Archived press release

Quality of life: Cameron urged to adopt blueprint for a green future

13 September 2007

David Cameron must endorse the bulk of today's report by the Conservative Party's Quality of Life policy group if he is serious about taking a leading role on protecting the environment, Friends of the Earth said today. The environmental campaign group congratulated John Gummer and Zac Goldsmith on the review, which it said provided a blueprint for a greener future.

Friends of the Earth director, Tony Juniper said:

"This is an enormously important report with many innovative and significant proposals that we wholeheartedly support. The challenge now is to turn this blueprint for a greener future into official party policy. And in that regard David Cameron and his party have important choices ahead. Will they go with John Redwood's out-dated proposals for an old-fashioned economic policy hell-bent on growth at any cost? Or will they choose the route set out today; one that takes account of the quality of life and our environment.

"Today's report also highlights the need to strengthen the Government's plans for a new climate change law. We agree. If it is to be effective it must lead to annual cuts in UK carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to at least three per cent every year, and include Britain's share of international emissions from aviation and shipping.

"We desperately need political agreement on the need for tough and urgent action to tackle climate change. Hopefully the other parties will receive today's report as a major contribution to this crucial debate, rather than an opportunity to score cheap political points. We need a political consensus to deliver the solutions."

Positive proposals within the Quality of Life report include:

• Moral imperative for developed countries to remain focused on ensuring that global temperatures rise no more than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (p366/367). This means the UK must plan for an 80 per cent cut in emissions by 2050 (p370) and include annual milestones in the Climate Change Bill (p372) and include Britain's share of international aviation and shipping emissions in its Climate Change Bill (p370).
• Moving to a low carbon economy is an overriding aim of any responsible government (p264) and is in Britain's national interest (p380).
• Establish sharply decreasing targets to help towards 2050 target (p269).
• Moratorium on airport expansion (p344).
• Redefining the measure of UK's success away from simply measuring GDP and towards a triad of high level indicators capturing economic well-being, societal well-being and environmental well-being (p52).
• Maintain diversity of retailer outlets (p156) through planning policy (p180).
• A strengthened legally binding code of practice on supermarkets (p182) and keeping and improving the needs test to control out of town shopping (p184)
• Verification and certification on bio-fuels, including full life-cycle assessment of greenhouse gases (p187) and use of Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) to move from volume based approach to quality based approach (p336).
• Car efficiency targets of 120g CO2 per kilometre by 2012, 80-100g by 2020 through the EU (p331).
• Joint implementation measures and Clean Development Mechanisms (carbon trading) should not be used as a way of avoiding domestic reductions in carbon dioxide (p268).
• A mandatory code for sustainable homes (p281) plus energy performance certificates requiring improvements by landlords (p71) and home owners when major changes are made to a house (p68).
• Financial incentives (e.g. council tax rebates) plus low cost capital to help home-owners improve energy efficiency and (p277/278) renewable heat (p289) and reduced stamp duty for energy efficient homes (p72).
• Feed-in tariffs (a fixed price for selling electricity to the grid) for small-scale low carbon technologies (p283).
• Balance of transport funding weighed towards reducing carbon intensity (p306).
• Purchase tax on cars according to CO2 output (p332).
• Amend VED rates to drive uptake of more efficient cars in used cars market.
• Demand management for aviation (p341), including reformed and annual increases in air passenger duty (p341) and VAT on domestic flights (p342).
• Decouple profits of energy companies from sales volumes (p359).
• Consider developing countries export led agricultural model (p159).
• Government bodies should report on carbon footprint and public building should pioneer in energy efficiency, micro-generation and community scale technologies (p78).
• No tax-payers/government funding for nuclear fission, risks and costs of nuclear borne by the private sector (p287).
• Power station waste heat levy (p288).
• No new electric air conditioning and refrigeration in commercial buildings (p289).
• No new coal stations after 2020 without carbon capture & storage or for existing stations after 2025 (p290).
• Employer parking spaces tax (p303).
• The option to reject a proposal at a public inquiry (p102).
• Set County and Unitary Authority targets for carbon reduction (p89).
• Review how WTO rules bear on climate change (p399).
• Legislation to ensure only legal and sustainable timber products are sold in UK (p401).
• Auctioning of 100 per cent of permits under ETS to utility sector (p403) and aviation (p405).
• Product policy that today's "best standard" should be a minimum requirement within an agreed timeframe (p408).
• Focus on zero waste and emphasis on its benefits for business (p. 246).
• Extending producer responsibility to incorporate all waste streams (p. 250)
• Sectoral targets for resource use (p250).
• Product levies to encourage re-use (250).
• Public procurement strategies for all Government Departments, agencies and local authorities. (p. 252).
• Bans on the land-filling (p257) of recyclable and compostable materials.

Friends of the Earth will study the document further and make recommendations to the Conservative Party as it develops its manifesto.

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