Title: The British state and the environment: New Labour's ecological modernisation strategy

Authors: John Barry, Matthew Paterson

Addresses: School of Politics, Queens University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1PA, Northern Ireland. ' School of Politics, International Relations and the Environment, Keele University, Keele, ST5 5BG, UK

Abstract: The environment and the pursuit of sustainable development were held as central aspects of New Labour|s ||joined up|| approach to public policy. The way in which environmental concerns have been included within the overarching New Labour ||project|| has been by adopting an ecological modernisation approach to environmental policy, a central aspect of which is that the pursuit of improvements in environmental quality and sustainable development are not achieved at the cost of disrupting the government|s efforts to sustain continued economic growth and investment. That is, New Labour|s ecological modernisation project is concerned more with sustaining the British economy (specifically international competitiveness) than achieving a sustainable metabolism between that economy and its environmental inputs, outputs and ecological context.

Keywords: ecological modernisation; New Labour; economic growth; sustainable development; public policy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2003.003842

International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 2003 Vol.2 No.3, pp.237 - 249

Published online: 10 May 2004 *

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