§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what information he has received on the matters discussed and decisions taken at the workshop on national plans for sustainable development held by the Development Assistance and Environmental Policies Committees of the OECD in Ottawa in October.
§ Mr. YeoThe workshop was attended by representatives of OECD and other Governments, including officials from my Department and the Overseas Development Administration, and by non-governmental organisations (notably the UK-based International Institute for Environment and Development and the Overseas Development Institute) and by international agencies.
It was not a decision-taking forum. It compared the experience of different OECD countries (a) in preparing sustainable development strategies to follow up the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development and (b) in giving assistance with such plans to developing nations. The general view was that countries were likely to produce a variety of types of strategies and plans dealing with sustainable development, economic development, and environment and conservation policies, reflecting their different circumstances; the OECD however could try to assist international discussions, for example in the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, by drawing up its own guidelines on the common features that it might expect to find in strategies or plans that were intended as contributions to sustainable development. Another conclusion was that governments must integrate their policies for economic development and environmental protection.