UK Environmental Policy in the 1990s

325 Pages·1995·30.408 MB·English

by  Tim S. Gray (eds.)

UK ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY IN THE 1990s
Also by Tim S. Gray
BURKE'S DRAMATIC mEORY OF POLITICS (with Paul Hindson)
FREEDOM
mE FEMINISM OF FLORA TRISTAN (with Maire Cross)
UK Environmental
Policy in the 1990s
Edited by
Tim S. Gray
Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Politics
University of Newcastle
First published in Great Britain 1995 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
ISBN 978-0-333-62121-9 ISBN 978-1-349-24237-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-24237-5
First published in the United States of America 1995 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue,
New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 978-0-312-12672-8
Library of Congress Cataloging·in·Publication Data
UK environmental policy in the 19905 I edited by Tim S. Gray.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-12672-8 (cloth)
I. Environmental policy--Great Britain. 2. Great Britain
-Environmental conditions. I. Gray, Tim S. 1942-
GEI90.G7U3 1995
363.7'00941'09049-<1c20 95-5580
CIP
Selection, editorial matter and Chapter I © Tim S. Gray 1995
Chapters 2-16 © Macmillan Press Ltd. 1995
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Coun
Road, London WI P 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damaees.
Transferred to digital printing 2002
I would like to dedicate this book to Mark, Guy and
Claire, whose future quality of life will be significantly
affected by the success or failure of the UK govern
ment's environmental policies
Contents
Notes on the Contributors ix
Acknowledgements xiv
List of Abbreviations xv
2 Introduction 2
TimS. Gray
2 View from the Inside: UK Environmental Policy
Seen from a Practitioner's Perspective II
Tom Burke
3 Impact of the European Union on UK Environmental
Policy Making 18
Nigel Haigh and Chris Lanigan
4 The Establishment of a Cross-Sector Environment Agency 38
Neil Carter and Philip Lowe
5 The Precautionary Principle in UK Environmental
Law and Policy 57
o
Andrew Jordan and Timothy 'Riordan
6 UK Environmental Policy and the Politics of
the Environment in Northern Ireland in the 1990s 85
Steven Yearley
7 The Politics of Mutual Attraction? UK Local
Authorities and the Europeanisation of
Environmental Policy 101
Stephen Ward
8 The UK and Global Warming Policy 123
David Maddison and David Pearce
9 Energy Conservation Policy 144
Gerald Manners
vii
VIII Contents
\0 Constructing Regulations and Regulating
Construction: The Practicalities of Environmental Policy 159
Elizabeth Shove
II UK Environmental Policy and Transport 173
Kenneth Button
12 Acid Rain: A Business-as-Usual Scenario 189
Jim Skea
13 Nuclear Waste Disposal: A Technical Problem in
Search of a Political Solution 210
Andrew Blowers
14 Running Up the Down Escalator: Developments in British
Wildlife Policies after Mrs Thatcher's 1988 Speeches 237
Stephen C. Young
15 The Tragedy of the Common Fisheries Policy: UK
Fisheries Policy in the 1990s 263
Anthony Stenson and Tim S. Gray
16 The UK and the International Environmental
Agenda: Rio and After 283
Michael Redc/ijt
Index 303
Notes on the Contributors
Andrew Blowers is Professor of Social Sciences (Planning) at the Open
University, a member of the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory
Committee, and has published extensively on environmental politics
(especially the politics of pollution and radioactive waste), planning theory
and politics and local government and politics. He has co-authored, edited
or co-edited scores of publications, including Something in the Air:
Corporate Power and the Environment (1984), Nuclear Power in Crisis
(1987), The International Politics of Nuclear Waste (1991), and Planning
for a Sustainable Environment (1993).
Tom Burke is Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for the
Environment. After several years with Friends of the Earth in the 1970s,
becoming its Executive Director, Tom Burke became Director of the
Green Alliance from 1982 to 1993 (an environmental think-tank). In 1987,
together with Julia Hailes and John Elkington, he founded Sustainability, a
private consultancy company, set up to promote environmentally sustain
able growth. He has written and broadcast extensively on environmental
matters and is co-author of The Green Capitalists (1987), Green Pages
(1988), and Ethics, Environment and the Company (1990).
Kenneth Button is Professor of Applied Economics and Transport and
Director of the Centre for Research in European Economics and Finance
at Loughborough University, and Visiting Professor in Transport and the
Environment at the Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam. He has held visiting
academic posts at the University of California, Berkeley, and the
University of British Columbia, and he has been a full-time consultant to
the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in
Paris. In 1994 he was Special Adviser to the House of Commons
Transport Committee. He has published extensively in the area of trans
port policy.
Neil Carter is Lecturer in Politics, University of York, convenor of the
Political Studies Association specialist group on environmental politics
and a member of the Editorial Board of Environmental Politics. He is co
author of How Organisations Measure Success and author of many arti
cles and chapters on green issues, and is currently writing a book with
Andrew Flynn on The Politics of the Environment.
ix
x Notes on the Contributors
Tim S. Gray is Senior Lecturer and Head of the Politics Department,
University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Trained as a political theorist, his
authored and co-authored publications include books and articles on
freedom, Edmund Burke, Aora Tristan and Herbert Spencer. Now moving
into environmental theory and practice, his current research is in green
theory (including Gaia, Rousseau and environmental justice); the
International Whaling Commission; UK fishing policy; and British en
vironmental policy as a whole.
Nigel Haigh, OBE, is Director of the Institute for European
Environmental Policy, London (JEEP), which is an independent body for
the analysis of environmental policies in Europe. It is linked to similar
bodies in other countries. He is Visiting Fellow at Imperial College Centre
for Environmental Technology and Honorary Research Fellow at the
Faculty of Laws, University College, London. He has published exten
sively on environmental policy matters including the Manual of
Environmental Policy: The EC and Britain (1993).
Andrew Jordan is Research Associate at the Centre for Social and
Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE), located
jointly at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and University College
London (UCL). He has published many articles and chapters on environ
mental policy, and is currently engaged on a long term study of how gov
ernments, business and other agencies perceive the threat of global
environmental change, and how they are responding or adapting to it.
Chris Lanigan is Ridley Fellow, Politics Department, University of
Newcastle upon Tyne, and a doctoral student researching into the regional
identity of the North-East of England. His master's degree focused on the
politics of the European Union.
Philip Lowe has been Duke of Northumberland Professor of Rural
Economy since 1991 in the Department of Agricultural Economics and
Food Marketing of the University of Newcastle, and is also Director of the
Centre for Rural Economy, and Co-Director of the Economic and Social
Research Council (ESRC) Countryside Change Initiative. He has
authored, co-authored or edited over 20 books, 30 chapters and 40 articles
on environmental and agricultural policy and politics. His most recent co
authored books are The Green Wave: Ecological Parties in Global
Perspective (1995) and Constructing the Countryside (1993), and he has
co-edited European Integration and Environmental Policy (1993).