Are UK Governments using Ecological Footprinting?
The Ecological Footprint has been used by different levels of government in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland:
- In Scotland, one of the main objectives of the Scottish Sustainable Development Strategy is to reduce Scotland's ecological footprint. The Scottish Executive is committed to measuring performance against its global ecological impact and will commission an independent study of Scotland's ecological footprint in 2008. Scotland's Global Footprint Project is a partnership between WWF Scotland and local authorities to reduce local and global environmental impact. The project will use the footprint as an indicator, to inform policy and in education.
- Wales has in many ways led the way on Footprinting. A national Footprint has been developed and is being used by the Welsh Assembly Government to monitor progress on sustainable development. Cardiff and Gwynedd Councils used ecological footprint analysis to inform policies through the Reducing Wales Ecological Footprint project.
- A Footprint report for Northern Ireland, Northern Limits, has been prepared. A revised version of this report is now in preparation as is a new piece of work to assess the Footprint of the Irish republic.
- In England projects are underway in most regions and approximately 30 local authorities have undertaken studies:
i. In London a Footprint of the capital was published in 2002. In 2004, the Mayor’s Sustainable Development Commission adopted Ecological Footprint as a headline indicator and the concept has also been integrated with the London Plan;
ii. The South-East are using the Ecological Footprint as a headline indicator in the Integrated Regional Framework, July 2004. The South-East’s Spatial Strategy acknowledges the South-East’s global impact and has made a commitment to stabilise the Footprint of the region. The South-East’s first Ecological Footprint, Taking Stock, was published in March 2003;
iii. The North-East Footprinting and mass balance report will be launched in 2006. This will include a special focus on Sunderland City;
iv. In the West Midlands a Regional Footprint and Mass Balance report will be launched in 2006 with a focus on Sustainable Communities;
v. The South-West has included a commitment to tackle sustainable consumption and production in its Integrated Regional Strategy and published its first Ecological Footprint study, Stepping Forward, in April 2005.
- Devolved Country and Regional footprints will be available as part of the Ecological Budget UK project in March 2006.
- Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) commissioned research on the value of the ecological footprint as a policy tool. The research concludes that footprint is not as yet ready to be used as an indicator. However, the peer review states that the review is incomplete as it does not include recent developments with the methodology or international cases, and thus DEFRA is committed to taking forward further research to incorporate the latest knowledge and practice.