This is a podcast from the archives of the BBC Ruth Lectures.

This lecture entitled Governance in the series Respect for the Earth, given by Chris Patton,

was originally broadcast in the year 2000.

Good evening and welcome to the Royal Institution in London.

We're here in front of a large audience of distinguished guests for the start of this millennium year's Reith Lectures.

It's a pleasure for me to be in the chair tonight and on the new battlefront of ideas.

For our theme for the next five weeks is sustainable development, perhaps the most important

battle facing our planet, how we can meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability

of future generations to meet their own needs. This theme, sustainable development, is so diverse

that we decided to invite five different lecturers to give their views,

and we'll be travelling round the world to hear them. In our final programme, His Royal Highness,

the Prince of Wales, will give his personal reflections on the theme, and will host a discussion

with our five lecturers at his home, Highgrove. Our first wreath lecturer is the Right Honourable Chris Patton,

Commissioner for External Relations for the European Union.

He was the last governor of Hong Kong,

and during a distinguished political career in the United Kingdom,

he served as Secretary of State for the Environment,

Minister for Overseas Development, and Chairman of the Conservative Party.

A dominant concern in his work and his writing has been how to reconcile good governance with the deepening of democracy and the development of civil society.

What has democracy to do with sustainable development, you may say? Everything is the answer,

for without the consent of the people, hard decisions about how we live cannot be securely taken.

And now will you welcome our wreath lecturer tonight, Chris Patton.

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