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sreviewofits
own policies, and particularly of whether there needs to be a greater
focus on structural change in the economy and society as a whole where
possibilities for the spatial distribution of resource provision prove
insuf
This analysis would also provide a platform for the state
'
cient to alleviate threats of ecological harm. This process lies at
the heart of the experimentation I refer to in the introduction to this
chapter, in which the possibilities for a society to function without
undermining ecosystem health and undergoing a complete change in
political and economic structures and objectives are explored.
The relationship I envisage between the state and regional and local
government in this exercise is far removed from the conventional top-
down hierarchical approach that has been used in the UK for exploring
how demand for resources can be satis
ed. This, typically, has involved
the placing of targets on regions to meet speci
ed levels of demand and,
where they have failed to achieve them, has resulted either in coercion,
legal challenge or in the use of ad hoc spatial
xes to compensate for
this.
52
Cowell and Owens
'
account of the proposed use of remote coastal
'
to provide aggregate for construction in English urban
centres provides a good example both of a governmental attempt to
compensate for the inability of certain regions (particularly the South
East) to sustain their own demands, and also of a spatial
superquarries
'
x which failed
because of strong opposition to the proposed development.
53
This inco-
herent approach in the face of resource constraints can also be seen, to an
extent, in the recent focus on offshore wind energy as a response to
dif
culties with creating a substantial capacity for renewable energy
generation through onshore wind farm construction. Conversely, the
relationship I propose involves the provision of information from the
bottom up based on which all levels of government might participate in
making a realistic assessment of prospects for reducing levels of ecolog-
ical stress and producing strategic plans that capture the best available
means of advancing this end.
The second aspect of the coordinating role involves avoidance of the
environmental injustices which may result from the inability of regions
to meet their own needs. There is, in view both of the uneven distribution
52
See the analyses of top-down approaches to the implementation of resource policy in Owens
and Cowell,
'
Land and Limits
'
, 1st edn, pp. 131
-
6 (aggregates) and H. Bulkeley,
'
Planning
in S. Davoudi, J. Crawford and A. Mehmood (eds)
Planning for Climate Change: Strategies for Mitigation and Adaptation for Spatial Planners
(London: Earthscan, 2009), p. 284 (renewable energy).
53
Owens and Cowell,
and Governance of Climate Change
'
'
Land and Limits
'
,1stedn,pp.138
-
42.
