Table Of ContentUK ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY IN THE 1990s
Also by Tim S. Gray 
BURKE'S DRAMATIC mEORY OF POLITICS  (with Paul Hindson) 
FREEDOM 
mE FEMINISM OF FLORA TRISTAN (with Maire Cross)
UK Environmental 
Policy in the 1990s 
Edited by 
Tim S. Gray 
Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Politics 
University of Newcastle
First published in Great Britain 1995 by 
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD 
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS 
and London 
Companies and representatives 
throughout the world 
A catalogue record for this book is available 
from the British Library. 
ISBN 978-0-333-62121-9  ISBN 978-1-349-24237-5 (eBook) 
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-24237-5 
First published in the United States of America 1995 by 
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., 
Scholarly and Reference Division, 
175 Fifth Avenue, 
New York, N.Y. 10010 
ISBN 978-0-312-12672-8 
Library of Congress Cataloging·in·Publication Data 
UK environmental policy in the 19905 I edited by Tim S. Gray. 
p.  cm. 
Includes bibliographical references and index. 
ISBN 978-0-312-12672-8 (cloth)
I. Environmental policy--Great Britain.  2. Great Britain 
-Environmental conditions.  I. Gray, Tim S. 1942-
GEI90.G7U3  1995 
363.7'00941'09049-<1c20  95-5580 
CIP 
Selection, editorial matter and Chapter I © Tim S. Gray 1995 
Chapters 2-16 © Macmillan Press Ltd. 1995 
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of 
this publication may be made without written permission. 
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or 
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with 
the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, 
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying 
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Coun 
Road, London WI P 9HE. 
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this 
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil 
claims for damaees. 
Transferred to digital printing 2002
I would like to dedicate this book to Mark, Guy and 
Claire, whose future quality of life will be significantly 
affected by the success or failure of the UK govern 
ment's environmental policies
Contents 
Notes on the Contributors  ix 
Acknowledgements  xiv 
List of Abbreviations  xv 
2  Introduction  2 
TimS. Gray 
2  View from the Inside: UK Environmental Policy 
Seen from a Practitioner's Perspective  II 
Tom Burke 
3  Impact of the European Union on UK Environmental 
Policy Making  18 
Nigel Haigh and Chris Lanigan 
4  The Establishment of a Cross-Sector Environment Agency  38 
Neil Carter and Philip Lowe 
5  The Precautionary Principle in UK Environmental 
Law and Policy  57 
o 
Andrew Jordan and Timothy  'Riordan 
6  UK Environmental Policy and the Politics of 
the Environment in Northern Ireland in the 1990s  85 
Steven Yearley 
7  The Politics of Mutual Attraction? UK Local 
Authorities and the Europeanisation of 
Environmental Policy  101 
Stephen Ward 
8  The UK and Global Warming Policy  123 
David Maddison and David Pearce 
9  Energy Conservation Policy  144 
Gerald Manners 
vii
VIII  Contents 
\0  Constructing Regulations and Regulating 
Construction: The Practicalities of Environmental Policy  159 
Elizabeth Shove 
II  UK Environmental Policy and Transport  173 
Kenneth Button 
12  Acid Rain: A Business-as-Usual Scenario  189 
Jim Skea 
13  Nuclear Waste Disposal: A Technical Problem in 
Search of a Political Solution  210 
Andrew Blowers 
14  Running Up the Down Escalator: Developments in British 
Wildlife Policies after Mrs Thatcher's 1988 Speeches  237 
Stephen C. Young 
15  The Tragedy of the Common Fisheries Policy: UK 
Fisheries Policy in the 1990s  263 
Anthony Stenson and Tim S. Gray 
16  The UK and the International Environmental 
Agenda: Rio and After  283 
Michael Redc/ijt 
Index  303
Notes on the Contributors 
Andrew Blowers is Professor of Social Sciences (Planning) at the Open 
University, a member of the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory 
Committee, and has published extensively on  environmental politics 
(especially the politics of pollution and radioactive waste), planning theory 
and politics and local government and politics. He has co-authored, edited 
or co-edited scores of publications,  including Something in  the Air: 
Corporate Power and the Environment (1984), Nuclear Power in Crisis 
(1987), The International Politics of Nuclear Waste (1991), and Planning 
for a Sustainable Environment (1993). 
Tom  Burke  is  Special  Adviser  to  the  Secretary  of State  for  the 
Environment. After several years with Friends of the Earth in the 1970s, 
becoming its Executive Director, Tom Burke became Director of the 
Green Alliance from 1982 to 1993 (an environmental think-tank). In 1987, 
together with Julia Hailes and John Elkington, he founded Sustainability, a 
private consultancy company, set up to promote environmentally sustain 
able growth. He has written and broadcast extensively on environmental 
matters and is co-author of The Green Capitalists (1987), Green Pages 
(1988), and Ethics, Environment and the Company (1990). 
Kenneth Button is Professor of Applied Economics and Transport and 
Director of the Centre for Research in European Economics and Finance 
at Loughborough University, and Visiting Professor in Transport and the 
Environment at the Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam. He has held visiting 
academic  posts  at  the  University  of California,  Berkeley,  and  the 
University of British Columbia, and he has been a full-time consultant to 
the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 
Paris.  In  1994  he  was  Special  Adviser  to  the  House of Commons 
Transport Committee. He has published extensively in the area of trans 
port policy. 
Neil Carter is Lecturer in Politics, University of York, convenor of the 
Political Studies Association specialist group on environmental politics 
and a member of the Editorial Board of Environmental Politics. He is co 
author of How Organisations Measure Success and author of many arti 
cles and chapters on green issues, and is currently writing a book with 
Andrew Flynn on The Politics of the Environment. 
ix
x  Notes on the Contributors 
Tim S. Gray is Senior Lecturer and Head of the Politics Department, 
University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Trained as a political theorist, his 
authored and co-authored publications include books and  articles on 
freedom, Edmund Burke, Aora Tristan and Herbert Spencer. Now moving 
into environmental theory and practice, his current research is in green 
theory  (including  Gaia,  Rousseau  and  environmental  justice);  the 
International Whaling Commission; UK fishing policy; and British en 
vironmental policy as a whole. 
Nigel  Haigh,  OBE,  is  Director  of  the  Institute  for  European 
Environmental Policy, London (JEEP), which is an independent body for 
the analysis of environmental policies in Europe. It is linked to similar 
bodies in other countries. He is Visiting Fellow at Imperial College Centre 
for  Environmental Technology and Honorary Research Fellow at the 
Faculty of Laws, University College, London. He has published exten 
sively  on  environmental  policy  matters  including  the  Manual  of 
Environmental Policy: The EC and Britain (1993). 
Andrew Jordan is  Research Associate at the Centre for Social and 
Economic  Research  on  the  Global  Environment (CSERGE),  located 
jointly at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and University College 
London (UCL). He has published many articles and chapters on environ 
mental policy, and is currently engaged on a long term study of how gov 
ernments,  business  and  other agencies  perceive  the  threat  of global 
environmental change, and how they are responding or adapting to it. 
Chris Lanigan is  Ridley  Fellow, Politics Department, University of 
Newcastle upon Tyne, and a doctoral student researching into the regional 
identity of the North-East of England. His master's degree focused on the 
politics of the European Union. 
Philip Lowe  has  been  Duke of Northumberland  Professor of Rural 
Economy since 1991  in the Department of Agricultural Economics and 
Food Marketing of the University of Newcastle, and is also Director of the 
Centre for Rural Economy, and Co-Director of the Economic and Social 
Research  Council  (ESRC)  Countryside  Change  Initiative.  He  has 
authored, co-authored or edited over 20 books, 30 chapters and 40 articles 
on environmental and agricultural policy and politics. His most recent co 
authored  books  are  The  Green  Wave:  Ecological  Parties  in  Global 
Perspective (1995) and Constructing the Countryside (1993), and he has 
co-edited European Integration and Environmental Policy (1993).