Press Release
Dear Editor,
Can I take the opportunity of World Environment Day this week to outline to
readers the proposals of Britain's greenest major party.
Although we have heard a lot from both David Cameron and Gordon Brown about the
importance of climate change, hard solutions have been conspicuous only by their
absence. All the parties are agreed about the need for a climate change bill to
set a long-term framework for our efforts to decarbonise the economy, but
targets are only part of the answer. If targets solved problems on their own, we
would be the best governed country in the world. Only the Liberal Democrats have
brought forward any significant plans to change our behaviour. So far we have
made three main proposals to tackle the problem of carbon emissions.
The Green Tax Switch: If we do not tackle the problems caused by cars and planes
there can be no serious plan to reduce emissions. With a steeply graduated
vehicle excise duty, newly purchased low carbon cars would pay nothing while
gas-guzzlers would pay £2,000 a year. Our reforms of aviation duty would levy a
tax on the emissions - whether a passenger or freight flight - regardless of the
number of passengers. That would encourage fuller flights and a shift to fuel
efficient aircraft.
Greener Homes: Our average energy bill is £385 a year more than the average bill
in Sweden, even though January temperatures there are 7 degrees Celsius lower
than ours. We want low carbon building standards for all new homes by 2011, and
a comprehensive upgrading plan for our existing housing stock. That would fund
serious cuts in carbon emissions with energy mortgages and change the incentives
on energy companies to make more money by selling less, not more, energy.
Greener Electricity: We have also set out firm proposals for generating our
electricity without resort to nuclear power which, with all its costs and risks,
would tend to compete with, rather than complement, renewable energy. Renewables
need to be matched with a variable power source, like gas-fired or coal-fired
stations, rather than inflexible nuclear which is either on or off. That is why
we are stressing the importance of carbon capture and storage as the only
intermediate solution before a fully renewable world.
Voters know which party has been concerned with green issues for longest, and
they know a fake when they see one. I firmly believe that, as climate change
rightly soars up the political agenda, people will go for the original and not
the copy.
Richard Burt
Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate
West Worcestershire
Ash Villa
363 Worcester Road
Malvern
WR14 1AN
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