Sustainability appraisal for sustainable development: integrating everything from jobs to climate change

摘要

The United Kingdom Government's objectives-based approach to sustainability appraisal is critically examined, and is shown to create difficulties in distinguishing between what is appraisal and what is planning. A criterion-based variation is described, which is based on the principles of sustainable development as set out in the Rio Declaration. This offers promise of considerably simplifying the appraisal process, and at the same time focusing it more sharply on key sustainable development issues. The modified approach highlights those aspects of sustainable development that are particularly difficult to achieve in practice.