- Britain's record on the environment has been dealt a
damaging blow by an international study which placed it below that of Bangladesh
and Papua New Guinea.
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- The global index of environmental sustainability, measuring
water quality, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and nuclear-reactor
safety, ranked the UK in 91st place in the world, below many developing
countries.
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- MPs and green groups seized upon the findings by the
World Economic Forum claiming they showed the Government was failing to
preserve Britain's resources for future generations to enjoy. This would
lead to a worse quality of life in years to come they argued.
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- The study, drawn up with experts from around the world
including Yale and Columbia universities, found the UK had a notably bad
record on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, cutting waste and consumption
and draining water sources for drinking and domestic use. Dozens of factors
including child death rates, threats to birds and mammals, the erosion
of forests, the fertility rate, and the size of fish catches were studied
along with each country's record on pollution control, natural resource
management and environmental regulations.
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- After Britain's economic position was factored in, it
came out worse than every other European country except Belgium.
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- The UK was judged, along with India and Belgium, to be
"well positioned on economic grounds" but in a poor position
to sustain environmental conditions for the future.
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- Overall, the country was placed in the bottom half of
the 142 rankings on a par with Mexico, Cameroon and Burma, Morocco, Egypt,
Malawi and Senegal.
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- But it performed particularly badly in specific areas,
coming 140th out of 142 on "reducing environmental stresses",
115th on "environmental systems" and 110th on "global stewardship".
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- The best countries in the 2002 environmental sustainability
index were judged to be Finland, Norway, Sweden and Canada. Austria, Iceland,
Costa Rica and Switzerland were also in the top 10, while Botswana also
scored very highly.
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- The forum was made up of G8 leaders and multinational
corporations as well as Yale and Columbia universities. Britain's ranking
in the index will come as a blow to Tony Blair who has stressed the need
to cut global warming and improve the nation's environmental standing.
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- Ministers attacked the report as "profoundly flawed."
Elliot Morley, the Environment minister, challenged the findings which
he said used weightings which were "entirely subjective".
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- "The UK and other countries believe this index is
profoundly flawed and therefore potentially misleading, for the following
reasons," Mr Morley said. "It is an aggregated indicator which
aims to weight together many components into a single overall measure of
'environmental sustainability'."
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- Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat environment spokesman,
said the report revealed how little the Government was doing to protect
Britain's countryside and wildlife and to tackle pollution. "It once
again shows that far from being at the heart of government the environment
is frankly out on a limb," he said. "It is an appalling international
statistic which throws an unwelcome spotlight on the government's environmental
record."
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- Friends of the Earth said the index had let the UK off
lightly. It said Britain would come off even worse if other criteria were
used. Farming groups warned of the dangers of failing to preserve the UK's
environment for future generations.
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- Robin Maynard of Farm, the sustainable food and farming
research group, said: "Sustainability is about building a long-term
future for your country based on the resources and services it can provide.
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- "It is deeply depressing that a country where the
environment and conservation movement began comes so low down the register."
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- Britain's record of building roads on wildlife sites
will have damaged its score, Friends of the Earth said. The controversial
Newbury bypass, which sparked fierce protests, destroyed three sites of
special scientific interest. The score would also have been affected by
the fact that the UK imports wood from Sumatra in Indonesia where tropical
rainforest is disapearing fast.
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- And the UK will have been seriously damaged by its huge
stockpiles of radioactive waste. "We have one of the largest stockpiles
of plutonium: 50 tons and rising. It's a phenomenal amount," said
one environmental expert.
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=488315
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