Energy Efficiency Campaigners Spotlight Meacher on Commitments to Fuel Poor

Energy efficiency campaigners have blown a hole in evidence given to a key Committee of MP's by Environment Minister Michael Meacher MP it was revealed today. The Minister's evidence could adversely affect millions of UK households suffering from fuel-poverty and also erode Britain's ability to reduce its damaging global warming emissions.

Research by environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth has unearthed numerous contradictions to claims made by the Environment Minister that the Government has not committed itself to specific energy efficiency targets. The group have pointed to Mr Meacher's flawed evidence as a further signal that he may scupper a proposed new law to improve energy efficiency policies.

Mr Meacher told the Trade and Industry Select Committee on 23 May 2002 that:

"there has never been a Government commitment, either by the previous Government before 1997 or by our Government since, to a 30 per cent target [for improving domestic energy efficiency]."

Yet Friends of the Earth have documented numerous occasions on which both the previous and current Governments have supported such targets. Friends of the Earth suspects that Mr Meacher may be trying to reinterpret well documented events in order to provide an excuse for blocking a proposed new energy efficiency law - the Home Energy Conservation Bill.

This Bill would require the Government to have a 'principal aim' of making a 30% improvement in energy efficiency by 2010. Friends of the Earth backed the new law when evidence emerged that councils were falling behind the longstanding Government targets because they had no legal force.

Despite this lack of legal force, there is no doubt that both this Government and the previous Conservative administration have backed a 30% target. Evidence unearthed by Friends of the Earth includes:

• The current DEFRA website lists HECA targets for England as '30% in 10-15 years from April 1996 + substantial progress expected in 10 years' (www.defra.gov.uk/environment/energy/heca95/intro.htm)
• An official report to Parliament by John Prescott MP, on 14 April 1999, says "a 30% improvement target was deliberately set as being a demanding one".
  It goes on to say the target can be met, saying "there is the potential to achieve a fraction under the 30% improvement sought by Government, within about 12 years from the 1st April 1996 deadline."
• • Two Government policy reviews - 'Monitoring the implementation of the Home Energy Conservation Act' (1999) and 'Review of policy framework for local authority energy efficiency activity' (2001) also included the target. In the first of these, there are no less than 23 references to 'the 30% improvement target.' The second review asked 'How should HECA work in future? Should any changes be made to 'the existing 30% target.'
• Three promises made in Parliament by the previous Conservative Government Minister that he was committed to a 30% target. For example he told MP's "At first we want to set a target of 30% for every local authority, but those who feel they have a case for exemption can talk to us,, (Hansard 17.3.95 col 1197.)
• Two official 'circulars' by the Conservative Government, which mentioned the target on several occasions, such as 'Authorities should therefore look to identify measures which, when compared with the situation as at 1st April 1996, will lead to a 30% improvement in energy efficiency.' (DoE circular 2/96 and DoE circular 5/97).

Energy efficiency is one of the most needed measures to reduce global warming emissions from British homes and industry. On May 18th, Mr Meacher wrote in the Guardian about the serious dangers of global warming and the need to get president Bush and the US signed up to the Kyoto commitment. So Friends of the Earth are not happy about the mixed messages the Minister is sending.

Neil Crumpton, energy spokesperson at Friends of the Earth Cymru said:

"Our trawl through stacks of Government documents and Hansard shows that the Government has had targets for energy conservation for the last six years. They are failing to meet them which is why tougher laws are needed, and a Government commitment to action.

Mr Meacher must now give his clear backing to the Home Energy Conservation Bill. To his credit it is he who spoke recently about the catastrophic effects of run-away global warming. So it is unfortunate that his statements a few days later don't support a priority solution, namely energy efficiency."