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monday 26th august
undemocratic, ineffective and weak – uk
pushes voluntary approach at the earth
summit
Friends of the Earth today slammed the UK
Government, British business and lobbyists
for fighting against binding regulations and
pushing weak voluntary agreements. In a new
report, Friends of the Earth reveals how
voluntary agreements on business standards
have failed to deliver sustainability [1].
The UK Government is pushing for voluntary
controls rather than binding regulations on
business and rights for people at the Earth
Summit which starts today (Monday) .
Thousands of Friends of the Earth
supporters have been phoning the Labour Party
help line to ask whether the Government were
going to act on Foreign Secretary Jack
Straw’s statement that, “we cannot leave
companies to regulate themselves globally,
any more than we do in our national
economies” [2]. Despite initial insurances
that they would press for binding rules, in
fact the Government has stuck to its policy
that only voluntary business measures are
necessary. In practice, even the United
Nations Environment Programme has concluded
that voluntary measures have not worked.
Friends of the Earth today published a
short but devastating critique of the
voluntary approach, which demonstrates that
it is:
• Ineffective in achieving change and
ensuring compliance – the motivation for
companies to comply with voluntary goals are
weak because penalties cannot be imposed on
the firms without government legislation.
Voluntary agreements that have clearly failed
include the OECD Guidelines for
Multi-National Enterprises (where there are
numerous examples of firms ignoring the code)
and the Forest Principles agreed at the last
Earth Summit.
• Secretive and undemocratic - voluntary
schemes nearly always place the power for
policy making in the hands of business.
Decisions over the goals, wording, monitoring
and reporting are invariably made the
responsibility of business. There is also no
mechanism to ensure transparency in meeting
the goals, for example six years after the
chemicals industry’s Responsible Care
programme was launched an independent
analysis revealed that "only a few companies
provide meaningful information”.
• Short sighted with poorly defined goals
- a study at Harvard University concluded
that because industry representatives are not
likely to sign-up to agreements that would
force dramatic changes, the consensus
approach preferred by business prevents tough
targets and inhibits innovation. In contrast
work by the OECD concluded that clear,
stringent and universally applied regulations
can stimulate innovation by reducing risk and
uncertainty.
• Fails to free-up government resources –
an argument used by governments in favour of
the voluntary approach is that legislation
takes too much time to draft and enact.
Friends of the Earth’s research shows this
patently not to be the case. For example,
negotiations over whether to introduce an
aggregate tax or have a voluntary agreement
have now dragged on for years, with the
Treasury finally having to resort to the tax
because an effective voluntary approach could
not be agreed. Another example is on
packaging recycling, where after years of
attempting to find industry consensus on a
voluntary approach the industry gave up and
asked for regulations. It is likely that a
voluntary approach only saves government time
when the government itself has no real desire
to see results – ie. When a voluntary
approach is used to give an impression of
action.
Tim Jenkins, Senior Researcher at Friends
of the Earth, said:
“The voluntary approach does not work and
what is more, it is undemocratic. The
Government should not be pushing this use of
the voluntary approach at the Earth Summit if
they are serious about getting results. As
Jack Straw said a year ago, we cannot leave
big business to control itself at a global
level, we need binding global rules. The only
reason for pushing voluntary agreements is if
the Government wants to give the impression
of action rather than really forcing change.
If Tony Blair were so convinced of the merits
of the voluntary approach he would produce
examples of where it has worked.”
Notes to editors 1. The research is
available from the press office at Friends of
the Earth and on-line at
www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/corporates/press_for_change/earth_summit/
2. Jack Straw, answering questions after his
‘Local Questions, Global Answers’ speech in
Manchester on September 10th 2001.
CONTACTS
Mike Childs Tel 020 7490 1649
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