Archived press release

Blair's green record

10 May 2007

Tony Blair's green record as Prime Minister has been disappointing, Friends of the Earth said today. The environmental campaign group said that despite some notable and important successes - such as putting climate change on the international agenda - Tony Blair's governments have failed to keep the 1997 pledge to be "the first truly green Government ever" [1].

Friends of the Earth's director, Tony Juniper said:

"Tony Blair has made a significant positive contribution to the global debate on climate change, but this has been undermined by his failure to tackle emissions at home. Despite repeated promises of substantial cuts in carbon dioxide, his climate strategy has failed and UK emissions have actually risen under his leadership.

"But Mr Blair has certainly championed climate change on the international stage, helping to secure the Kyoto climate treaty and ensuring that this issue is at the top of the global agenda. He has also agreed to bring in a new UK law to tackle climate change, the first national legislation of its kind anywhere in the world.

"Mr Blair's successor must make climate change a priority by putting emissions-reduction at the heart of every policy. The Government's Climate Change Bill must also be strengthened to ensure that UK carbon dioxide emissions are cut by at least three per cent each year."

Climate change

Pro

Tony Blair has recognised the importance of tackling climate change, describing it in September 2004 as "the world's greatest environmental challenge" [2].

Tony Blair's governments have made a major contribution to international efforts to tackling climate change. Mr Blair and John Prescott led international efforts to agree the Kyoto climate treaty. And the Prime Minister made climate change a core topic of the 2005 UK Presidency of the EU and its Chairing of the G8.

Domestically, Tony Blair promised, in three general election manifestos, to cut UK carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent by 2010 (compared to 1990 levels), and by 60 per cent by 2050. And his government is currently consulting on a new law to tackle climate change [3], a measure Friends of the Earth has been calling for through The Big Ask climate campaign [4]. The UK will be the first nation to introduce legally-binding legislation to tackle climate change.

Con

Despite repeated promises to tackle climate change, UK carbon dioxide emissions have actually risen under Labour. The latest Government figures estimate that carbon dioxide emissions in 2006 were over two per cent higher than 1997 [5]. The UK's failure to cut emissions at home has undermined its efforts on the international stage.

Much of this failure has been down to domestic policies that have too often led to a rise in carbon dioxide emissions. Examples of this include:

Surface transport

On 6 June 1997 the Guardian reported John Prescott as saying:

"I will have failed…if in five years there are not many more people using public transport and far fewer journeys by car. It is a tall order but I want you to hold me to it."

But since 1997 traffic levels have risen by more than 11 per cent - although train and bus use have also risen [6].

Between 1997 and 2005 carbon dioxide emissions from road transport rose by almost three per cent, and currently account for over a fifth of total UK emissions. They are forecast to rise by a further 18 per cent between 2005 and 2020, when they will represent over 26 per cent of total UK emissions. [7]

The cost of motoring has fallen in real terms by over eight per cent under Labour, while the cost of public transport has risen: bus fares by 14 per cent and rail fares by five per cent [8].

Aviation

In March 2004, a Committee of MPs attacked Government aviation policy. It said that "If aviation emissions increase on the scale predicted by the DfT, the UK's 60 per cent carbon emission reduction target which the Government set last year will become meaningless and unachievable" [9].

But Tony Blair has refused to tackle the growth in aviation saying that it is impractical to expect people to holiday closer to home [10] and presiding over policies that encourage the growth in air travel.

Government aviation strategy revolves around allowing a huge expansion in airport capacity and doing little to tackle cheap air travel (which UK tax-payers effectively subsidise to the tune of £9bn every year) [11]. Little wonder that aviation emissions are the fastest growing source of UK carbon dioxide.

Government figures released in January revealed that between 2004 and 2005, carbon dioxide emissions from UK international aviation increased by 5.7 per cent, due to an increased number of flights. Between 1990 and 2005, emissions from aviation fuel use more than doubled [12].

Furthermore, the UK's share of international aviation emissions is not included in Government targets for tackling climate change, and is presently excluded from its proposals for a new climate change law.

Green taxation

Green taxation has fallen under Labour, despite a pledge in 1997 to shift the burden of taxation from employment and onto environmental pollution. In the eight years before Labour came to power green taxes (as a percentage of overall taxes) rose from 7.8 to 9.4 per cent. But by 2005 (the latest year for which information is available) Gordon Brown had let this percentage fall to 7.7 per cent [13].

And Labour's Budgets have done little to tackle climate change. The Fuel Price Escalator (an above inflation rise in fuel duty) introduced by the Conservatives was abandoned and fuel duty has been regularly frozen.

Other environmental issues

Wildlife protection

In its first term, Labour brought in the Countryside and Rights of Way Act, which Friends of the Earth and other groups had been campaigning for. This greatly improved protection for wildlife on sites of Special Scientific Interest and the management of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

However, in its proposals to implement the European Environmental Liability Directive which should make polluters prevent and pay for damage to the environment, Labour has this year outlined plans for weak implementation. This approach would result in 66 per cent of all UK protected species (such as the red squirrel, water vole and corn bunting) and 25 per cent of protected habitats not being covered. It would also fail to cover environmental damage caused by genetically modified organisms [14]. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee has now launched an inquiry to investigate [15].

In its 2004 rural reforms the Government decided to replace English Nature with a new agency called Natural England as its official wildlife watchdog and advisor. Natural England was set up "as a powerful champion for the natural environment" (30 March 2006, Margaret Becket, Environment Secretary), but the Government removed its full independence so that Ministers can now direct it in a way that did not exist with English Nature. Ultimately this means that Natural England could be directed to agree to a decision about the natural environment which it would otherwise disagree with.

GM crops and foods

Despite David Miliband's One Planet Farming vision outlined in July 2006, Labour's support for GM technology has continued unabated. The UK has one of the highest levels of public opposition to GM crops and foods, yet under Labour it has become known for having one of the most pro-GM governments in Europe. This is manifested in Labour's consistent support for new applications to import GM food and feed into the EU [16] (the UK has voted in support of all but one, including Monsanto's MON863 maize which has recently been found to cause kidney and liver toxicity in rats). The UK is isolated as the only country to consistently vote to oppose all other countries' national bans on specific GM crops and foods, including France, Greece, Austria, Hungary and Germany [17].

In February 2004 leaked minutes of a Cabinet Office Committee meeting on GM crops revealed Labour plans to push ahead with the introduction of GM crops in Britain despite public opposition and scientific uncertainty, and uncovered a "strategy for promoting the UK biotechnology industry" [18]. Soon afterwards Margaret Beckett announced the Government's GM policy supporting the commercial growing of GM maize. This ignored the overwhelming opposition revealed in the public debate, GM Nation?, where 85 per cent said they did not want GM crops grown in the UK [20].

In July 2006, Labour unveiled its plans for `coexistence' measures in England to allow GM crops to be grown commercially. The proposals allow for routine, unlabelled GM contamination of conventional and organic crops in a move designed to pave the way for biotech crops rather than eliminate contamination to protect consumer and farmer choice for GM free crops and food [21]. As part of the consultation process, officials met with numerous GM companies but not one organic business. Friends of the Earth, GM Freeze and The Soil Association obtained a legal opinion from a leading lawyer which found the proposals legally and "fundamentally flawed" [21].

Waste

Labour has made some progress on making more effective use of waste, with recycling having risen from 7 per cent of household waste in 1996/97 to 27 per cent in 2005/06 [22]. However, this compares poorly to many other European countries, with Flanders (Northern Belgium) recycling over 71 per cent of its municipal waste. The improvements in recycling have been mainly driven by European targets in the Landfill Directive, in combination with pressure from the Friends of the Earth-backed Household Waste Recycling Act.

In addition, Labour has failed to implement an important recycling law on time, the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEE) Directive, which ensures that electrical goods are recycled. It should have come into force in August 2005, and is instead starting in July this year. So for two years electrical goods have ended up in landfill rather than being recycled into useful products.

Trade

The Blair government has been using its full influence to secure a world trade deal for market-access and natural resources on behalf of trans-national corporations in spite of all the evidence indicating that poor countries and their environment would be harmed from current proposals. The proposals on Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) would increase market access on non-agricultural products such as forest and fish. This would have a devastating impact on these precious natural resources and the tens of millions of fisherfolk and indigenous peoples that rely on them for food, medicines and fuel [23].

Outside the WTO, the UK and its EU partners are forcing unfair trade deals on some of the world's poorest countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific region. These deals would expose farmers and fisherfolk to direct and unfair competition from European companies - destroying livelihoods and undermining sustainable development prospects. The EU's own impact assessment has stated that this could lead to the collapse of West Africa's manufacturing sector. Furthermore, these bilateral trade deals include issues such as new investment rules that have already been rejected at the WTO by developing countries as they would force deregulate and open up fishery, forestry, oil, gas and mining sectors for European companies [24].

Notes

1. www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=55605

2. www.number10.gov.uk/output/page6333.asp

3. www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/ ¬
draft_climate_bill_publish_13032007.html

4. www.thebigask.com

5. www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/ ¬
uk_carbon_emissions_highes_29032007.html

6. Rail use is up significantly: 34.7 billion passenger km 1997/98 to 43.2 billion passenger km 2005/06. Bus use has risen too: up 4,430 million local bus journeys 1997 / 98 to 4,719 million 2005 / 06

7. www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics/globatmos/ ¬
download/xls/gatb05.xls

8. www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmhansrd/ ¬
cm061214/text/61214w0008.htm#061214110000017

9. www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/ ¬
cmenvaud/233/23304.htm

10. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,,1985981,00.html

11. www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/ ¬
regions_lose_out_as_aviati.html

12. www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/ ¬
new_figures_show_huge_rise_31012007.html

19. www.gmnation.org.uk/

21. www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/ ¬
labours_gm_plan_legally_fl_20102006.html

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust