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Golden Valley Environment Group
Ministers Response to GVEG Petition on Climate Change Bill Prepared by: Peter Gunn-Wilkinson The GVEG Petition was submitted to Paul Keetch MP on the 4th December 2007 with copies to Hilary Benn and the other shadow environment ministers. The petition focused on the urgent need to increase the target for the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 60 % to 80% by 2050 and for a steeper curve of reductions up to 2020. The timing of the Petition coincided with the Climate Change Bill entering its Committee Stage, when the detailed scrutiny of the legislation allows for MPs to lobby for changes to the Bill. We collected 58 signitures from GVEG members and friends and 20% of these were submitted online thanks to Sarah Morgan’s work in putting it on the web. We received a comprehensive response to the petition from Paul Keetch when we discussed it with him in October. At that time, he stressed the importance of annual targets to ensure the Ministers are accountable, and we have been assured of his support for more ambitious targets and the Liberal Democrat’s commitment to work towards a 100% reduction in CO2 by 2050. The Lib Dems would also combat climate change through the tax system, which would be restructured to introduce greener and fairer taxes to penalise pollution and reward sustainable living patterns. Chris Huhne supported the need for higher targets and pointed to the Liberal Democrat amendments in the Lords to increase the target to 80% by 2050 and to replace the five year targets with a more workable 3 year cycle to coincide with Parliamentary terms. He also supported our view that reductions in the early years need to be steep and will be seeking an amendment to increase the 2020 target from 25% to 40%. The response from Peter Ainsworth was also supportive but expressed a concern that the proposed Committee on Climate Change will only report on enhanced targets in late 2009, while the carbon budgets for the next 15 years are to be set in 2008. He complimented the GVFG on our public advocacy in trying to make the final Bill a stronger and more demanding piece of legislation and stressed the need to continue to monitor the effectiveness of the legislation. The reply from DEFRA was drafted by the ‘Customer Contact Unit’ and we were somewhat disappointed not to hear from Hilary Benn! The DEFRA position is that the existing proposal for a 60% reduction by 2050 is consistent with the lower end of the ranges proposed by the March 2007 Spring European Council conclusions and the Stern review (both of which call cuts of between 60% - 80%). The higher level target of 80% would be considered by the Committee on Climate Change, who would provide expert and independent analysis of the issues involved so that Ministers could then take a balanced view of the most appropriate levels. Whilst we welcome this willingness to take account of changing scientific evidence, we will inform DEFRA that this work should not be allowed to obscure the need for informed decisions this year for setting the carbon budgets for the next fifteen years which have steeper reductions by 2020. To support the petition we also sent a press release to the Hereford Times. An article in the 3rd January paper covered the main issues and drew attention to our concern to broaden the debate. We will continue to monitor the Bill’s progress through the House of Commons and report back on future lobbying activities. |