Climate change: The Green strategy

Green election mini-manifesto, 2005

 

 

Climate change

Climate change is the biggest threat the planet faces. Over the past 100 years, the earth's temperature has risen by 0.8 degrees. Over the next 100 years, it is predicted to rise by between 1.5 and 5 degrees. Under the 'business as usual' scenario it will rise by 3 degrees, with catastrophic economic, environmental and social consequences. Munich Re-insurers forecast that the global bill from climate change damages could outweigh the global GDP by 2060. Another forecast is that climate change could drive 25% of all animal and plant species to extinction by 2050. (1)

The remedy

Three things are almost universally agreed: that current human activity is largely responsible for climate change, that we must radically cut our greenhouse gas emissions to limit the damage, and that we must act right now.

To tackle climate change, we need to shift Britain from a carbon-based economy to a renewables based economy and we need to radically reduce our energy consumption. This means making a fundamental change in the way that we live, travel and do business.

The policies

The three neo-liberal parties' policies are hopelessly inadequate to deal with climate change. Their piece-meal promises on renewables and energy conservation are simply too vague and too weak. Meanwhile their fundamental commitment to global free-trade is taking us in precisely the wrong direction. Last year UK CO2 emissions rose.

The Green Party is the only party with a strategy for dealing with climate change, let alone one that is comprehensive or far reaching enough to achieve the necessary reductions in Co2 emissions.

We are offering a package of practical policies that work simultaneously to conserve energy, cut consumption, and facilitate the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Our starting point is that the UK needs a 90% cut in CO2 emissions by 2050. Here is how we would do it:

 

1) Target: 40% cut in CO2 emissions by 2020, 90% by 2050

The universal target of 60% emissions reductions by 2050 - endorsed by Labour and the Lib Dems - is inadequate. The Green target follows the "Contraction and Convergence" principle endorsed by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, that higher polluting countries like the UK must adopt targets that reflect their higher levels of emission.

 

 

 

 

2) Homes: 30% reduction in home energy demand by 2015

30% of all UK CO2 emissions are domestic. Greens would introduce a "Warmer Homes" act, setting compulsory targets for local authorities to insulate homes and conserve energy more effectively. This would cut UK CO2 emissions by over 10%.

3) Local authorities: 45% emissions reductions by 2020

Each local authority would adopt "Smart Energy" targets of 45% emissions cuts by 2020, to be achieved through heat, light, electrical, and fuel conservation and by establishing micro renewable-energy systems where possible.

4) Renewable energy: 40% energy from renewable sources by 2020

The Government's budget for renewables research and development, is tiny compared to the budget for nuclear. We generate just 1% of our total energy from renewable sources - less energy than nearly every other country in Europe. 35% of our electricity still comes from coal-fired power stations. 26% of our electricity comes from hazardous nuclear power.

Yet nuclear energy is more dangerous and more expensive than renewables and has enormous clean-up costs.

A Green Government would massively invest into renewables, connecting the onshore/offshore grid, creating thousands of jobs and allowing us to switch from carbon-based to a renewables economy . We would scrap the publicly funded nuclear programme and divert this money into the research and development of renewables. We would also divert funds raised through aviation tax into renewables.

5) Trade: from globalisation to localisation

It is impossible to tackle climate change, without moving away from the current system of global free trade.

The Greens will encourage local business, farming and production by developing community banks that invest in the local economy. We will work to reform agricultural subsidies, so that they benefit small and family farmers and encourage organic farming. We will set up a mandatory Supermarket Code of Practice to curtail supermarket monopoly.

We will fight at international level, to reform the EU and the WTO to promote and protect small businesses and local trade.

6) Eco-taxes

Greens would use the tax system progressively to discourage pollution and to fund the shift to renewables. We would phase out regressive VAT to its lowest level, and replace with eco-taxes on (for example) plastic bags and aviation fuel. A carbon fuel tax - which would replace the climate change levy - would cut down on carbon emission. Meanwhile our aviation fuel tax would initially raise £9bn a year, to be ploughed into renewable energy.

 

 

 

7) Transport: 10% road traffic reduction by 2020

Road transport currently accounts for 25% of UK CO2 emissions. We will scrap the Government's roadbuilding scheme and, instead, plough the £30 bn saved into building a public transport network that it is reliable, affordable and available to all.

(1) C.D.Thomas et al., 2004, Extinction risk from climate change, Nature