Lib Dems focus on the environment
Environmental concerns will “run through” all elements of the Liberal Democrats’ agenda, according to its environment spokesman Norman Baker.
In a keynote speech at the party conference in Bournemouth, Norman Baker lambasted the other parties’ environmental record and promised that the Lib Dems would be different.
Both Tony Blair and the Conservative leader Michael Howard have recently made keynote speeches on the environment – with the Prime Minister promising to take an international lead on climate change during next year’s European and G8 presidencies.
Turning first on the Prime Minister, Mr Baker accused Mr Blair of taking a “tick box” approach, saying: “I say this to tick box Tony. We have had more than enough warm words and hot air from you, lets see some action.”
He described Michael Howard’s speech on the environment as a “sad joke”, saying: “You just can’t trust the toxic Tories to care for the environment”.
Turning to the record of the United States on climate change, Mr Baker argued that George Bush was “in denial”, citing his failure to mention it in his State of the Nation address. “As far as the environment is concerned, George W Bush is public enemy number one.”
America has repeatedly refused to sign up to the Kyoto Treaty which aims to reduce worldwide carbon emissions.
Turning to Liberal Democrat policies, Mr Baker said the environment must not be an “add on”, but “it must run through all we do, and all that Government does.”
Action, he said, is needed now, warning that the floods in Boscastle, landslides in Scotland and the tropical storms hitting the Caribbean were a taster of what was to come, he said. No one event could definitively be put down to climate change, but what was clear is that what used to be “freak” was becoming common place.
To tackle climate change, Mr Baker said, there needed to be a global agreement that all countries could sign up to. Emissions needed to be shared out across the world on a head count, not a on a wealth count otherwise the developing countries would never sign up, he warned.
Setting out the Liberal Democrat policies, he pledged to promote energy conservation and energy efficiency and to do far more to develop renewable energy sources including wave, tide and solar – not just wind. The Liberal Democrats would not fall back on nuclear power, he added.
Britain needed public transport that was safe, reliable, frequent, clean and cheap, he said. Since 1974 the real cost of rail travel had gone up by 84 per cent, and bus travel 71 per cent, whilst motoring had fallen by two per cent. His party would reduce overheads on the railways and use road pricing to ensure the polluter paid, whilst protecting those who – in the countryside for example – were truly dependant on the car.
“All those in this country who care for the environment and care for their future should vote Liberal Democrat at the next general election,” he concluded.
The Green Party, however, castigated the Liberal Democrats as being “half-hearted and hypocritical” on the environment.
Launching an updated version of its “Too Yellow to be Green” report, party spokesman Spencer Fitz-Gibbon, said: “The Lib Dems are ideologically disadvantaged when it comes to protecting the environment. As a neoliberal party they have to put issues like free trade and profit before sustainability. Even today their Bournemouth conference will be discussing ‘Making Markets Work for the Environment’, while most Greens have pointed to the fundamental flaws in market-based solutions.”
Specific charges contained in the report include that the Liberal Democrats “often” locally support road building schemes, including the Newbury bypass and the expansion of Manchester airport, and that London Mayoral candidate Simon Hughes opposed the expansion of the congestion charge.
Commenting specifically on this, Mr Fitz-Gibbon, said: “This was hardly in tune with LibDem transport spokesman Don Foster’s call for an extension of congestion charging to the rest of the country. But then, Lib Dems in cities from Edinburgh to Leeds and Manchester have opposed congestion charging.”
He concluded by saying: “There is still only one Green Party.”
