Garston and Halewood Liberal Democrats

Brown is not green - how the Prime Minister is shirking the environmental challenge

A year on from the publication of the Stern report, the Prime Minister us failing to match up his rhetoric on climate change with action.

This has been confirmed by Gordon Brown's own environmental adviser, Jonathan Porritt, who accused the Prime Minister of making 'soaring speeches' about global warming but failing to match his words with deeds.

The Rhetoric:

At the launch of the Stern report, Gordon Brown said:

"We in Britain can lead the world. There is the biggest opportunity of all - of safeguarding the planet for the generations to come."

"Our children will not excuse a failure of political will [on climate change].

"With strong leadership we can rise to this challenge."

The Evidence:

· Watering down renewable energy targets

Gordon Brown's Government are backtracking on the target to generate a fifth of Britain's electricity from renewable sources by 2020. In October 2006, David Miliband, the then Environment Secretary, told the House of Commons: "We are committed to generating 20 per cent. of our electricity supply from renewables by 2020."[1] On October 23rd 2007, Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said on Newsnight that Britain would only aim to generate 10-15% of its electricity from renewables by 2020.

· This followed the leak of an internal government paper in August 2007 which conceded that Britain "has achieved little so far on renewables", and asked ministers to examine "what options there are for statistical interpretations of the target that would make it easier to achieve" (i.e. how the figures could be fiddled to make it look like the Government are doing better than they are).

· Downgrading environmental issues in the Government

One of Gordon Brown's first acts as Prime Minister was to downgrade the key cabinet committee on the environment. The Ministerial Committee on Energy and the Environment was previously a full cabinet committee chaired by the Prime Minister but will now be a sub-committee chaired by the Chancellor. In addition a sub-committee which aimed to embed sustainable development in central government departments has been scrapped entirely.

· Failure on green taxes

Green taxes as a proportion of the total tax burden have fallen from 9.6% to 7.4% since Labour came to power. Green taxes are at the lowest share of national income for a quarter of a century.

· Efforts to cut carbon emissions inadequate

A report by the Cambridge Econometrics think-tank, published on August 24th 2007, predicts that the UK will reduce emissions by only 15 per cent by 2020, rather than the target of 26 per cent.

· An inadequate Climate Change Bill

In a report, published on 3rd August 2007, the cross-party Draft Climate Change Bill Committee warned that the Government's proposals to tackle climate change need to be tougher and legally enforceable.

· Attacked by own adviser

Jonathon Porritt, chairman of the Government's Sustainable Environment Commission, accused the Prime Minister of making 'soaring speeches' about global warming but failing to match his words with deeds.

· 'One out of six' from green groups

In September, the Green Standard - a report by nine leading environmental groups - looked at each party's environmental commitments and actions and gave Labour only one 'green light' out of six. The Liberal Democrats were rated highest, getting three 'green lights'.

· Green groups accuse government of 'stitch up'

The Brown government has been accused of 'conducting a public relations stitch-up designed to deliver a preordained policy on new nuclear power' by Britain's leading environmental groups. The coalition, which includes Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF and Green Alliance, pulled out of the Government's nuclear consultation, claiming that the Government is distorting the evidence and that they are considering taking the Government to court again on the issue.

· Watering down requirements for environmental reporting by business

Proposals to strengthen the environmental and social reporting requirements on businesses, to provide reliable information for ethical investors and consumers, were watered down last year after Gordon Brown's intervention.

· Promise of "environmental jobs" disappeared

Gordon Brown failed to keep the promise he made at Labour's autumn 2006 conference to make an announcement on creating 100,000 new environmental jobs.