WWF has backed a call by the Environmental Audit Committee for the Government to show leadership on the green economy, rather than viewing environmental measures as a barrier to growth.
The group said that a recent Defra-led review of the Habitats Regulations clearly demonstrated that there was no evidence of environmental regulations blocking economic development and that, to the contrary, protection of important wildlife and habitats through sensible legislation contributed a significant amount to the economy in valuable goods and services including tourism.
In addition, WWF argued that businesses were demanding leadership and policy certainty from the Government in key areas such as the transition to a low carbon economy and smarter use of increasingly scarce resources.
Commenting, Luke Wreford, economic policy officer at WWF-UK, said:
"This strong criticism of Government foot-dragging on the green economy comes in the same in the week that it emerged that William Hague himself has written personally to the PM to say exactly the same thing.
“The call is now coming from across the party, from inside government and from business to stop the Treasury blocking green growth and get on with policies that our economic competitors have been doing for years.
“Far from putting British companies out of business, environmental policies may well be the saving of them. Leading businesses are already crying out for measures such as mandatory carbon reporting and policy certainty for the development of the renewable energy sector.”
Unreleased submissions to Defra’s consultation on Mandatory Carbon Reporting, obtained by WWF through freedom of information (FOI) requests showed that there was overwhelming business support for mandatory carbon reporting. The results showed that almost 75% of organizations responding supported some form of MCR, and 61% of the organization responses were in support of full mandatory carbon reporting for all large companies.
WWF’s recent Living Planet Report 2012 showed that we are currently consuming over 50 per cent more natural resources than the planet can sustainably produce, putting huge pressure on the planet’s biodiversity.
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