Archived press release

Blair caves into industry on climate

27 October 2004

Commenting on Margaret Beckett's announcement that the UK Government intends to resubmit a new plan to the European Commission detailing how many climate changing pollution permits it intends to hand out to industry in the next two years (2005-07), Friends of the Earth's Climate Spokesperson, Bryony Worthington said:

"Tony Blair is going back on his promise to address global warming and is allowing industry to create even more pollution which will directly lead to climate change. By significantly increasing the amount of CO2 pollution that industry is allowed to emit he is undermining the UK's international credibility and sending a very poor signal to the rest of Europe."

"The European Commission had already approved the UK's original plan over the summer but thanks to industry lobbying Blair has decided to back the DTI and go against the wishes of DEFRA. The Government clearly doesn't have control of the UK's ability to meet its target of a 20% reduction in Co2 emissions by 2010. It needs to take urgent measures, including introducing much tougher targets as part of the emissions trading scheme's second phase starting in 2008."

Friends of the Earth will be urging the European Commission to be tough on the UK and to reject the new plan. It will also be calling for the Government to introduce new regulations and taxes in the forthcoming review of the Government's Climate Change Programme to compensate for having thrown away the opportunity to use trading to make cuts in emissions.

Notes

The new plan gives power generators an extra 6.6million tons of CO2 a year. The latest figures indicate that the UK is not on track to meet our target of a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2010 and is likely to achieve only a 14-15 % reduction.

Why is this important?

It basically allows industry to pollute more taking us further away from our climate targets. The original plan already conceded that the UK was no longer on track to meet its 2010 carbon dioxide reduction target of a 20% cut in 1990 levels but would instead meet a 15.2% reduction. The more generous plan looks certain to take us even further away. In 2003 we had made only a 7.5% reduction (a slight rise on 1997 levels when Blair came into power) leaving a massive 12.5% needing to be made up in the remaining 6 years of this decade. The new plan looks likely to be asking industry (who account for half our annual CO2 emissions) to make less than a 1% saving by the end of 2007. This virtually removes any hope of hitting our target.

What are the political implications?

There was a fierce battle between DEFRA and DTI over whether a more generous plan should be submitted with DEFRA trying hard to win the environmental argument. The fact that Blair appears to have sided with industry and the DTI over DEFRA completely undermines his professed concern over the need to take urgent action to tackle climate change. His failure to put words into action couldn't be more starkly illustrated than in his failing this key test of his leadership.

Progressive industry voices and city commentators have all said that as long as allocations are fairly worked out they do not need to be made more generous - in fact if they are too generous they run the risk of causing the whole scheme to fail, leading to a return to calls for increased regulation or taxation as a more certain way of reducing emissions.

In Europe the UK's decision to rip up a previously agreed NAP and to come back with a more generous one will not be popular - the UK has previously complained to the Commission about other countries not sticking to "the letter or the spirit" of the Directive that introduced the scheme. The hypocrisy of that position is now clear - the UK's original NAP was already amongst the most generous as it required less than a 1% reduction from Business as Usual - countries such as Spain have submitted much tougher limits for their industries.

Internationally other G8 countries including Japan and the US can rightly use this as an example of the UK failing to practice what it preaches, undermining efforts to restart negotiations on the need for much deeper cuts in industrialised countries' emissions.

What happens next?

The UK has to now hope that the Commission will approve this more generous NAP - they are legally entitled to three months to make a decision but this would take it beyond the start of the scheme.

Friends of the Earth will be urging the Commission to be tough on the UK and to reject the new plan. We will also be calling for the Government to introduce new regulations and taxes in the forthcoming review of the Government's Climate Change Programme to compensate for having thrown away the opportunity to use trading to make cuts in our emissions.

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