ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the ways in which the international community, the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom government have responded to the agenda laid down by the Brundtland Report. The Brundtland report paved the way for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. As a supranational body with its own environmental policy, the EU was a signatory to the Rio Summit declaration in 1992 and the Kyoto agreement in 1997. The Fifth Environmental Action Programme is the EU’s sustainable development policy, entitled ‘Towards Sustainability’. The chapter aims to note the different emphases of the Conservative and Labour governments and examines the sustainable development agenda of the Labour government, which combines social, economic and environmental objectives. The Labour government is much more committed to the sustainable development agenda – particularly to social policy, which features heavily in its strategy document.
