The establishment of a more sustainable pattern of development for Ireland for the future is one of the key challenges of government. Sustainable development is both a vision and a process. It rests on the three pillars of environmental protection, economic development and social progress.
Climate change, loss of natural resources, extinction of species and environmental damage caused by emissions and waste are the results of unsustainable patterns of consumption and production. These negative trends have worsened globally in recent decades despite the advances in technological innovation and improvements in the efficient uses of resources. Ireland’s development has been characterised by these negative trends despite improvements in living conditions and reductions in some kinds of pollution.
The European Union’s Sustainable Development Strategy identifies seven “key challenges” ranging from climate change to transport to international poverty, as well as some cross-cutting themes like the use of fiscal and economic measures and the development of indicators for measuring sustainable development. This provides the context for action here in Ireland.
The Government has already commenced work on revising the National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSDS), first adopted in 1997, and updated in 2002. Effective delivery of the revised NSDS will require this over-arching policy framework to be adopted and led at the highest level of government. It is also dependant on effective communication and engagement with key sectoral interests and civil society.
The main focus of the Comhar SDC conference will be how to best achieve the direction of change that will be identified in the revised NSDS drawing in the relevant aspects of the new Programme for Government. The conference will address how well Ireland is performing in relation to sustainability, and critically examine the policy drivers for the delivery of sustainable development across national government as well as at local and regional level. The conference will also contribute to understanding the options and issues relating to the implementation of the sustainable development dimensions of the government’s Agreed Programme 2007-12.
Professor Frank Convery - Chairman of Comhar SDC
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