Comment: Huhne mustn’t back down over carbon emissions
The coalition’s environmental credentials are under threat.
By Martyn Williams
The coalition’s environmental credentials are under threat as leaked documents published today reveal that a number of government departments are lobbying hard to reject advice from its official climate advisor for tougher action on global warming.
Astonishingly one of those calling for the advice to be snubbed is Liberal Democrat Vince Cable, who leads the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
Cable argued for a zero-carbon economy when in opposition – and indeed it’s still on the Lib Dem website under his photograph, with the heading “What we stand for”.
The Committee on Climate Change was established to advise the UK government on setting and meeting carbon budgets. Its latest report makes a number of key recommendations, including the need to cut UK greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent by 2030, based on 1990 levels.
The advice is based on the latest climate science, and takes account of other issues, such as the current state of the UK economy.
But in the leaked correspondence, Cable – who is also responsible for science – says that accepting the carbon budget risks endangering the competitiveness of British industry. This overlooks the fact that a number of leading businesses, including Tesco, Shell and EDF Energy, wrote to the prime minister only two months ago urging him to accept the advice.
This issue is of such fundamental importance to UK efforts to combat global warming that Friends of the Earth has written to energy and climate change secretary Chris Huhne today to warn him that the credibility of both the coalition and his party are at stake. We are urging him to make this a resignation issue – if the government won’t stand up for climate action, Huhne should stand down.
The timing couldn’t be more ironic – this Saturday is the first anniversary of David Cameron’s promise to lead the ‘greenest government ever’.
To mark the occasion, Friends of the Earth published a report last week to assess the coalition’s progress to date.
Written by the former chair of the Sustainable Development Commission for Friends of the Earth, Jonathon Porritt, it found there had been little or no progress in over three quarters of the green policies examined and was highly critical of the Lib Dems’ failure to champion their green agenda in government.
Porritt also concluded that:
. There’s little evidence of the prime minister using his personal political clout to improve the government’s green performance;
. Government promises to create tens of thousands of new green jobs are evaporating;
. It’s impossible for the Department for Energy and Climate Change to deliver comprehensive climate change plans when the rest of Whitehall is fundamentally disengaged – and the Treasury is hostile.
Both coalition parties have made great efforts to portray themselves as the greenest mainstream party. But unless they agree to heed the climate committee’s advice these ambitions will simply be more hot air.
Martyn Williams is parliamentary campaigner for Friends of the Earth
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