12 October 2005The Independent
Britain's main opposition parties are uniting today to call for a tough new policy for tackling climate change.
The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are seeking cross-party consensus on countering global warming and new measures to cut greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide which cause it.
The Lib-Con pact has been prompted by evidence of rapid climate change advances, such as this year's record melting of the Arctic sea ice, and by a sense that Britain's climate policy is starting to drift. UK CO2 emissions, which are meant to be going down, have gone up for three years in a row, and recent comments by Tony Blair have prompted questions of his commitment to the Kyoto protocol, the international climate change treaty.
The Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives believe the situation is so serious, and the time for action so limited, that normal party politics should be put aside. They want the three main parties to unite around a common position on global warming, which would involve a more rigorous approach to tackling CO2 emissions.
They suggest there should be compulsory annual cuts in greenhouse gases, and that an independent body be established to monitor emissions.
The idea of a cross-party initiative has come from Norman Baker, the Liberal Democratenvironment spokesman, and it has been accepted by his Tory counterpart, Oliver Letwin. In a Commons debate on climate change today they will make their case for unity.
Margaret Beckett, the Environment Secretary, described the idea as interesting. But she told Mr Baker: "The Conservative positions on a number of key issues, their leadership election, and your own ongoing review of all Liberal Democrat policy means that this would not be an easy discussion."
Government sources said that a fortnight ago Mrs Beckett wrote to Mr Letwin, pointing out that John Redwood, the Tories' spokesman for deregulation, recently said that "the fashionable media have decided that climate change is one of the biggest challenges to mankind, but they ignore the fact that the earth has lived through hotter times than today."
Mr Baker said he was disappointed in Mrs Beckett's response. "It looks to me as if the Government is finding reasons not to agree, rather than accept a degree of common ground and build on that."
Mr Letwin said: "Since this is the biggest environmental threat - and one of the biggest problems of any kind - facing humanity at present, it is right that the UK should develop a new approach which is based on cross-party consensus."
The sense that climate change is proceeding faster than expected lies behind the urgency of the call from Messrs Baker and Letwin, along with the feeling that Britain's grip on the problem, once seen as impressive, is starting to slip.
The last year has seen a series of disquieting reports about the warming planet, not least about the melting of ice at both poles. There are suggestions that other extreme weather phenomena, such as Hurricane Katrina and the record drought in Spain and Portugal may be related to climate-change.
Britain's CO2 emissions - along with those of many other European countries - have been steadily going up, largely because of a switch from burning gas in power stations, to cheaper but more carbon-rich coal.
The Government accepts that as things stand it will not meet its target of cutting CO2 emissions to 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2010, and has instituted a review of its climate change programme to try and achieve this. The Government is confident it will hit its Kyoto target of cutting UK greenhouse gases by 12.5 per cent by 2010.
