§ Lord Rippon of Hexhamasked Her Majesty's Government:
What further action they intend to take in response to the report of the World Commmission on Environment and Development.
The Minister of State, Department of the Environment (The Earl of Caithness)We gave an immediate and warm response to the World Commission's report,Our Common Future, when it was launched in London in April 1987. Since then we have offered consistent support, particularly in the United Nations General Assembly debate last October, to the report's call for sustainable development.
At last month's Economic Summit in Toronto the Prime Minister and her summit colleagues formally endorsed this message. We have now prepared and published today a more detailed examination of the report's recommendations in what we are calling a United Kingdom perspective. This perspective, produced by my department in full co-operation with other interested Departments of State, represents this Government's views on the many, complex environmental issues analysed in the report.
In her foreword the Prime Minister writes:
It is intended to inform interested organisations and individuals at home, and to stimulate further international consideration of the report, notably within the OECD and the United Nations. I see it also as a contribution to the Ministerial Conference which the Norwegian Government will hold in 1990 to examine what progress we have all made to safeguard 'Our Common Future'".Copies of the perspective have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.