Will fear of an oil crisis turn Cameron and Clegg green?

The unrest in a number of Arab States has reportedly got senior politicians seriously worried about the potential impact on our fossil-fuel-based economy. Yesterday my colleague Martyn Williams blogged on David Cameron and Nick Clegg's promises to get a grip on ministers to wean us off oil and ensure their pledge to be "the greenest government ever" doesn't become an albatross around their necks. They claim to have a carbon plan to put into action.

The truth is that their carbon plan contains nothing of substance that is new. You can imagine the panic in Government departments when the call went out from the Prime Minister's office that he wanted to go big on the oil crisis and needed a plan. Civil servants would have hurried around searching out current and planned projects to try to demonstrate to Number 10 that they really did believe in the green agenda and were putting it into practice.

But with every crisis comes an opportunity. The oil situation provides those in Government who genuinely recognise the importance of climate change to use the enthusiasm of Messrs Cameron and Clegg to win Whitehall battles and get decent policies in place. Suddenly we could start to see some progress.

Over the next month the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne, needs to win the following fights. If he does we can believe the Government means business. If he fails we can see the noise around the oil crisis as just that.

1. The Government must accept the Committee on Climate Change's recommendation that the UK should reduce its carbon pollution by 60% by 2030 and that electricity production must be virtually carbon-free by the same date.
2. The Energy Bill currently before Parliament must be strengthened. It must ensure that all homes can be fully insulated with no upfront costs - to protect householders from soaring energy bills. It must require private landlords to bring the homes they rent out up to an acceptable standard of energy efficiency. And local authorities must be required to give high priority to cutting energy use and carbon pollution in their areas.
3. The Treasury must remove the cap on the amount of money earmarked for small-scale renewable electricity schemes. These schemes can provide householders and businesses with independent and secure energy supplies. It must also allow the planned Green Investment Bank to raise money through bonds and use it to deliver energy efficiency.
4. The planned electricity market reform must be focussed on developing a major marine renewables industry so that wave, tidal and off-shore wind can provide much of the energy we need for lighting and heating our homes, as well as powering electric cars in the future. This will significantly reduce oil imports and will create new jobs and business opportunities.
5. New and existing and green taxation must be used to reverse the cuts in public transport such as rural buses, and to ensure businesses get the support and funds they need to cut energy use.

These measures alone will not make the UK independent of oil from the Middle East. But they will put us on track for much greater energy security, make us more resilient to oil price increases and lead to much less carbon pollution.