Says Alan, " A recent international study of national-level sustainable development strategies concludes that most of them are not ... strategic."

As the report, from the International Institute for Sustainable Development, puts it:

"As nations work on meeting their 2005 commitments for the formulation and elaboration of national strategies for sustainable development, a recent 19-country independent study conducted by IISD, the Canadian consulting firm Stratos Inc., and the Environmental Policy Research Center in Berlin, concludes that most national governments are not thinking strategically about the transition to a sustainable future."