MPs urge SDI rethink

The environmental audit committee (EAC) has called on the government to reconsider its proposed new sustainable development indicators (SDIs), arguing that a lack of specific targets risks undermining the concept

“The government’s proposal to measure only the 'direction of travel' on indicators will provide no insight to whether the UK is achieving, or falling short, on its economic, environmental or social requirements,” commented Joan Walley, chair of the EAC.

“We need clear, measurable targets; otherwise the new SDIs will fail to hold the government to account.”

The committee recommends that Defra apply existing commitments on air quality, emissions and renewable energy, for example, as targets for corresponding SDIs.

The EAC also criticised the new SDI monitoring the use of natural resources. Its failure to distinguish between sustainable resources, such as biomass, and finite ones, such as metal ores and fossil fuels, was described as “unhelpful”.

The committee recommends that only finite resources are monitored and that fossil fuels are excluded to prevent giving the impression that these fuels need to preserved for future generations.