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Blair's green speech: now it's time for action
6 March 2001
The Prime Minister's “green speech” today has been welcomed by Friends of the Earth as the most serious he has yet made on the environment. FOE wants the radical analysis in the speech to be matched by radical action across Government.
FOE was particularly pleased by:
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the strength of the commitment to act on climate change;
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the promise to move towards sustainable farming and radical reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. FOE now wants to see a clear Government strategy on how it will act at home and in the EU to achieve this shift;
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100 million in new money to support renewables. FOE describes this as a“welcome down payment” for green energy, but not yet enough to meet a target of 20% of electricity generated from renewables by 2010.
The weakest part of the speech was on transport. The Prime Minister promised £180 billion over ten years in investment in Britain's transport infrastructure. He did not mention that much of this money has been ear-marked for destructive new road schemes (protestors lobbied at the meeting over schemes including the Hastings and Salisbury by-passes). He also did not mention the Chancellor's recent populist cuts in fuel taxes.
Commenting, FOE Executive Director Charles Secrett said:
“This is the strongest environment speech Tony Blair has yet made. It is welcome evidence of joined-up green thinking in No10. Now, we need to see joined-up green action across Government. I hope Mr Brown's budget tomorrow will match Mr Blair's words today.
We welcome the Prime Minister's strong words on climate change. And we hope his commitment to sustainable farming will lead to a clear Government policy statement on how that shift can be achieved over the next Parliament.
Mr Blair has certainly thrown down a green gauntlet to the other Party leaders. We await their big green Election speeches with interest.”
If you're a journalist looking for press information please contact the Friends of the Earth media team on 020 7566 1649.
Published by Friends of the Earth Trust
Last modified: Jun 2008
