Monday 12 February 2018

Letter penned to government demanding green goal answers

The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has written to the Cabinet Office Minister calling for the government to include the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in departmental plans.

Mary Creagh MP wrote to David Lidington MP to ask why only two departments mentioned the SDGs in their Single Departmental Plans (SDPs) - these were the Department for International Development (DFID) and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

It said even in these departments, linking these targets to identified departmental priorities was rarely explicit and sometimes obscure.

The letter asks which departments sit on the cross-Whitehall Sustainable Development Forum, how often it has met and what its outputs are to date.

It also wants to know when the government will begin the Voluntary National Review (VNR) of its progress against the green goals, that it committed to completing in 2019.

Mary Creagh, Chair of the EAC, said: "“The government has spectacularly failed to honour its commitment to embed the SDGs throughout government in its SDPs. Just two departments mention the goals in their plans.

"We want to see explicit inclusion of these goals in each relevant department’s SDP as soon as possible."