Looking back, the rhetoric did get stronger, but there was nothing added to the canvas in terms of how to turn the rhetoric into reality. This begs the question: are we being fed a line or are there just not enough ideas out there?
As we saw in his speech to the WWF in October, few leaders talk a better talk on climate change than Gordon Brown. Though packed with rhetorical flourishes, the speech made clear that central to government policy on the environment is carbon trading and specifically the European Emissions Trading Scheme.
ETS provides few answers to the processes and dilemmas involved in responding to climate change. It relies on each country accepting fair responsibility in a synchronised collective response. As in Bali, ambition is discouraged because each country fears a loss of economic competitiveness vis-a-vis other economies. No cuts in emissions were achieved in the first round (2005-2007) of ETS because every country over-allocated themselves with carbon credits. Added to these flaws, ETS covers only 45% of the European economy and neither maritime nor aviation transport. There is a good deal of scepticism towards carbon trading for these reasons and the extent to which a global carbon market will simply ‘export’ emissions, rather than bring about structural change in carbon hungry countries.
Britain would still be a world leader if our domestic efforts were admirable. They are not. In October Green Party peer Lord Beaumont asked in the House of Lords what plans the government had outside of ETS in developing renewable energy policies. This was on the back of leaked DTI report earlier in the year which cast doubt on the government’s commitment to the EU 2020 renewables target. The tame response made no mention of the much-maligned Renewables Obligation or the catastrophic Low Carbon Buildings Programme but stated that ‘additional measures’ and ‘possibly additional legislation’ will be required after 2009, by which time EU countries will have negotiated their share of the target.
Throughout 2007 Lord Beaumont has continued to submit written and oral questions to the House of Lords in relation to policy areas such as sustainable housing, energy supply, carbon trading and international development. These questions and the responses given by the government are available to the public on the Hansard website. It is important to become more sensitised to the gap between rhetoric and results and look at environmental policy in the same way we look at health and crime policies. Then we will be able to make a better case against government lines on the environment, which are nearing propaganda. Keeping in touch with parliamentary questions is one way of doing this.
Questions to the Lords are available at: www.publications.parliament.uk/
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