24th June 2020
Environmental breakdown is the defining challenge of our time. This is the final report of a major research programme – responding to environmental breakdown – investigating the implications of the global environmental crisis for politics and policymaking. A new approach to policymaking is needed. In response, this paper defines overall conditions for policymaking to drive each element of the transformation, providing a guide for policymakers present and future. It then uses the UK as a case study of one nation within an international context to assess progress towards meeting these conditions. Overall, it finds that the UK is not ready for the demands imposed by environmental breakdown, a failure which has large negative implications for current and future generations. The historical disregard of environmental considerations in most areas of policy has been a catastrophic mistake.
Laurie Laybourn 