A secret group of developed nations conspired to limit the effectiveness of the UN鈥檚 first conference on the environment, held in Stockholm in 1972. The existence of this cabal, known as the Brussels group, is revealed in 30-year-old British government records that were kept secret until this week.
The Stockholm conference was set up in response to rising concern about damage to the environment. It ended with a ringing declaration of the need to protect the natural world, and the UN Environment Programme was set up as a result.
But the ambitious aims of the conference organisers, who included Maurice Strong, the first director-general of UNEP, were held in check by the activities of the Brussels group, which included Britain, the US, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and France.
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The group was 鈥渁n unofficial policy-making body to concert the views of the principal governments concerned鈥�, according to a note of one of the group鈥檚 first meetings written by a civil servant in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. 鈥淚t will have to remain informal and confidential.鈥� This meeting took place in July 1971, nearly a year before the Stockholm conference opened.
Familiar arguments
Many of the arguments the group employed would sound familiar to today鈥檚 anti-globalisation protesters. The group was concerned that environmental regulations would restrict trade and also wanted to stop UNEP having a large budget to spend as it saw fit. Foreign Office papers say the group 鈥渕ade real progress on this difficult problem鈥�, though without specifying how this was done.
The group seemed unconcerned about what its stance would mean for poorer countries. Its chief aim in the diplomatic jockeying during the run-up to Stockholm was for developed countries to get what they wanted 鈥渁nd perhaps be less worried about making it a success for developing countries鈥�.
This unalloyed self-interest won it few friends, and the notes record that Strong had already been grumbling about the group鈥檚 activities. 鈥淲e may get some criticism from the Swedes and others [and] we must be careful when expanding the group not to include awkward bedfellows,鈥� the note adds.
Sonic booms
A more concrete idea of the group鈥檚 aims can be gleaned from a note laying out Britain鈥檚 position prior to a secret meeting in Geneva in December 1971, one of a number of such meetings in the run-up to Stockholm.
Written by an official in what was then the Department of the Environment, it says that Britain wanted to restrict the scope of the Stockholm conference and reduce the number of proposals for action. In an indirect reference to what would later become UNEP, the paper says a 鈥渘ew and expensive international organisation must be avoided, but a small effective central coordinating mechanism 鈥� would not be welcome but is probably inevitable鈥�.
It then goes on to detail the subjects that Britain wanted left out of the Stockholm action plans. At the top of the list were controls on sonic booms from aircraft and pollution in the upper atmosphere. These measures would have seriously damaged the economics of the Anglo-French supersonic airliner, Concorde.
Moral pressure
At the time, Concorde was already in deep trouble, with only the British and French national airlines likely to buy it, and earlier in the year the British Cabinet had discussed axing the plane. Arguments raged about whether the noisy plane would be allowed to land in New York. Controls on sonic booms could have sounded its death knell.
The British government was also firmly opposed to any international standards regulating environmental quality or polluting emissions. It feared that any international agreement might force it to clean up its act.
鈥淯niversal guidelines 鈥� could cause moral pressure for compliance with philosophies of doubtful validity or benefit,鈥� say the papers.
Despite the efforts of the Brussels group, the Stockholm conference is widely recognised to have been a watershed. Though the group鈥檚 lobbying ensured the conference focused on only a limited number of subjects, such as transboundary pollution, UNEP later tackled a wider range of topics such as the problems of deforestation and urbanisation.