The Forum was founded by three prominent environmental activists, Paul Ekins, Sara Parkin and Jonathon Porritt. The report, Estimating Sustainability Gaps for the UK, was written by Dr Ekins and Dr Sandrine Simon, both of the department of environmental social sciences at Keele University. It estimates that, on current trends, it will take 126 years for the UK's CO2 emissions to reach sustainability. The report suggests that road vehicles will have to become considerably cleaner, or road traffic will have to be sharply reduced, if the UK is to meet its international commitments. Reductions in several other air pollutants in certain places are also necessary if the concentration limits in the UK national air quality strategy are to be complied with.
Water pollution continuing Other areas of concern identified in the report include water.
The report acknowledges that in a third area, the generation and disposal of waste, the authors have made no attempt to specify sustainability standards. Assuming that the sustainability standards are likely to be stricter than current policy targets, this would seem to be an area of great and growing unsustainability. The report criticises the UK government's own sustainable development indicators, although it says they are welcome in themselves, because they fail to identify sustainability standards and UK environmental performance in relation to them.