Sustainable development goals could be compromised by cuts, MPs warn UK
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Version 0 of 1. Britain will undermine the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) by trying to reduce their numbers and continuing to give tax breaks and susbsidies to the fossil fuel industry, a powerful group of MPs has warned. The targets, which will be approved in September 2015, when the millennium development goals expire, will set all countries objectives for poverty reduction, social development and protection of the planet. But MPs on the House of Commons environmental audit committee said they feared that if the 17 goals proposed were reduced to 12, as Britain wants, environmental sustainability was likely to be sacrificed, with dangerous consequences. “The UK must not risk undermining the sustainable development goals. Any continued argument for a smaller number of goals, in the face of the secretary general’s recent guidance, risks creating unnecessary divisions between countries when it should be seeking to build support for ambitious action,” they said. “In some areas the UK government appears to be actively encouraging unsustainable development. It’s time we put the brake on tax breaks and subsidies for the fossil energy [that is] fuelling climate change and air pollution. The new goals will have to be met by all countries, not just developing countries. Our aim must be to de-couple economic growth from polluting and unsustainable resource use,” said the environment audit committee’s chairwoman, Joan Walley. The committee, which took evidence from civil servants, ministers, NGOs and Europe, criticised Britain for giving too much importance to economic development, which it too often viewed as a magic bullet in development. “We have seen time and time again that economic growth on its own is insufficient in improving the nutrition status of countries,” it said. “Inequality prevents sustainable development, not only because it can undermine social cohesion and a sense of shared wellbeing, but because some sections of societies may be excluded from the benefits of development and prosperity. “Britain [should] demand the highest standards of environmental protection in trade deals, and lead international efforts to improve air quality in cities in developing countries,” said the MPs. They urged government to push to keep the proposed separate climate change goal in the SDGs, and push back against member states wanting it removed or watered down, given the importance of reaching an ambitious global climate change agreement in Paris next year. |