Labour backtracks on 'green' target

By SIMON COLLINS science reporter

The Government has abandoned a promise to develop a "sustainable development strategy" in time for a world summit in Johannesburg in September.

The decision, which ministers say is to allow time for consultation, means debate on fundamental policy differences between Labour and the Greens can be deferred until after the election.

Green co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said yesterday that Cabinet papers released to the Herald showed that "in 2 1/2 years they have actually failed to do anything at all".

The convener of a scientific forum, Dr John Peet, said the principles in the papers did not include any measures "to actually make sustainable development happen".

"It's the best one I've seen so far from Government, but it's still got a long way to go."

The Government undertook in May last year, at a meeting of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, to produce a sustainable development strategy in time for Johannesburg. Eighty per cent of OECD countries are said to have strategies.

The Cabinet papers show that as late as April 22 this year, ministers ordered officials to draft a strategy by this month to allow for consultation before September.

But last week the Cabinet rescinded this order and directed officials instead to report by July 31 on "the Government's approach to sustainable development and on a consultation plan", with a strategy to be completed after the summit.

Environment Minister Marian Hobbs said yesterday from Bali, where she was attending a preparatory meeting for the summit, that the deferral was because "in the time we had left, the consultation was going to be extremely rushed".

"So we have kind of made a decision to go [to Johannesburg] with our country profile and a report on what we have done in the past 10 years.

"Then when we return, we'll have a draft out and ready for discussion, so Johannesburg becomes a point on the way of the journey to sustainable development and not the final destination."

On April 22, the Cabinet approved eight draft principles of sustainable development, including seeking "win-win solutions which maximise net benefit for the environment, economy, social and cultural development".

It promised "a precautionary approach to decisions that may have irreversible consequences" and to work "in partnership with other sectors".

But Ms Fitzsimons said the principles failed to acknowledge that there were ecological limits to economic growth. The strategy should include actual policies to promote renewable energy, cut waste and protect biodiversity, water quality and fish stocks.

She said it had become clear that Labour was "carried away with their 'Big Science' cargo cult and growth strategy and that sustainability is very subsidiary".

The director of the Business Council for Sustainable Development, Dr Rodger Spiller, welcomed the Government's draft as proof that profit and environmental responsibility were not mutually exclusive.

Dr Peet said all production of goods and services consumed resources and produced wastes. He suggested financing scientists, economists, sociologists and philosophers to develop a consensus on "what sustainability might mean long-term". Their report could form the basis of a wide public debate.

nzherald.co.nz/environment