OECD
Environment Director Lorents Lorentsen said that while progress
has been made in some areas such as reducing water and air
pollution since a strategy was agreed on in 2001, greater
policy integration is needed to bring about real change.
"Environment
ministers are quite lonely. They need to join up with industry
and finance ministers," he said.
His
comments came in advance of a meeting of OECD environment
ministers later this month in Paris, where they will review
progress toward meeting the environmental goals. Ministers
from non-members Russia, China, India and Brazil will also
be in attendance.
According
to the OECD, the development of agri-environmental schemes
remains modest, and while total greenhouse gas emissions
in Europe have fallen since 1990, this is largely due to
economic restructuring that would have occurred anyway (John
Mason, Financial Times, April 6).
Copyright,
National Journal Group, 2004
