David Cameron has pushed concern for the environment to the top of the political agenda. His green crusade is both a symbol of change in the modern conservative party and a reconnection with the party’s finest tradition of responsible stewardship.
David anticipated the call for substance and set up the Quality of Life policy commission to recommend a path that balanced our need to grow with the need to protect our environment.
Our report can be accessed on www.qualityoflifechallenge.com Geoffrey Lean in the Independent on Sunday described it as “an extraordinarily sensible; thoughtful and detailed document”. It calls for us to be much smarter about how we use the energy and natural resources on which we depend. This message is rooted in a core conservative dislike of waste. The imperative of climate change demands it. Rising concerns about energy prices and security make it a no-brainer. We are not calling for pain and sacrifice because we won’t take people with us with that message. Instead we want to help people make more environmentally responsible choices. We recommend big tax breaks to persuade people to buy the greenest car in the class that is right for them. We suggest cuts in stamp duty and council tax to encourage homeowners to reduce emissions from their homes and cut their energy bills at the same time. We argue that air passenger duty should be a tax on the plane and not the passenger because we want to incentivise airlines to buy more efficient planes and fill them. We want to see more investment in the railways so that people have a more attractive alternative to flying. Funding this agenda is made possible by winning the argument for raising the price of polluting behaviour. Britain‘s new status as an importer of oil and gas in an age of dwindling reserves concentrated in very few hands that we can trust.
The case for change is reinforced by
Business as usual is not a sustainable option. Our future security and prosperity depend on tapping human ingenuity to rethink our use of energy and natural resources in a world that will have to accommodate 9.2 billion people by 2050The evidence tells us that we have reached a critical stage in terms of the need to turn rhetoric on environmental crisis into effective action.
As Conservatives we recognise that we must be honest about the problem and work with the grain of human nature to find the solution. People are unlikely to change their habits unless we make it clear that is easy; normal and in their interest.
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