Press Release
Climate Change: Citizen's Agneda Report
13 September 2007
Government must do more to engage public in battle against climate change
Government is failing fully to involve the British people in the fight to tackle Climate Change says a report from the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, which includes Lynne Jones MP as a member. Ministers’ speeches and initiatives are not being backed up with adequate resources to enable individuals and community groups to fully play their part in helping to reduce Carbon emissions.
When practical help and information is available it is often too complicated and risks losing public engagement. The Committee also criticises as "too confusing" the plethora of pledge schemes, such as that advertised by the Energy Saving Trust to "save your 20 per cent.".
MPs wants to see the Government do much more actively to encourage individuals and communities to reduce emissions, and also to put in place measures to ensure that only the most climate-friendly goods and services are available to buy.
The Government's own studies have shown that making households more energy efficient is the single most cost effective way of cutting carbon emissions. For example, standby power now accounts for 7 per cent of household electricity and leads to 3 million tonnes of GHG emissions in the UK every year.
The Committee say the Government must drive forward improved product standards to eliminate this waste and to consider taxing energy inefficient consumer electronics and lighting. It also wants the Government to require all new houses to be built to a 'zero carbon' standard well before the present target of 2016.
Much more also needs to be done to improve the credibility of "green taxes". Revenue-raising taxes should not simply be put in a "green wrapper" to make them more palatable for the public, says the Committee. Green taxes should be used to invest in other carbon emission reducing measures. The Government should also allow individuals an additional 'green' ISA allowance to invest in community emissions reductions projects and technologies.
The Committee wants more incentives to encourage individuals or communities to generate their own "green" power which could be fed into the national grid. One way of doing this would be to require power companies to pay more for energy which comes from renewable sources by offering attractive 'feed-in tariffs' for household and community generation of renewable energy, similar to the system in Germany.
Among the other measures the Committee calls for are:
• A central Government strategy to help local authorities develop local greenhouse gas reduction programmes. At present, community and local government initiatives are often taking place in spite, of rather than because of, Government activity.
• Building regulations to be made more demanding so that consideration must be given to incorporating renewable technologies, such as solar thermal systems, as part of planning applications.
• A stamp duty rebate to home-buyers who improve the energy performance of their property within one year of purchase.
• More informative energy billing within a year so that consumers are aware of how much energy they are using.
• Much more ambitious Carbon Emissions Reduction Targets for energy suppliers-the existing targets are far too undemanding.
• The Government must lead by example and improve the energy efficiency of public buildings and infrastructure; and Defra itself should lead the public sector by its own example.
Commenting on the report, Lynne Jones said:
"Sir David Attenborough told the Committee that the Country needed to be put on a war footing in the battle to reduce our CO2 emmissions. He said that in wartime wasting food was wrong and now we needed a similar mentality in that wasting energy was wrong. I agree.
The measures in the Committee’s report, if implemented, would help engage citizens in the battle against climate change. As a resident of Moseley, I have helped set up SUSMO, short for Sustainable Moseley – cutting CO2, bringing local residents together to learn from one another and to stimulate supply and demand for energy saving products and services.
I have already replaced nearly all my light bulbs with compact fluorescents and will be installing new a condensing boiler and solar panels to supply hot water. I have also switched to a car that does 65 miles to the gallon and will exempt me from London’s Congestion Charge next February. Government must do more to incentivise people to take these sorts of measures and to “do their bit” to combat climate change."
NOTES FOR EDITORS
The full report, and the written and oral evidence taken in the inquiry ,will be available on the Committee's website: mirror.parliament.uk/efracom
To view the uncorrected transcripts of evidence taken in this inquiry please see the Committee's 'Climate change: the "citizen's agenda"' inquiry page.
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