out its strategy for achieving the long-term goals in the report.
(EA, January 2001)

An assessment of the state of the environment in England and Wales is included in a report by the EA entitled "Environment 2000 and Beyond". It concludes that although improvements have been achieved in water and air quality and wildlife over the last 20 years, there are still many outstanding challenges. Key areas identified for future work include the impact of climate change, and wildlife and habitats, which are under increasing pressure from housing, transport and intensive land use. Diffuse pollution of water sources, eg by agricultural pesticides was also highlighted as being of concern. The report calls for greater collective responsibility from industry and agriculture to improve environmental performance.
(EA, January 2001)

Soil strategy

The DETR and MAFF have published proposals for a soil protection strategy for England. As the condition of soil is influenced by a large number of natural phenomena and human activities, it is affected by a wide range of policies in different areas. Each of these policies includes many different social, economic and environmental objectives. Such a framework does not provide a mechanism for a systematic assessment of how the combined effects of this wide range of policies is affecting soil. The draft Soil Strategy is designed to review each of the many policies that potentially affect soil, with a view to developing systems that will allow judgements to be made on whether soils are being managed in a sustainable manner. It is conceded however, that the current lack of data on the quality and status of soils precludes the publication of a strategy with precise targets and goals. Response to the consultation paper should reach DETRby 31 May 2001.
(DETR, 3 March 2001)

Urban White Paper

The DETR has published its Implementation Plan describing how the Government will take forward the key recommendations contained in its Urban White Paper. The White Paper "Our Towns and Cities: the Future" was published in November 2000 and contained policies and initiatives aimed at bringing about urban regeneration. There are two versions of the Implementation Plan, one contains an account of the aims of the White Paper and what has been done to date. The other consists of the key future actions, which will be updated regularly to track progress on specific items mentioned in the White Paper.
(DETR, 23 March 2001)

SSSIs

A report by the Royal Society, Britain's academy of science, says that although 54 SSSIs were damaged in 2000 their overall condition was better than expected. It also states that although scientists often monitor SSSIs, there is no formal way for them to feed their findings back to the official bodies. The report warns that sites will continue to deteriorate without more funding and calls for more research to investigate the causes of damage. It concludes that greater statutory powers currently being phased in for the preservation of the natural environment will aid the future protection of SSSIs.
(Royal Society, February 2001)

Mobile phone masts and Human Rights Act

A London hospital was forced to withdraw its permission to allow new mobile phone masts on its roof after the Human Rights Act was invoked. Local residents objecting to the plan won their case on health grounds citing the Stewart enquiry which had backed a precautionary approach as it could not rule out adverse health effects even though it found no evidence of such effects.
(New Scientist, 10 February 2001)

European Union

Sixth environment action programme

The Commission has launched a Sixth Environment Action Programme, setting out its policy for the next ten years. It focuses on four main areas for action - climate change, health and the environment, nature and biodiversity and natural resource management - and stresses the importance of involving both business and the public. The proposal also advocates a greater use of market based mechanisms, such as the use of 'eco-labels' and ecological audits, instead of the traditional approach of limiting emissions. It is also supportive of environmental taxes and legal liability for environmental damage. However, proposals to phase out a range of hazardous substances in an earlier draft have been modified. Green politicians have criticised the proposals, claiming they contain too little detail and too few targets. The paper now has to be debated by the European Parliament and by the Council. The strategy paper is entitled 'Environment 2010: our future, our choice'.
(COM(2001) 31, 24 January 2001)

Integrated Product Policy

The European Commission has adopted a green paper on an Integrated Product Policy (IPP) with the broad aims of improving the environmental performance of products throughout their life cycle. It advocates that future products should use less resources, prevent waste and have lower environmental impacts and risks. The main goals of the green paper are to stimulate the supply and consumer demand for these products through economic instruments and by providing easily accessible information. IPP is one of the major innovative elements announced in the 6th Environmental Action Programme. The purpose of the green paper was to initiate a public debate on the IPP approach and the Commission will shortly reveal details of a number of consultation events.
(COM(2001) 68, 7 February 2001)

World summit on sustainable development

The European Commission has adopted a Communication "Ten Years After Rio: Preparing for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002", setting out priorities and actions for the EU in preparation for the summit in South Africa. The Commission are eager to ensure an effective EU contribution to the event and sees the forthcoming EU Sustainable Development Strategy and recently proposed 6th Environment Action Programme as being important. Four strategic objectives are proposed: increased global equity and an effective global partnership for sustainable development; better integration of environment and development at the international level; adoption of environment and development targets to revitalise and provide focus to the Rio process; and more effective action at national level with stronger international monitoring. The Communication concludes that although some progress has been made since the Rio Summit in 1992, the expectations raised have not been realised. A more detailed assessment of the progress made in achieving sustainable development will be produced later in 2001 and will serve as a basis for consultation.
(COM(2001) 53, 6 February 2001)