§ Malcolm BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what steps she proposes to take to improve Britain's ranking on the World Economic Forum's Environmental Sustainability Index; [37272]
1341W(2) if she will make a statement on the recent report of the World Economic Forum on Environmental Sustainability and its findings relating to the UK. [37708]
§ Mr. Meacher[holding answer 26 February 20021: In its Strategy for sustainable development for the UK, 'A better quality of life' published in 1999, the Government established 15 headline indicators (and a core set of around 135 indicators) to measure progress towards sustainable development by the country as a whole. The first review, 'Achieving a better quality of life', Government annual report 2000, was published in January 2001 and the second annual review will be published shortly. Looked at as a set, the 15 headline indicators can be seen as a "Quality of life barometer".
The Government decided against aggregating indicators along the lines of the World Economic Forum's Environmental Sustainability Index. Such indices may be useful as tools to raise awareness but their choice of components, and the way in which they are weighted together, is largely subjective. A different choice of components, or of weights, would give wholly different results and hence the resulting measures are potentially misleading. This is aptly illustrated by the fact that the World Economic Forum's choice of components last year resulted in the UK being ranked 16th in the world in the same Index, as opposed to 91st this year.
The Government believe that the headline indicators established by the 1999 Strategy present an alternative, more transparent and comprehensive picture than any aggregated measure.