How green are the Tories? was the question from The Independent a few years back. “Vote Blue, Go Green” said the Conservative leader, David Cameron. Now he’s the PM and he’s backing up his words with actions. His government’s announcement yesterday that it is going to halve the UK’s GHG emissions, relative to 1990 figures, by 2027, is a big statement. But it’s considerably more than just rhetoric: there’s a “carbon budget,” a plan to achieve it, and it’s going to have the force of law.
The release from the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: “The carbon budget will place the British economy at the leading edge of a new global industrial transformation, and ensure low carbon energy security and decarbonisation is achieved at least cost to the consumer.” Transformation. That’s the ticket!
Cameron is quoted: “By making this commitment, we will position the UK as a leading player in the global low-carbon economy, creating significant new industries and jobs. The transition to a low-carbon economy is necessary, real, and global. By stepping up, showing leadership and competing with the world, the UK can prove that there need not be a tension between green and growth.”
Chris Huhne, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, is a Liberal Democrat, the party that is junior to the Conservatives in the coalition government. He underscored the message of economic growth: “Today’s announcement will give investors the certainty they need to invest in clean energy. It puts Britain at the leading edge of a new global industrial transformation as well as making good our determination that this will be the greenest government ever.” Further, “By cutting emissions we’re also getting ourselves off the oil hook, making our energy supplies more secure and opening up opportunities for jobs in the new green industries of the future.”
This appears to be something of a personal victory for Huhne, as well, certainly, for the vigorous and vital environmental and renewable energy communities in Britain. When word got around recently that the government was going to back away from the recommendations from their Committee on Climate Change, the environmentalists jumped into action. That is among the leitmotifs of this story from The Guardian yesterday, as they had earlier reported.
The excellent news service, Mongabay, looks at this most productive and promising development from our UK brothers and sisters, as well as noting developments, as I have, from the Germans and the Japanese. Mongabay asks the question Has the green energy revolution finally arrived? Answer? Yes. I heard Amory Lovins say in October of 2009: “The Renewable Revolution has been won. Sorry, if you missed it.” Don’t believe perhaps the world’s leading energy guru? How about Peter Löscher, the head of Siemens, one of the world’s industrial giants? “The green revolution has started and by 2020, green technology will have surpassed the car industry as well as the engineering sector in Germany.”
Party on, Green Britain.
