He did not mention recycling in his speech but left the action on that to Environment Minister Michael Meacher who today published guidance on the waste strategy which incorporates several recycling targets.
In his speech, to which he referred briefly to waste, Mr Blair said: “I am committed to going personally to the Rio+10 Conference in South Africa. Of course it is about the environment: the issues of climate change, sustainable industrial growth, preservation of forests, fishing stocks and a range of other familiar issues.
“But it is not just about the environment. It is about sustainable development as a whole. It is about the reduction of poverty, relief from debt, widening educational opportunity, tackling disease and linking these goals to those of conserving the natural resources upon which the poorest depend for clean water, food, fresh air and their living. “
The Prime Minister said there are two two pressing reasons why these issues demand leadership.
“First, the evidence grows daily all around us of the dangers of indifference to our duty to treat nature with respect and care for our environment. “Second, there is no answer to any of these problems except one based on mutual responsibility. The same principle at work in the local community in my constituency, from the smallest school initiative to the council's waste disposal policy, to what is necessary internationally. It starts from a broad principle of responsibility – the duty to care for the environment in which we live and to grow more prosperous in a way consistent with that duty.”
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