Lucas questions grey parties' commitment to tackling climate change
28 August 2007
Green MEP Caroline Lucas today launched a scathing attack on the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives, branding their climate change policies 'under-whelming'.
"By declaring his party's support for a zero-carbon Britain by 2050, Menzies Campbell has usefully raised the stakes in the other parties' policy poker of outbidding each other over climate change targets", said Lucas. "However, while I'm delighted that both Tories and Lib Dems have decided to make climate change a key policy battle-ground in the next election, I remain a little under-whelmed at their proposals and lack of commitment to the issue. (1)
"While the Lib Dems have opted for unrealistic optimism over the reality of experience, calling for a zero-carbon Britain by 2050 when their record in power at all levels is one of supporting both airport expansion and more road-building, the Tories have already insisted any leaked proposals from them 'do not represent party policy'.
"The truth is that we can't cut emissions sufficiently by tinkering around the edges of society. We will only reach a zero carbon society - as we must if we are to avert the worst impacts of climate change - by changing the very ways we do business, live our lives and measure progress: now that would be a truly radical proposition. As long as the other parties remain committed to economic growth at all costs and ever-freer international trade, this necessary radicalism seems far from their thinking, whatever their leaders are saying this week.
"Only the Green Party recognises that if policies to address climate change require a different economic paradigm, then that's to be welcomed, since the kind of materialism that is currently driven by contemporary consumer capitalism is leaving people unfulfilled as well as destroying the planet. Far from being a sacrifice, a zero-carbon society will be a healthier, happier, society, with warmer homes, better public transport, stronger local communities, more green jobs - and more free time. Put simply, the policies we need to live good lives are precisely the policies we need to tackle climate change - and that is what we need to articulate if we are to have any chance of achieving a zero-carbon Britain."
