David Cameron put climate change at the heart of his campaign to transform and modernise the Conservative Party. I don’t doubt his personal commitment or that of many other Ministers and MPs. However the same cannot be said for the entire Conservative Parliamentary Party, with a significant number of climate change sceptics on both front and backbenches.
 
Not long before the General Election, TimMontgomerie, a former CCHQ staffer and editor of the influential website Conservative Home, suggested that “80-90 per cent” of my party are “just not signed up” to the climate change agenda. His comments were backed up by a poll of Conservative candidates in the 250 most winnable seats conducted through his website before the election. Candidates were asked to rank 19 different policy priorities in order of importance. Britain’s carbon footprint came bottom.
 
It may sometimes be effective to shift the focus of the argument. Those who are sceptical about climate change and the need to cut GHG emissions may still accept theoverriding need for more investment in energy efficiency, thedesirability of new nuclear power stations and even of some forms of renewable energy because both help to cut our dependence on imported oil and gas. The dangers of being vulnerable to the whims of volatile foreign regimes that may not always be friendly unites climate change sceptics and enthusiastic greens alike.
 
We must persuade the public that it is in Britain’s economic interests to move to a low carbon economy faster than other countries, not least to give us a competitive edge. This will not be easy, but if the carbon price rises substantially as the world economy recovers and other nations get tougher with emitters, then we will have a very significant advantage if we have already invested in low carbon electricity generating capacity, low emission transport infrastructure and environmentally-friendly buildings.
Low carbon products and services will be a growth market in the medium to long term, as trends in the car industry already show.
 
Now is the time to invest in research and development of the products and services that will be in demand as the low carbon revolution takes place. Clean coal in particular offers immense international potential, and the Government should continue to prioritise the demonstration of carbon capture and storage.
 
The EU has a role to play in the big picture. If aligned with either China or India, it would easily outweigh America on the global stage. Imagine a common EU/China or EU/India standard for electricity generation or for buildings. The rest of the world would have to pay attention. Of course the EU’s approach to these issues may at present be poles apart from both China and India, but it must be worth at least exploring the possible benefits of bilateral agreements with those countries even if initially such agreements were only voluntary.
 
David Cameron is inheriting a far more difficult and complex situation than anyone foresaw. When that iconic photograph was taken of him dog sledding in Norway, en route to view the retreating icebergs, nobody had any idea of the looming global financial meltdown. His green enthusiasm in the early days of his leadership proved how the Conservatives had changed but those were very different times.
 
Nonetheless there is no going back now. One measure by which his Government will be judged is whether it accelerates the transformation of Britain to a low carbon economy.

Posted by Administrator on behalf of Tim Yeo MP. Tim is MP for South Suffolk, and chairman of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee.

The full pamphlet, Green Gold, can be downloaded from the Tory Reform Group

I can’t believe I’m about to do this. I SWORE I wouldn’t write any more about bins… but it turns out I still need to.

One of the main headlines on Today this morning was that bin taxes were going to be abolished by the new government. Then on WATO, Eric Pickles described beautifully how Conservatives want to help people not hinder them.

That is all very well. But do you know what?

IT IS UP TO COUNCILS TO GET RID OF OUR RUBBISH.

IT IS THEREFORE ALSO UP TO COUNCILS HOW OFTEN, BY WHOM, HOW, AND IN WHAT WAY THE BINS ARE EMPTIED.

To be less shouty about it, I don’t think the best way to encourage people to produce less waste and to recycle more is to charge them more. But I do think it’s a local decision. And, building on that, if a council decides that’s what it wants to do then it is accountable at the ballot box if local residents decide that they want something different.

The only way that the localist agenda is going to work is if central government really means it, and doesn’t get sidetracked by Daily Mail-esque campaigns for or against certain things.

The way it will work is if central government means what it says and lets local people decide.

Rainforests are not only the ‘green lungs’ of the planet but also the source of the forest resources that directly contribute to the livelihoods of 90 per cent of the 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty. Emissions from deforestation also account for 17.4 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions – this is more than the whole global aviation and transport sector. Without urgent action to halt deforestation, we haven’t a chance of beating global climate change. Like all good climate policy should be, saving our forests is a good thing in itself. There is no magic solution to saving the rainforest but one measure we can take is to choke off demand for illegal timber here in the UK market.

In a speech ahead of the Copenhagen climate summit, my colleague the Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague set out the strength of the Conservatives commitment to tackling deforestation, and in particular to address illegal logging – in order to protect both the world’s rainforests and the rights of indigenous forest people.

William gave a clear commitment that a Conservative government will introduce new legislation to make the sale of illegal timber a criminal offence. We have supported the Government, and remain committed to, strengthening the draft EU Regulation ‘laying down the obligations of operators who place timber and timber products on the market’ but it is clear that action at the European level will only go so far.

In 2008, the United States amended the Lacey Act and made it illegal for a person or company to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire or purchase timber or timber products illegally taken, harvested, possessed, transported, sold or exported. The Lacey Act amendments are widely seen as a historic breakthrough and already leading to changes in practices among US retailers, importers, and manufacturers and logging companies.

There is no reason why this can’t be replicated here in the UK yet the Government has refused to legislate to this effect. If the Government does not act to make the sale of illegal timber a criminal offence, a new Conservative Government will, if we are elected. My Ten Minute Rule Bill is intended to send a message to the rest of Europe that we are ready to lead on closing the market to illegally harvested timber and protecting the extraordinary biodiversity of the rainforest.

Yet again Labour has failed to match its rhetoric with ambitious policy. Conservatives stand ready to make the changes to help save our forests.

I struggle to understand why environmental politics are traditionally regarded as left-wing.  They are not.  The environment is the only place that we have.  The place where we live matters to us; in our local communities and in the wider world.  It is all about respect and stewardship.

Disputes about the science of manmade climate change may be rife, but they are entirely irrelevant.  It might be suggested that only a brave or very foolish person (or a publicity-seeker) would take issue with the consensual opinion of the world’s leading scientists – but in the end this too is irrelevant.

The point is this:  waste of any kind is a bad thing, so we must stop wasting energy, food and material resources.  Fossil fuels are finite, so we must find ways of being less dependent upon them, and sooner rather than later.  Natural resources are limited, not limitless as we in the West have implicitly regarded them for two-hundred years, so we must start trying to obey the laws of Nature.  If Nature goes bust, there will be no bail out.

Conservative-minded people can embrace our current environmental challenges wholeheartedly, passionately and with every confidence in a right of centre political inheritance and vision.

We believe in the merits of order and security: two benefits of civilisation, which are threatened by environmental disruption and the pressure of global population growth.

We recognise the responsibility of stewardship.  We respect the past, and hold the present in trust for future generations.  As Margaret Thatcher said: “Mankind has no freehold on the Earth, only a full repairing lease.”  We need to look after the place where we, and all other creatures, live; not just for ourselves but for those who will come after us.

We understand the need for global action and diplomacy in order to ensure advantages at home and around the world.  In world affairs the conservative approach is pragmatic rather than ideological.

We believe that local actions, in our own communities, rather than Big Government initiatives, can help make changes for the better. The environment is both local and global, and a passion for local solutions can help build and strengthen our communities.

Finally, the conservative understands that whilst politicians have a vitally important role in shaping the framework for action on green issues, only the market can deliver the results.   The paradox is inescapable; it was the power of the market which, through driving unsustainable growth, created the problems mankind now faces. But it now offers the only sure way out of them.

Meeting the various challenges presented by environmental pressures is already creating huge market opportunities for those with the vision, technology and access to capital to seize them. According to HSBC, global turnover in low carbon goods and services last year overtook the value of the defence and aerospace industries. This is no cottage industry.

An unhelpful tendency exists to lecture people on the need for “behavioural change”. Of course those who have made changes in the way that they live in order to reduce their impact on natural resources should be applauded; people who, for example, have determined to drive less, recycle more, buy ethically sourced products, install micro-renewable energy systems, or switch off the lights when leaving a room. I have tried most of these things myself; but we are part of a small minority which has, by and large, made a deliberate political or social choice.

Human behaviour will only naturally change on the massive scale required when change is cheaper or more convenient than sticking with the status quo. Most people don’t want to make deliberate political or social choices; and why should they? It’s what they elect politicians to do. If heroes are to emerge from the battle to manage and defeat environmental damage they will not be eco-warriors, but engineers, physicists, designers, inventors and entrepreneurs. The true friends of the Earth are gradually emerging, and they are not those who spend their time screaming at the capitalist system. They are those who respect our duty of stewardship over the natural environment we have inherited, and embrace capitalism as the most powerful tool for change on the planet.

You can visit the CEN’s website or join their Facebook group

I do find it depressing to continually read headlines basically hinting that Tories don’t care about the environment. It’s simply not true. It is getting boring to regularly write on here why, even if you don’t believe climate change scientists (and – let’s be fair – many of their recent antics have undermined their authority), many of the ways in which we can act against climate change are also beneficial in financial terms.

Given our current economic malaise, though, we do have an amazing opportunity at the moment. It’s not the answer to all our problems, and it won’t cut our emissions by anything like enough, but as they say in the ads, every little helps.

There are two key points here – firstly that the Tories are thinking in very serious terms about how to encourage green growth.  And secondly, that being energy efficient and thereby reducing your carbon footprint has the fantastic side-effect of reducing your bills.

None of this is rocket science. Being a bit greener does not mean living in a cave. New technologies are only expensive to install at the moment because they are not used widely enough to make them more efficient both in operational and in installation terms (ie the more people use them, the better they are and the easier it is to use them – a classic virtuous circle). Reducing your energy consumption will (generally) reduce your energy bills.

So I do wish people would return to the previously much-vaunted “Politics of And“. In this area in particular, it’s there, it’s sensible, and it works.

Look at this initiative from former Governor Jon Hunstman (R-OH – yes, a Republican governor of Ohio). It’s a fantastic, multi-stranded initiative: by encouraging state employees to compress their work into a four day week (so instead of working 9 til 5, they work 8 til 6 and have Fridays off), by carpooling, and by tripchaining (ie making one trip with several stops, rather than going backwards and forwards from home several times a day), the programme has cut a million miles of travel and saved over 50, 000 US gallons of petrol. 

But another key benefit is that state workers are reporting higher levels of job satisfaction, better family relationships, fewer sick days and greater availibility of state services (partly because the state offices are open at times when people can actually get to them).

This dual purpose is what the “Politics of And” is all about. Quality of life, environmentalism, reducings costs… It’s what we can and should do here.