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MP urges PM to be bold at climate summit
Mike Hancock is urging the Prime Minister to do more to achieve greater carbon emission cuts at the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change which starts at the beginning of next week. Writing to Gordon Brown this week, he urged him to be bold at the Summit to try and achieve greater cuts in carbon emissions.
Mike said: "I think that Gordon Brown takes this issue seriously but we need to be much, much bolder on the issue and achieve agreement to meaningful cuts. Watered down targets will be almost as bad as no targets at all as this is virtually "the last chance salon" for avoiding global warming. Once CO2 and other greenhouse gases build up in the atmosphere, they take a long time to dissipate."
Mike and the Lib Dems also want a bolder programme of cuts in carbon emissions and converting to generating electricity by renewables in this country. They have proposed:
- Setting a target for an immediate 42% reduction in the UK emissions by 2020
- A ten-year programme to offer the opportunity for every home to be a "warm home" by 2020.
- 40% of all our electricity from renewable sources by 2020 (the Government is currently committed to 30%).
- No third runway at Heathrow.
- No new "dirty" coal power stations without full Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).
Mike said: "40% of carbon emissions come from generating electricity. But we only get around 6% of our electricity from renewable sources whereas it is a third for many European countries such as Spain and Germany. We need a bold and ambitious plan to generate electricity from renewable sources. Investing in home insulation and energy efficiency is a "win-win" situation. It creates jobs, decreases fuel poverty and prevents deaths caused by the cold and reduces carbon emissions. But only 1 in 100 homes have decent energy efficiency standards at the moment. Small scale generation of electricity of solar panels and wind turbines would cut the two-thirds that Greenpeace estimate is wasted at power stations or in transmission. Much of this would also help create "green jobs". We must now be bold - the time for being half-hearted about this is over."
Notes: Mike's letter to the PM is below:
Rt Hon Gordon Brown
Prime Minister
10, Downing Street
LONDON SW1P 2AA
OUR REF: MA/CLIMATECHANGE
30 November 2009
Dear Prime Minister
COPENHAGEN SUMMIT ON CLIMATE CHANGE
I am writing to you about the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change and the issue of reducing the world's carbon emissions to stop Global Warming. I know that you and your Government take this issue seriously. And I am obviously pleased that the Government accepted a Lib Dem amendment to the Climate Change Act to increase the ultimate cut in carbon emissions in the UK from 60% to 80%. But the time to be half-hearted about carbon emissions is clearly over if we are to avoid disastrous global warming. We must now be bold. And I think that there are three areas in particular we need to be bolder:
Pushing other countries, especially America to increase the cuts that they will agree to
- Pushing other countries, especially America to increase the cuts that they will agree to
- Doing more to support developing nations
- And doing more to cut our carbon emissions - especially on generating electricity from renewable sources.
As regards our carbon emissions, I hope that British Government itself will:
- Say that it will make a 42% reduction in UK carbon emissions by 2020
- Adopt a 10-year programme for every home to have high standards of insulation and energy efficiency and be a warm home
- Have 40% of our electricity to be from renewable sources by 2020
- Ditch the plan for a third runway at Healthrow
- Not allow any new "dirty" coal power stations to be built without full carbon capture and storage
So I hope therefore that you will press for the greatest possible cuts in carbon emissions at Copenhagen. I also hope that you will use your influence with America and President Obama to get them to increase the cuts that they will agree to. As they are the world's largest economy this is of crucial importance. And while there has been some progress in the American's position, they still need to move further in my opinion to agree to make the cuts that are needed if we are to avoid excessive global warming.
It is crucial also that the industrialised nations support developing nations in adopting technologies that will cut carbon emissions. I hope therefore that the UK will look at how it can fund this work and also work with other developed countries on a multilateral basis. I hope that you will support such initiatives as a UN "leapfrog fund" to develop and support low carbon energy generation in developing countries.
There is though much that needs to be done in this country to cut our carbon emissions. I was disappointed that the Government did not support the Lib Dem motion in Parliament recently on the "10:10" campaign a 10% cut in carbon emissions in 2010.
As you will be aware some 40% of carbon emissions come from generating electricity - switching to renewable sources virtually eliminates carbon emissions. Comparable EU countries such as Germany and Spain are now generating well over a third and approaching 40% of their electricity from renewable sources. In contrast I understand that only around 6% of electricity in Britain comes from renewable sources. I hope therefore that the Government will look at how the can significantly.
I appreciate that your Government has decided to allow the building new nuclear power stations which are also low carbon - with the first due to be finished by 2018. You will though no doubt be aware that Keith Allars of the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate told the BBC that no nuclear power station has ever been built on time and on time. The BBC Newsnight programme also looked at the experience in Finland where contractors promised to build a nuclear power station on time and on budget. It is now massively behind schedule and over budget. The prognosis for nuclear power filling the hole in the generation of low carbon electricity is therefore poor. The British Wind Energy Association estimate the cost of onshore wind at 3p-4p per unit compared to 4p-7p per unit for Nuclear power. I hope that your Government will therefore review this policy and put more weight on really getting behind renewable sources of electricity and not nuclear.
There are two further areas for reducing carbon emissions. The first is that Greenpeace estimates that up to two-thirds of electricity is wasted at the power station and in transmission. I hope that you will therefore look at significantly increasing the amount of small generation (micro-generation) of electricity. The support and framework of this needs to be significantly increased as a matter of urgency.
We also need to reduce the amount of electricity that we generate. The standards of insulation and energy efficiency in this country are poor and compare badly with countries such as Germany. Only 1 in 100 homes have good standards of energy efficiency. I hope therefore that you will look therefore at substantially improving this with the aim of increasing standards of insulation and energy efficiency in every home by 2020.
Best wishes
MIKE HANCOCK CBE MP
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