Where is developing country industry in sustainable development planning?

In its preparatory activities for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, UNIDO requested national experts in 18 developing and transition economies to report on sustainable development planning efforts during the 1990s in terms of (1) generation of statistical information about the economic, social and environmental impacts of the manufacturing sector, (2) involvement of the manufacturing sector in the preparation of sustainable development strategies and (3) enactment of new policies and programmes. The experts found little information about the impacts of industry on environmental quality in the more explicit environmental frameworks, such as national environmental action plans, and next to nothing in these documents on the positive impacts of industry. Furthermore, the experts found little change in institutional arrangements regarding generation of information, involvement of industry and new policies and programmes, with a few notable exceptions in terms of new information generation and integrated policy innovation. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.