The UN World Summit on Sustainable Development, September 2002, saw over 100 national leaders, including Tony Blair, meet to agree a plan of action to tackle continuing global problems relating to poverty and resource use. Despite an unwieldy preparation process, the Summit delivered three key outcomes: a political declaration, Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, and a range of partnership initiatives—a solid, but not revolutionary, step along the global path to sustainable development. This report considers UK performance at the Summit and the action now being taken by the Government to implement its Johannesburg commitments.

The UK delegation performed effectively in the Summit negotiations. However, this performance was undermined by an inadequate pre-Summit communications strategy and further thwarted by the Government's reported indecision over the attendance of its then Environment Minister, Rt Hon. Michael Meacher MP.

The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation contains many welcome commitments but only a handful of specific targets. These aspirations need to be translated into an auditable, domestic action plan if the UK is to demonstrate effective progress against its commitments. The Government has decided not to introduce a separate implementation process, a decision which we strongly support. Instead it will seek to mainstream the Johannesburg commitments into departmental work programmes through existing mechanisms such as Public Service Agreements (PSAs) and the revision of the UK Sustainable Development Strategy. The development of a UK sustainable production and consumption strategy will also be a crucial delivery tool.

However, the importance of continued auditing, monitoring and review cannot be overstated. We recommend that the National Audit Office, in conjunction with DEFRA and the Sustainable Development Commission decides upon an appropriate reporting process to keep Parliament informed of progress. International impetus must also be maintained and we support international calls to strengthen UN structures, such as the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) which need to be sufficiently robust to ensure that the Johannesburg momentum is not lost.