Gisela Stuart MPWorking hard for Bartley Green, Edgbaston, Harborne and Quinton

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Gisela’s Guide to the Climate Change Bill

23 January 2008

Tackling climate change and sustaining our environment is part of the same fight that has inspired the Labour Party from the beginning - the fight for social justice. But it’s a challenge that requires international, as well as national action.

A Good Deal for the Global Glimate in Bali
An historic agreement on a plan for achieving a global climate deal by the end of 2009 was reached in Bali in December 2007 after two weeks of intense negotiations. Developed and developing countries alike signed up to the agreement, which for the first time ever will bring together all the world’s countries to negotiate on a climate treaty to take the world beyond 2012.

The Bali agreement sets out a comprehensive agenda for negotiations, a timetable for these (by the end of 2009), draws on the work of the IPCC and recognises the need for deep cuts in emissions.

Action on Climate Change at Home
The Labour government was critical in delivering the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. We are on target to meet our commitments under Kyoto on greenhouse gas emission reductions; in fact we are likely to almost double what is required with an estimated 23.6% reduction in greenhouse gases on 1990 levels by 2012. But we recognise that we must go further, which is why we published the draft Climate Change Bill in March 2007 – the first of its kind in the world.

Our consultation on the draft Bill closed in June, and we very much welcomed the wide range of views submitted. We received almost 17,000 responses, reflecting the increasing support for action on climate change, and following this the Government published its response to parliamentary pre-legislative scrutiny and the public consultation. A revised Bill, incorporating changes we have made, has now been published. The Bill has been described as ‘historic’ and ‘groundbreaking’ by leading environmental NGOs.

The Climate Change Bill – An Historic Moment
The Climate Change Bill will set a long-term legal framework for reducing emissions by this and future Governments. The bill will make us the first country in the world to put carbon reduction targets into law. We have opted for five-year carbon budgets with annual reporting, rather than setting annual targets for very good practical reasons. Five year budgets provide a more sensible approach as annual emissions may vary, due to an unexpected cold spell or fluctuations in fuel prices.

We are establishing the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) as an independent statutory body to advise the UK Government and Devolved Administrations on the pathway to the 2050 target. We think that it is important for the Government to be challenged on whether it is under or over achieving against its targets. To ensure that the Government is held to account every year on its progress towards each five year carbon budget and the 2020 and 2050 targets, the Bill proposes that the CCC provides an independent progress report to which the Government must respond. This system of annual reporting will ensure transparency and accountability.

Cutting Britain’s Carbon Footprint
Consensus is building around the world on the need to set a long-term goal to significantly reduce Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2050 in order to avoid dangerous climate change. The Bill provide for at least a 60% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050, but we recognise that our understanding of climate science and economics has developed significantly since the target was set. That is why the Prime Minister announced on 19 November that we will ask the new, independent Committee on Climate Change, to advise us, at the same time as it considers the first three five-year budgets, whether our own domestic target , which is already stronger than most other countries, should be tightened up to 80 per cent.

With regard to emissions from international aviation and shipping, the Bill provides that these emissions could be included in the UK’s carbon budget once international agreement is reached on how to attribute these emissions to individual countries. Currently there is no such agreement and the issues are complex. For example, how do you allocate emissions for a flight from London – Sydney by a third country’s national airline which stops to refuel in Dubai, or for a ship which sails from Japan to the UK but which takes on fuel from a tanker in international waters?

We are pushing for international agreement on this, and most important of all we are pressing for aviation to be included in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme as soon as possible. This will cap emissions from the aviation sector, so that any increase in emissions must be fully offset by requiring airlines to pay for equivalent emissions reductions from elsewhere. To ensure that we can take a fully-informed decision on whether to include these emissions in our targets, we will also ask the Committee on Climate Change for its independent advice on the impact of including aviation emissions in our targets and on a methodology for doing so.

Finally there is the question of the number of credits the UK can ‘buy’ towards meeting its targets. Use of international credits ensures emission reductions can be achieved in the most cost effective way, while encouraging investment in low carbon technologies in developing countries and encouraging countries to work together – as they must – to tackle climate change. In providing its advice on the level of each budget, the Committee on Climate Change is required to set out its views on the balance between domestic effort and use of international credits in meeting the budget. The Government will be required to take this into account when setting the level of the budget and deciding on the amount of international credits that may be used. As you will be aware, the UK accounts for just 2% of global emissions.

Energy Efficiency, Carbon Reduction and Renewable Energy
We have established the Climate Change Levy (CCL), a tax on energy use which encourages businesses to improve their energy efficiency. Together with Climate Change Agreements whereby energy intensive industries receive an 80% rebate on CCL in return for delivering quantified emissions reductions, it is estimated that the CCL package will save around 22 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2010, equivalent to taking more than 5 million cars off the road. And we have committed to the Energy Efficiency Commitment (EEC) which will enter its third phase and will be renamed the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT). This is the obligation on electricity and gas suppliers to meet targets for the promotion of improvements in home energy efficiency in Great Britain, saving more than 4 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year by 2011. In addition to the energy efficiency measures that suppliers were allowed to choose from under EEC, CERT will include microgeneration and encouraging consumers to do things differently to save energy (loft insulation, turning down thermostats, etc). By 2016 all new homes will be zero carbon.

The Climate Change Bill will enable us to bring in the Carbon Reduction Commitment, an emissions trading scheme that will cap and reduce emissions from large public and private sector organisations like Government departments and supermarket chains that are not covered by the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.

In the Pre-budget report in October the Chancellor announced a change to the way aviation is taxed. The existing Air Passenger Duty will be replaced with a ‘per plane’ tax from 1 November 2009. By moving to taxing planes rather than passengers airlines will be encouraged to operate more efficiently and to assess environmental impact.

We are also investing in renewable energy. The London Array will be one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms at 1000 MW, and has received final consent from the Government to go ahead. The project will consist of up to 341 wind turbines in the Thames Estuary and when completed will be able to generate enough electricity to power 1 in 4 homes in Greater London. If we could get the environmental conditions right a Severn Barrage has the potential to generate five per cent of the UK’s electricity.

The UK Government is a strong supporter of action at European level. The greater use of renewable energy is key to this; and as the Prime Minister has said, the UK is absolutely committed to the European 20% renewable energy target. Tidal lagoons and barrages below one gigawatt capacity will receive extra support through the Renewables Obligation, potentially benefiting lagoons proposed for Rhyl, Swansea Bay and elsewhere.

Helping Everyone Make Small Changes in our Homes
Only 5 per cent of the energy used in an inefficient light bulb is converted to light – the rest is wasted. If every household in the UK changed one regularly used bulb to an energy efficient alternative, it would save enough energy to close down one large power station. That’s why we’ve been working with retailers and energy suppliers to phase out inefficient light bulbs, so traditional 150W bulbs are phased out by January this year, 100W bulbs the year after, 40W bulbs the year after that and all high-energy light bulbs by 2011.

We will be introducing a Green Homes Service which will offer a home health check – essentially a green MOT for your home – providing advice on energy saving as standard but also on water saving, waste reduction and recycling and green travel options if desired. It will connect people with offers from energy companies for discounted or free energy saving products such as cavity wall and loft insulation, and offer a range of other financial support packages through programmes such as Warm Front. It will also contact people buying and selling homes with poor energy ratings to connect them with grants, loans and other support to get the work done to improve the rating on their homes.

And for every household - over the next decade - there will be the offer of a smart meter that will allow two way communication between the supplier and customer - giving more accurate bills and making it easier for people to generate their own energy through microgeneration and sell it onto the grid.

Motorists now have better information to enable them to choose more fuel efficient vehicles and Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) for cars is now based on graduated carbon dioxide bands, giving a clear signal to motorists; i.e. you pay more the more polluting the car is.

In order to cope with the impact of unavoidable climate change we need to adapt, as well as reduce greenhouse gases. Due to the inertia of the climate system, we are experiencing the impacts of past emissions today. Even if we stopped all our emissions tomorrow we would still face decades of climate change. The UK Adaptation Policy Framework, due to be published next year, will identify priorities for action and start to define the roles and responsibilities of central Government. And the Climate Change Bill will require the Government, on a regular basis, to assess the risks to the UK from the impact of climate change and report to Parliament. The Government will also be required to publish and regularly update a programme setting out how we will address these likely impacts, based on the principles of sustainable development to ensure that environmental, economic and social issues are all fully considered.

No More Carrying on with Carrier Bags
Every year in Britain, over 13 billion single-use carrier bags are distributed - over 10 bags a week for every household. In partnership with Government the supermarkets have already committed to reduce the environmental impact of plastic bags by 25 per cent over the next year.

But we can go further. We need to try to eliminate single-use disposable bags altogether in favour of long-lasting and more sustainable alternatives. And that is why the Prime Minister has announced that the Government will convene a forum of the supermarkets, the British Retail Consortium and other interested groups to urgently assess together how, and how quickly, this reduction can be achieved.

Finally, all of us have to play our part; it’s not just about what Government is doing. Even little changes can make a big difference; switching just three ordinary light bulbs with energy saving replacements in every household would cut family bills and save enough power to run street lighting across the country. To calculate your carbon footprint and learn what you can do to reduce it visit the Carbon Calculator http://actonco2.direct.gov.uk/index.html.

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