The new Sustainable Development Strategy is a high level enabling document to put in place the structures and policies needed to help move Northern Ireland towards sustainability. It has been written to align the priorities within the Programme for Government with it, but will require a lot of good will from government departments to effectively integrate sustainable development thinking throughout their operations. The Strategy has been heavily influenced by the need to develop Northern Ireland's economy and hopefully this will be achieved by applying the principles of sustainable development and not at the expense of well-being and the environment. The Implementation Plan provides more direction with regard to what is expected from central government departments as well as local government.
A copy of the Strategy can be downloaded here . Information on the Strategic Objectives of the Strategy are available here ; and the contents of the Implementation Plan here.
The Priority Areas of the 2010 Sustainable Development Strategy
The new Sustainable Development Strategy has been developed around six priority areas for action; these are different to the priority areas of the first Strategy. Objectives have then been assigned to these and it is the priority areas and their objectives that central government departments have made commitments to in the Implementation plan.
