Twelve commitments the government must make NOW if it’s really serious about stopping climate change
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press@greenparty.org.uk
In a speech at the World Clean
Air and Environmental Protection Congress in London, 24 August 2004, environment
minister Lord Whitty stated that
"internationally our first priority is climate change, in the long
term probably the most important issue we face as a global community."
Tony Blair himself has described how “critical” climate change is on a number
of occasions.
And this week the Conservative
and Labour Party leaders will be delivering major speeches on climate change.
The Independent on Sunday on 12
September 2004 described the speeches, scheduled for Monday and Tuesday
respectively, as “an unprecedented double-act".
The Liberal Democrats actively
masquerade as a “green party” – but continue to support policies that make a
mockery of their fine pronouncements. This could probably not have been better
symbolised by Charles Kennedy’s choice of air travel – the most polluting form
of travel – for his 2001 general election tour of the UK. Anyone who flies
around claiming to be environment-friendly is surely missing something.
But whatever Conservative,
Labour and LibDem politicians may say about climate change the fact remains
that none of these parties have the policies necessary for the UK to make its
fair contribution to the global effort of stopping climate change.
Tony Blair has repeatedly
claimed Britain leads the world with the Kyoto Protocol – but in fact Kyoto,
while providing a potentially crucial international framework for agreement,
contains targets which are far, far short of what’s needed. “Leading the world”
in the pursuit of clearly inadequate targets is not much to be proud of – but
the claim does give the false impression that Labour is on the case.
The Blair government has
accepted the view of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, that the
world must make 60% cuts in CO2 emissions by 2050, from 1990 levels. But the
RCEP went further. It embraced the “Contraction and Convergence” principle, in
which high-polluting countries will inevitably make much greater reductions
than the lower-polluting countries, in the interests of global equity. For the
UK to adopt Contraction and Convergence, we must commit ourselves to 90% CO2
reductions by 2050 at the latest. Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have
toyed with the idea of Contraction and Convergence, but neither party will
commit itself wholeheartedly, and the fact is that most Labour and LibDem MPs
still don’t understand the issue or its importance.
In short, the neoliberal
parties – Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat – are simply not facing up
to climate change:
a. They
have inadequate targets.
b.
They do not have the policies necessary to meet even
their inadequate targets.
c.
They have some policies that are taking us in precisely
the wrong direction.
All three
neoliberal parties support increased roadbuilding – Labour and the Tories to
the tune of £30 billion during this decade – and we know that roadbuilding
serves to generate traffic. Road traffic directly contributes at least 20% of
our greenhouse gas emissions.
All three neoliberal
parties support airport expansions. Labour wants to double or treble the size
of the UK aviation industry within twenty years, although aviation is already
the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas emissions, and aircraft emissions
at cruising altitudes are disproportionately damaging compared with the same
emissions at ground level. Neither Labour nor the Tories are prepared to end
the £9 billion annual tax-break given to the UK aviation sector. The LibDems,
ever striving to appear “green”, have said they would make freight aircraft pay
airport tax as passengers do, which would mean a LibDem aviation tax-break of
£8 billion a year. And the LibDems would continue to tax passengers rather than
tax fuel, meaning a passenger causing fewer emissions would pay as much tax as
a passenger causing far greater emissions. That is no way to “make the polluter
pay”.
All three
neoliberal parties are keen to support economic globalisation, even though the
process is known to increase trade - not least increasing the average distance
travelled by goods - and thus increasing the ecological impacts of trade. The
parties of unrestrained “free trade” are ideologically disadvantaged when it
comes to cutting emissions.
The neoliberal
approach to climate change is doomed to failure. For the neoliberals, the
bottom line is economic growth. There must be economic growth even if it causes
climate change. This is economic folly, because climate change causes
environmental damage (including greater and more frequent storms, floods,
droughts, disruption of agricultural systems, sea-level rises, loss of
inhabitable land) which then impacts negatively on the economy. For Greens, the
bottom line is sustainability with social justice – we must promote equity,
prosperity and sustainability in parallel with one another. That means, amongst
other things, stopping climate change.
Real progress on
climate change and economic development together is eminently feasible.
Notwithstanding the Green critique of economic growth per se, the Green industrial revolution that we need to help stop
climate change will mean massive growth in certain sectors of the economy –
energy conservation measures, non-nuclear renewable energy production,
low-emissions transport, low-emissions waste management, recycling and
re-manufacture, and so on. The Green industrial revolution will generate, at a
conservative estimate, 200,000 jobs in the Green energy sectors alone, and
probably another 200,000 in Green waste management. Growth in this sense will
not be an end in itself, but a means to an end – the creation of a prosperous,
fair and sustainable economy.
There are those
who say it doesn’t matter what we in this country do, because big countries
like China and India will more than counteract our CO2 reductions. But this is
only true if those countries pursue the same model of unsustainable economics
that we in the West have. But the poorer countries can learn from our mistakes,
with our assistance. It is in the UK’s own interests to make free transfers of
technology to developing countries to help them develop sustainably.
Because climate
change is the biggest threat to Britain’s and the world’s economy (let alone
the human costs and the environmental costs), it isn’t a case of not being able
to afford to stop climate change. The simple fact is that we can’t afford not
to.
This report lays
down a challenge to the neoliberal parties: we say to the Conservative, Labour
and the Liberal Democrats, instead of just telling us how serious climate
change is - in the hope that you will dupe the voters into thinking you’re
doing enough about it – make a crystal clear commitment, right now, to the
radical policies Britain needs to play our full part in averting the worst
consequences of climate change.
The following
explains twelve important points. If they will not commit itself to achieving
these twelve steps, as a minimum, then we know they aren’t serious about
climate change.
Twelve urgent commitments on climate change
If the
Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats will not make these twelve commitments
– NOW – they are not serious about climate change.
1. Contraction and Convergence strategy
We must
immediately adopt the "Contraction and Convergence" model for CO2
reductions, which is calculated to achieve the necessary reductions in a globally
equitable manner. This was pioneered by the Global Commons Institute, promoted
by the Green Party and is now supported by the Royal Commission on
Environmental Pollution and many other bodies (1).
2. 90% reductions in CO2 emissions by 2050 or sooner
We must set
targets nationally, and campaign globally, within the Contraction and
Convergence framework, to limit the global mean temperature rise to 2 degrees C
(2). For the UK, this means aiming for 40% CO2 reductions by 2020 at the
latest, and 90% by 2050 at the latest.
3. Pass the Home Energy Conservation Bill
We must immediately revive and pass the Home Energy Conservation Bill,
intending to achieve 30% reductions in UK domestic energy demand within 10
years (3).
4. Scrap the £30
billion national roadbuilding programme
We must immediately scrap the national roadbuilding programme and invest the
£30 billion saving over 10 years in Green transport measures (4).
5. Pass the Air Traffic Emissions Reduction Bill
We must immediately pass the Air Traffic Emissions Reduction Bill, which was
steered through the House of Lords in March 2004 by Green peer Lord Beaumont,
and which would achieve 50% CO2 reductions in aviation by 2050, starting with
5% by 2010 and 10% by 2015 (5).
6. End all nuclear and oil industry subsidies
We must immediately end all subsidies to fossil fuel and nuclear power, and set
targets for non-nuclear renewable energy production to meet at least 90% of UK
domestic and industrial energy demand from zero-emissions sources by 2050.
7. Two million
solar roofs by 2010
By 2010, we must establish two million solar roof systems in the UK, following
and surpassing the lead taken by Germany (6).
8. Two million small-scale wind energy systems by 2010
We must embrace
the latest technology in micro wind turbines suitable for many homes,
businesses and public buildings.
9. End all aviation tax breaks
By 2010, we must end the £9 billion annual tax break currently given to the UK
aviation industry (7).
10. Smart Energy strategies in all local authorities
All local authorities must implement the Green Party's Smart Energy
Conservation Strategy - developing a comprehensive strategy to cut the local
authorities own CO2 emissions by 40% from 1990 levels by 2020 and 90% by 2050,
including traffic reduction, energy efficiency in the local authority itself,
home energy conservation, a Zero Waste strategy, and energy efficient procurement (8).
11. £2 billion a year from ecotaxes for renewables
By 2010, we must
be raising at least £2 billion a year from ecotaxes to invest in non-nuclear
renewable energy production, not including small-scale systems described above.
12. Financial support for sustainable development in poorer countries
We must campaign internationally for global action. And we must back up our
words with financial commitment, including the free transfer of renewable
energy technology to developing countries to help them develop sustainably.
Notes
1.
For further information, search the Green
Party website for “Contraction and Convergence”. For the Global Commons
Institute see http://www.gci.org.uk/.
2.
There is now a broad consensus amongst NGOs and
scientists that this is a reasonable upper limit to avoid catastophic changes.
3.
This Bill in 2002 had the support of over
400 MPs but was sabotaged by the government. See http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmbills/011/2002011.pdf
for the Bill itself, and http://www.greenparty.org.uk/index.php?nav=news&n=126
for further information.
4.
See eg The
Green Transport Revolution (and how to pay for it), 2001 general election
briefing, at http://www.greenparty.org.uk/files/reports/2004/The%20Green%20Transport%20Revolution.html.
Also Real Progress on local transport,
2004 local elections briefing, which argues that
Green Party policies could cut traffic by 20% in 10 years: https://www2.greenparty.org.uk/files/reports/2004/Real_progress_on_local_transport.htm.
5.
See Green Party press releases of 22 March,
31 March and 26 April 2004, at http://www.greenparty.org.uk/index.php?nav=groupednews&r=group%3D2.
6.
See eg Solar
Century: How local authorities can fuel the solar revolution of the 21st
century, Green Party 2003 local elections briefing, http://www.greenparty.org.uk/files/reports/2003/solar.htm.
7.
See Aviation's
Economic Downside, Green Party, 2003 edition, at http://www.greenparty.org.uk/files/reports/2004/AED3.htm.
8.
See Smart
Energy: Real Progress in local council energy policy, at http://www.greenparty.org.uk/index.php?nav=reports&b=8.
Published and promoted by Spencer Fitz-Gibbon for The Green Party, both at 1a Waterlow Road, London N19 5NJ.