Environmental Politics and Policy

Abstract

Since 1987, the environment has exploded onto the national and international agendas in a way which few would have predicted. The environment is now seen as a crucial electoral issue, ranking alongside the economy, defence and the health service. A token of its newfound political importance is the emphasis now placed upon it by Margaret Thatcher. Her Royal Society speech in September 1988 described the protection of the balance of nature as ‘one of the challenges of the rest of the century’, and she has gone on to attempt to build a green image, both domestically and internationally, especially over the issue of the depletion of the ozone layer.