Sustainable Action The Sustainable Development Action Programme Progress Report 2004 National and international strategy AVT05/BZ79002 1 Contents 1 Introduction 2 Summary of progress on sustainable development 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Definition of sustainable development 2.3 Relationships between national, international and EU policy 2.4 Progress on the Sustainable Development Action Programme 3 Further details of selected activities 3.1 Partnerships 3.2 Institutions 3.3 Water 3.4 Energy 3.5 Health 3.6 Agriculture 3.7 Biodiversity 3.8 Trade and investment 3.9 Sustainable production and consumption 3.10 Promoting sustainability at the ministries 3.11 The Roads to the Future Project 3.12 The Learning for Sustainability Programme 3.13 Sustainable management systems 3.14 Sustainability Outlook and indicators 4 Prospects for 2005 4.1 Sustainable development in 2005 4.2 European Sustainable Development Strategy 4.3 UN/Millennium + 5 Summit in 2005 (Major Event) 4.4 Developing the conclusions of the Informal Environment Council for the Spring Council 4.5 FAO/Netherlands Conference on Water for Food and Ecosystems AVT05/BZ79002 2 4.6 CSD13 4.7 Public debate Annexe 1 Progress on actions at national level Annexe 2 Partnerships in which the Netherlands is involved Annexe 3 Proposals for sustainable development partnerships submitted in response to the ‘Call for ideas’ Annexe 4 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Johannesburg Plan of Implementation Annexe 5 OECD findings on sustainable development in the Netherlands Annexe 6 Table of abbreviations AVT05/BZ79002 3 1 Introduction This report describes the progress made towards achieving the ambitions and implementing the actions defined in both the national and the international component of Sustainable Action, the Sustainable Development Action Programme. This is the second progress report on the international component and the first on the national component. Sustainable Action is the Netherlands’ response to the agreements made at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg. At the heart of the national strategy is the Dutch government’s intention to strive to achieve sustainable development in all areas of its own operations (from policy development to government buildings). This intention is translated into plans for various instruments and more than twenty policy programmes. The international strategy focuses on Dutch government efforts to promote institutional development, public-private partnerships, the priority themes of water, energy, health, agriculture and biodiversity, and sustainable trade and investment. On 9 April 2004, the House of Representatives of the States General discussed the action programme with the ministers most closely concerned. In the course of the discussion, the House asked for the next progress report to include integrated coverage of both the national and the international component, so that progress could be judged as a whole and more justice could be done to the interdependence of the two strategies. The Prime Minister emphasised to ministers the importance of integrated consideration of the two strategies. This has been done in this progress report. Sustainable Action encompasses a host of ambitions, policies and actions, partnerships and model programmes, progress reports on some of which are given in other contexts. Progress made with the action programme was discussed at length in the House of Representatives last spring. Promoting sustainable development is essentially a matter of getting processes under way in the knowledge that it will frequently be years before concrete results become apparent. For that reason, it has been decided on this occasion to produce only a brief report containing a number of results but focusing mainly on the processes concerned. The report also indicates where obstacles are being encountered AVT05/BZ79002 4 and where progress is slow. Section 2 provides a brief overview of work on sustainable development since the WSSD, focusing in particular on the visible steps that have been taken. Section 3 describes several of these activities in greater detail. Section 4 highlights the main activities that the present government proposes to undertake in 2005. Finally, the annexes offer a brief overview of progress on all the other activities, intentions and projects mentioned in Sustainable Action. The next progress report will be issued at the end of 2005. AVT05/BZ79002 5 2 Summary of progress on sustainable development 2.1 Introduction Sustainable Action is the action programme devised by the Dutch government in 2002 (international strategy) and 2003 (national strategy) in the follow-up to the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg. The action programme brackets together a host of existing actions and adds a number of new activities to them. Since the action programme was issued, a considerable number of new activities have been launched, some more visible than others. For example, partnerships have been agreed, a Sustainability Outlook has been published, ‘greener’ financial instruments have been agreed, numerous international conferences have been held and clear progress has been made on the ‘transitions’, the systematic changes for which the Fourth National Environmental Policy Plan (NEPP4) provides. Many of the activities in the action programme are intended to take place over a number of years. This makes it difficult to register overall progress after just one or two years. Promoting sustainable development is essentially a matter of getting processes under way in the knowledge that it will frequently be years before concrete results become apparent. At this stage, therefore, progress must be assessed primarily in terms of processes: new activities launched, new parties involved, attempts made to make policies more integrated, etc. It has been agreed that a full evaluation of the action programme, together with a proposal for remedying any negative developments, is to be conducted in 2005. For all these reasons, this section provides no more than a brief overview of the most important and visible steps that have been taken, focusing on the processes involved and on Dutch input, plus a few general remarks. The projects mentioned here are discussed in more detail in sections 3 and 4, and in the annexes. 2.2 Definition of sustainable development The term ‘sustainable development’ is defined very differently in the national and the international context. In the international policy debate, a broad definition tends to be adopted both by government and by the private sector. In 1987, the UN Sustainable Development AVT05/BZ79002 6 Commission (Brundtland Commission) defined the concept as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The commission also pointed to the cohesion between the economy, nature/the environment and social aspects – the three domains that have since become known as the ‘triple bottom line’ or ‘three P’s’: people (socio-cultural capital), planet (ecological capital) and profit (economic capital). A fourth P is now usually added in the shape of participation. To achieve sustainable development, it is essential to identify ways in which problems are being transferred to the future (later), to other people on the planet (elsewhere), or between the three forms of ‘capital’ (ecological, socio-cultural and economic) in both time and space. Of course, it is not enough to identify such displacements; it is also essential to prevent and reduce them where they are undesirable. At international level, the whole of this agenda is currently under discussion and efforts are being made to achieve integrated planning, in the UN context and elsewhere. In the development cooperation field, the emphasis is now being placed on sustainable development as an overarching theme which should work through visibly into existing policy. Dutch efforts to promote sustainable development internationally can be described as a quest to achieve integrated social, economic and environmental policies. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (BZ/OS) has developed a framework of reference based on the three pillars (ecological, social and economic) which can be used to establish a reasoned relationship between the policy articles in the budget document and sustainable development. The embassies and the ministry can use this framework to strike a balance between the pillars in preparing their annual or multi-year plans, making the Netherlands’ efforts to achieve sustainable development visible, concrete and acceptable. At national level, the concept of sustainable development has from the start been closely linked to issues surrounding nature and the environment, since this is the area in which the Netherlands has experienced the most obvious problems (in terms of the three key domains: people, planet and profit) over the last 30 years. In the past in particular, these aspects have not always received sufficient recognition in major social and economic projects in the Netherlands. Moreover, life in the Netherlands is relatively good in AVT05/BZ79002 7 economic and social terms, compared to the problems of unequal income distribution, poverty, inequalities in access to raw materials, and lack of modern energy services and clean, safe drinking water in many other parts of the world. The Netherlands does, of course, have domestic concerns in these areas, but they are clearly of a different order. 2.3 Relationships