Government ignoring own advisers on climate change - Swinson
April 23, 2009 6:00 PM
In the House of Commons today, Jo Swinson MP criticised the government for ignoring its own advisers over investment in carbon reductions.
The Committee on Climate Change, set up by the government to advise it on such matters, estimated that the government must spend £15billion a year in order to meet the UK's 2050 target for emissions reductions.
Lord Stern, who advises the government on the economics of climate change, wrote in The Times this week that "we should probably be allowing for up to £20billion per year, perhaps more" to meet the same targets. In the Stern Review, published in 2006, Lord Stern argued that we should be spending 1% of global GDP on measures to combat climate change, warning that the negative impacts of climate change if we fail to act could cost 20% of global GDP or more.
In the budget announced last week, the Chancellor allocated only £1.4billion towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Commenting, Jo Swinson said:
"It has taken this government a long time to come round to the idea that it must take serious action to prevent dangerous levels of climate change, but the establishment of the Committee on Climate Change last year was a small step in the right direction. However, if the government is going to just ignore the advice of the experts it employs to tell it how to meet its targets then it may as well not have bothered.
Investment in low-carbon industries is not only vital for the planet and securing our future, it is also an opportunity to create jobs at a time when 2.1 million people in the UK are unemployed. The Chancellor has missed a huge opportunity here."
The text of Jo Swinson's question to the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change appears below:
Jo Swinson (East Dunbartonshire) (LD): Yesterday's Budget was a missed opportunity to invest in green measures and to stimulate the economy. The Government offered us £1.4 billion, but the Committee on Climate Change has estimated that £15 billion a year needs to be spent on green measures and this week Lord Stern said that it should be as much as £20 billion. Why are the Government rejecting the advice of their own experts?
Edward Miliband: We are not rejecting the advice of our experts. One very important point is that we already have a huge amount of investment going into green technology in this country. For example, the renewables obligation will mean that about £100 billion will go into green investment between now and 2020. Yesterday, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor added to that with what he did on the renewables obligation, on carbon capture and storage and in raising finance from elsewhere, such as through the European Investment Bank and other sources. I do not accept the hon. Lady's portrayal of what we did yesterday. It is also worth adding that, as I said earlier, the carbon budgets aspect of yesterday's Budget was a world first.
Related Links
- Lord Stern's article in The Times
- http://www.sternreview.org.uk/>Full text of the Stern Review
- More information on the Committee on Climate Change
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