Getting to Grips with Green Plans:
National-Level Experience in Industrial Countries

Dalal-Clayton D.B. (1996): Getting to Grips with Green Plans: National-Level Experience in Industrial Countries. Earthscan Publications,  London.

One of the more significant recommendations to emerge from UNCED in 1992 was the call in Agenda 21 for countries to develop and implement national strategies for sustainable development. Most countries have responded to this challenge. However many countries also have a long history of drawing up planning exercises at this level to deal with environmental problems. ‘Green Planning’ is now used as a shorthand term for a range of such national-level planning initiatives covering both sustainable development and environmental concerns.

This study reviews and compares 20 recent green planning initiatives in twelve industrialised countries: Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Latvia, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Sweden, the UK and the USA, together with regional initiatives in Eastern and Western Europe. The majority are government sponsored initiatives, but two were conducted by non-governmental organisations, and one was a programme of the European Union.

The study is presented in two parts. Part 1 provides an overview of national green planning, reviewing its origins and scope, identifying popular approaches and processes, highlighting important issues such as participation, the influence of domestic politics, and the track record of more ambitious regional plans, and comparing approaches in developed and developing countries. Part 2 presents case studies of the green planning initiatives in Western and Eastern European countries, the US and Canada, and Australia and New Zealand.