[News] from [guardian.co.uk]
[Environment > 10:10 climate change campaign]
Tories pledge 10% cut in government emissions
The Conservatives make an ambitious pitch to win the environmental vote with a raft of measures
Allegra Stratton
The Guardian, Tuesday 24 November 2009 Article history
The Conservatives will tomorrow make an ambitious pitch to win the environmental vote with a raft of measures including plans to pay the public to recycle and a promise to cut government emissions by 10% within 12 months of taking office.
The party's pledge to slash the government's carbon footprint represents the most significant policy commitment in response to the 10:10 climate campaign which asks individuals, companies and organisations to cut their emissions by 10% during 2010.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne will tell an audience at Imperial College London that environmental considerations will be central to the operations of a Conservative Treasury as he seeks to contrast himself with the record of Alistair Darling, whom the Tories say has not given a speech on the environment during his time as chancellor.
This week four shadow cabinet members will attempt to prove the issue has not slipped down the party's agenda since the days in 2006 when David Cameron made a husky-driven expedition to melting glaciers. They will deliver speeches on how their departments would hope to make the environment central to economic recovery.
Osborne is to pledge a Conservative government will:
> Sign the government up to the 10:10 campaign, cutting emissions across the government estate by 10% within 12 months, saving up to £300m a year on energy bills. They describe this as "the most ambitious commitment on UK government emissions ever made".
> Make all Whitehall departments publish their energy consumption online in order to "hold ministers and civil servants to account for their carbon footprint".
> Replace the government's bin taxes and instead pay the public to recycle.
> Create Britain's first green investment bank, to concentrate funds drawn together from disparate micro-government initiatives. They hope this will win the UK a bigger share of the $3tn (£1.8tn) global market in green technologies than its current 5%. They would also encourage the private sector to finance green technology start-ups.
> Introduce green ISAs: tax-free savings vehicles where all the funds invested go to green companies and environmental technologies.
> Expand the City's green trading market.
> Ban the export credit guarantee department from underwriting risky investment in foreign fossil fuel projects.
Osborne will say: "When it comes to environmental policy the Treasury has often been at best indifferent, at worst obstructive ... how telling that Alistair Darling has not given a single major speech on the environment in the two and a half years since he became chancellor. That attitude is going to change if the government changes. I want a Conservative Treasury to be in the lead of developing the low carbon economy and financing a green recovery."
This week's battery of green proposals comes in the run-up to global negotiations in Copenhagen next month. Though insiders acknowledge the Tories have avoided indulging in bipartisan attacks on the government as it prepares, the party has a job to maintain its environmentalism as politicians on its fringe question whether climate change is really happening and the party's anti-EU agenda leaves observers flummoxed as to how the party believes it will act on climate change alone.
The government points out that the Conservatives opposed their £20bn fiscal stimulus package, which included £405m in funding for sustainable technologies.
The party began work on some of the proposals months ago. The Tory council of Windsor and Maidenhead has tested two of the policies, with pilots on paying the public to recycle and publishing the energy consumption of the local council online having positive results. Publishing power usage online saw a 15% fall in energy consumption, while paying people to recycle prompted a 30% increase.
Within this scheme, some of the money saved by councils on landfill tax is returned to the home owner in the form of retail vouchers, including some for use in Marks & Spencer, but require a floor to be put on landfill tax to get businesses interested. In order to do this, Osborne will pledge that the first Tory budget will set out minimum rates for landfill tax until 2020 in order to provide that stability.
The Tories set up their own green London Stock Exchange in July of this year, to which almost 100 companies are now signed up. And the party will shortly publish a working report on green ISAs by Emma Howard Boyd of Jupiter Capital.
Arguably the pledge to slash emissions from government departments by 10% in a year will be hardest to meet. The Tories will tomorrow announce they have three business leaders to advise on the 10:10 pledge – Ian Livingston of BT, David North of Tesco and Ian Cheshire of B&Q – all companies that have brought carbon emissions down.
Last month the Commons voted against signing the government up to the 10:10 campaign. Labour MPs largely voted against the motion, with the climate change secretary Ed Miliband saying that while the government supported 10:10 and had written into the climate change act long-term reductions in emissions from government property over the thirteen years to 2022, it could not sign up to such a swift cut.
[Environment > 10:10 climate change campaign]
Tories pledge 10% cut in government emissions
The Conservatives make an ambitious pitch to win the environmental vote with a raft of measures
Allegra Stratton
The Guardian, Tuesday 24 November 2009 Article history
The Conservatives will tomorrow make an ambitious pitch to win the environmental vote with a raft of measures including plans to pay the public to recycle and a promise to cut government emissions by 10% within 12 months of taking office.
The party's pledge to slash the government's carbon footprint represents the most significant policy commitment in response to the 10:10 climate campaign which asks individuals, companies and organisations to cut their emissions by 10% during 2010.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne will tell an audience at Imperial College London that environmental considerations will be central to the operations of a Conservative Treasury as he seeks to contrast himself with the record of Alistair Darling, whom the Tories say has not given a speech on the environment during his time as chancellor.
This week four shadow cabinet members will attempt to prove the issue has not slipped down the party's agenda since the days in 2006 when David Cameron made a husky-driven expedition to melting glaciers. They will deliver speeches on how their departments would hope to make the environment central to economic recovery.
Osborne is to pledge a Conservative government will:
> Sign the government up to the 10:10 campaign, cutting emissions across the government estate by 10% within 12 months, saving up to £300m a year on energy bills. They describe this as "the most ambitious commitment on UK government emissions ever made".
> Make all Whitehall departments publish their energy consumption online in order to "hold ministers and civil servants to account for their carbon footprint".
> Replace the government's bin taxes and instead pay the public to recycle.
> Create Britain's first green investment bank, to concentrate funds drawn together from disparate micro-government initiatives. They hope this will win the UK a bigger share of the $3tn (£1.8tn) global market in green technologies than its current 5%. They would also encourage the private sector to finance green technology start-ups.
> Introduce green ISAs: tax-free savings vehicles where all the funds invested go to green companies and environmental technologies.
> Expand the City's green trading market.
> Ban the export credit guarantee department from underwriting risky investment in foreign fossil fuel projects.
Osborne will say: "When it comes to environmental policy the Treasury has often been at best indifferent, at worst obstructive ... how telling that Alistair Darling has not given a single major speech on the environment in the two and a half years since he became chancellor. That attitude is going to change if the government changes. I want a Conservative Treasury to be in the lead of developing the low carbon economy and financing a green recovery."
This week's battery of green proposals comes in the run-up to global negotiations in Copenhagen next month. Though insiders acknowledge the Tories have avoided indulging in bipartisan attacks on the government as it prepares, the party has a job to maintain its environmentalism as politicians on its fringe question whether climate change is really happening and the party's anti-EU agenda leaves observers flummoxed as to how the party believes it will act on climate change alone.
The government points out that the Conservatives opposed their £20bn fiscal stimulus package, which included £405m in funding for sustainable technologies.
The party began work on some of the proposals months ago. The Tory council of Windsor and Maidenhead has tested two of the policies, with pilots on paying the public to recycle and publishing the energy consumption of the local council online having positive results. Publishing power usage online saw a 15% fall in energy consumption, while paying people to recycle prompted a 30% increase.
Within this scheme, some of the money saved by councils on landfill tax is returned to the home owner in the form of retail vouchers, including some for use in Marks & Spencer, but require a floor to be put on landfill tax to get businesses interested. In order to do this, Osborne will pledge that the first Tory budget will set out minimum rates for landfill tax until 2020 in order to provide that stability.
The Tories set up their own green London Stock Exchange in July of this year, to which almost 100 companies are now signed up. And the party will shortly publish a working report on green ISAs by Emma Howard Boyd of Jupiter Capital.
Arguably the pledge to slash emissions from government departments by 10% in a year will be hardest to meet. The Tories will tomorrow announce they have three business leaders to advise on the 10:10 pledge – Ian Livingston of BT, David North of Tesco and Ian Cheshire of B&Q – all companies that have brought carbon emissions down.
Last month the Commons voted against signing the government up to the 10:10 campaign. Labour MPs largely voted against the motion, with the climate change secretary Ed Miliband saying that while the government supported 10:10 and had written into the climate change act long-term reductions in emissions from government property over the thirteen years to 2022, it could not sign up to such a swift cut.
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