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INSIDE
“green alliance... issue
spring 05
10
TRACK
“Do the parties have
five million green
voters to woo?”
6
“We will set a longterm goal of zero
municipal waste.”
9
“If well managed by
politicians and
business, climate
protection makes
economic sense.”
14
LEADING
FROM
THE
FRONT
Reconciling the UK’s
aspirations for
international leadership
with delivery at home
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comment
TRACK
The quarterly magazine of Green Alliance
Edited by Karen Crane
Designed by Carruthers and Hobbs Ltd
Printed by Seacourt Press Ltd
© April 2005 Green Alliance
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission in writing of Green
Alliance. Within the UK, exceptions are allowed
in respect of any fair dealing for the purposes
of private research or study, or criticism or review,
as permitted under the Copyright, Design and
Patent Act, 1988, or in the case of reprographic
reproduction in accordance with the terms of the
licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.
Produced with support from the Esmée Fairbairn
Foundation and Defra’s Environmental Action Fund.
Russell Marsh
head of policy
We are fast approaching the next general election. In fact with the stream
of announcements emerging from all the political parties it feels as if we
are already in election mode even though, at the time of writing, the date
has yet to be officially announced.
Green Alliance has been working hard to get the environment into the
election debate and in this edition of Inside Track you can read more about
our pledge campaign with a coalition of eight other environment groups.
We also hear from the environment spokespeople of the three main
political parties.
The UK has begun its presidency of the G8 and, in July this year, we will
take up the EU presidency. The prime minister is making climate change a
major element of the G8 presidency and it will more than likely be a key
issue for the EU presidency. Decisions will be needed on the structure of
the second phase of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and on the EU’s
approach to negotiations on international climate policy post-Kyoto.
contents
comment
2
Green Alliance news
return to sender
changing climate policy
designing for water efficiency
3
4
5
think environment - vote for a
better future
6
a top priority
Elliot Morley
8
at the heart of a vision for Britain
Norman Baker
9
a moral duty
Tim Yeo
10
all change for european
development policy?
Tony Long
11
mind the gap
Anja Köhne
14
The views of contributors are not necessarily
those of Green Alliance.
Given the UK’s key role in the international arena over the next 12 months
we have asked two observers from across the channel to give their views
on how the UK has performed at a European and International level and the
main challenges as they see it. Anje Köhne from Germanwatch gives her
perspective on the path the UK needs to negotiate through the
presidencies to deliver meaningful international action on climate change.
Tony Long, from WWF in Brussels, looks at European development policy
and the opportunity to integrate sustainable principles more deeply into
the process.
The past three months have seen a whirl of activity for Green Alliance. We
launched three new reports, on water, waste and energy policy, all of which
are featured in this issue. We had the pleasure of joining with old friends
and new to celebrate our first 25 years at the Science Museum in February.
The next year promises to be just as full and you can view our finalised
work programme for 2005-06 now at www.green-alliance.org.uk
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return to sender
A new agenda for the UK on integrated product policy
Return to Sender: Producer responsibility and
product policy was published in March, the final
report of our sustainability through producer
responsibility project. This was supported by the
DTI’s Sustainable Technologies Initiative, Biffa,
British Retail Consortium, BT plc, Sainsbury’s and
Unilever. It was launched jointly with the
Associate Parliamentary Sustainable Waste
Group’s complementary report on producer
responsibility.
Return to Sender explores the role producer
responsibility can play in meeting more
ambitious waste and resource objectives.
between this and the current situation. If the UK
could bridge the gap, we would become an
international leader in this field.
The government needs to develop and build
consensus on objectives for a ‘closed-loop’
economy and build new institutions to help move
towards these objectives.
Business must adopt responsibility for
understanding and addressing the full impacts of
its products. To create incentives for business
there must be the threat of less flexible
legislation if voluntary measures don’t deliver
and public procurement must be used to drive
the market for better products.
Other measures are also needed, such as virgin
materials taxes and minimum recycled content,
to provide a market pull and support action for
resource efficient products.
We will build on the themes of this work in a new
three-year project sponsored by Defra’s
Environmental Action Fund, Closing the loop:
transforming UK resource use and delivering a
sustainable resource economy, starting in April.
Measures, like the EU packaging directive, are
reasonably successful in driving higher recycling,
but, overall, the problems of packaging and
waste continue to grow. The hope was that
producer responsibility would lead to the
extensive re-design of products to make them
less wasteful, both in their manufacture and in
their use. But there is little sign that existing
measures, or forthcoming ones on electronic
equipment and cars, will have that effect.
For more details of this work please contact
Ben Shaw [email protected]
Return to Sender: Producer responsibility and
product policy is available to download as a
summary and full report from Green Alliance’s
website. The summary report is also available as
a hard copy from Green Alliance, price £5.
We urgently need a broader interpretation of
‘producer responsibility’ where companies strive
to understand the impacts of their products from
cradle to grave, and even consider whether some
products are just too environmentally damaging
to put on the market. This is the new agenda of
‘integrated product policy’, but there is a big gap
“3
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changing
climate
policy
Green Alliance is working to unlock the political barriers
to tackling climate change
Climate change has been high on the
political agenda during the first few
months of this year. The government
made yet another announcement
about the structure of the UK’s
National Action Plan as part of the EU
Emissions Trading Scheme; a major
climate science conference was held in
Exeter; and the Kyoto Protocol finally
came into force after several years of
ongoing uncertainty about its future.
We continue to add our voice to the
debate about the future direction of UK
climate policy with the publication of
our report Business Action on Climate
Change: Where next after emissions
trading?.
energy efficiency. We continue to push
the recommendations of our report
A Micro-generation Manifesto, using
our energy entrepreneurs network to
feed into the development of DTI’s
micro-generation strategy.
Produced in partnership with the
Institute for European Environmental
Policy, the report reviews the various
incentives that have been put in place
to encourage business and industry to
reduce their carbon dioxide emissions.
Our energy efficiency project is in its
final stages and is developing
proposals around a suite of policy
measures that we believe will unlock
current barriers to greater energy
efficiency.
We reveal a very confusing picture.
Some measures, like the Renewables
Obligation, seem to be working well,
yet others, like the Climate Change
Levy, are just not strong enough to
have much effect on business
decisions.
For more information contact Russell
Marsh, [email protected]
We conclude that the EU emissions
trading scheme, the centrepiece of the
government’s climate policy, will not be
strong enough to persuade business to
reduce their carbon emissions,
meaning that additional measures are
needed to really drive action in this
area.
This forms part of our input to the
government’s Climate Change
Programme Review, alongside our
other work on micro-generation and
“4
Business Action on Climate Change:
Where next after emissions trading?
is available from Green Alliance,
price £20.
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water efficiency
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designing for
S316
In the face of massive new
development in the south
east, joined-up action is
needed now to save water
There are plenty of new technologies
around, but builders have been
reticent to take them on board. Despite
the fact that research shows that
installing water efficient technologies
in buildings achieves as much as a 20
per cent reduction in water
consumption.
Our report makes the following
recommendations:
• revise building regulations to
include water efficiency standards;
• clear policy through the planning
system to enforce greater water
efficiency on developers, planners
and local authorities;
• mandatory labelling of water
fixtures and fittings, similar to the
energy label, and regulatory
underpinning for the Sustainable
Code for Buildings;
• better enforcement of building
regulations and empowerment for
local authorities to demand water
efficiency;
• fiscal incentives such as VAT and
stamp duty reductions, along with
inclusion of water efficiency in the
Green Landlords Scheme;
• universal water metering to provide
customers with the opportunity to
manage their own water use and
save money on bills
Without government action and greater
incentives for consumers, the south
east is likely to suffer extreme water
shortages as the government’s
planned building programme begins
and climate change takes hold. This is
the message from our report Better
buildings: Designing for water
efficiency, launched by housing
minister Keith Hill in March.
Government plans for 200,000 new
homes in the south east in addition to
the 900,000 already agreed, will mean
massive stresses on water supply and
treatment systems in the driest part of
the country.
Although the government has a
number of policies covering water
efficiency, joined up action is needed if
the planned development in the south
east is to be sustainable. Architects,
planners, the construction industry
and the water industry must work
together to curb the unnecessary
waste of this precious resource.
Better Buildings: Designing for water
efficiency is available from Green
Alliance, price £20
For more information contact Caroline
Read, [email protected]
“5
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think environment –
All the parties proclaim
the environment to be an
important issue and that
green issues are
increasingly important to
voters, yet they continue
to play a minor role in
election campaigns.
The existence of a green vote itself has
long been the subject of debate. Do
the parties have, as some declare,
five million green voters to woo or is
there, as others have contested, no
green vote in national elections? Or, is
the green vote out there but unheard
in the absence of any credible
champion for the environment? A
recent MORI poll asked which was the
best party on the environment:
47 per cent of voters said ‘none/don’t
know’ and only a few percentage
points divided the three main parties
with the Liberal Democrats first with a
mere 16 per cent.
To help the environment get a look in
as the parties jostle for votes, Green
Alliance, together with seven other
environment organisations, has
launched the following set of election
pledges around four priority issues,
which we are calling the parties to
adopt in their manifestos:
Re-commit to the target of
reducing carbon dioxide emissions
to 20 per cent below 1990 levels
by 2010 in order to tackle climate
change effectively
Deliver immediate and sustained
cuts in carbon dioxide emissions to
meet the UK’s national target of
reducing emissions to 20 per cent
below 1990 levels by 2010, as
promised in the Energy White
Paper.
1 Introduce tough targets for
industrial emissions of carbon
dioxide through the EU Emissions
Trading Scheme.
2 Provide increased support for
the full range of renewable sources
of energy.
3 Ensure businesses and homes
reduce greenhouse gas emissions
by introducing world-class building
standards.
4 Take action to cut greenhouse
gases released by road transport
and aviation.
These pledges have been agreed by a coalition of the following NGOs:
“6
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vote for a better future
New law to protect our sea life
Introduce comprehensive
legislation by 2006 to achieve
better protection for marine
wildlife and effective management
of our seas.
1 Introduce a coherent planning
system for the sea to allow
different activities to develop
harmoniously and sustainably.
2 Put in place new measures to
conserve wildlife sites and
species.
3 Place protection of the
environment at the heart of
decision-making on fisheries, oil
and gas exploration,
transportation and all new
developments at sea, including
offshore renewable energy
projects.
4 Institute an enforcement
strategy to make sure new laws
are effective.
A high quality natural environment
for all
Every child to be entitled to out of
classroom learning
Improve the quality of our lives by
creating a resilient countryside,
protecting landscapes of high
aesthetic and biodiversity value,
and meeting the UK’s target of
halting biodiversity loss by 2010.
Make out of classroom education a
key part of new strategies for
environmental citizenship in the
UK.
1 Increase the resources allocated
to the protection and restoration of
landscapes and natural habitats,
including increased contributions
from developers.
2 Ensure a powerful, independent,
well-resourced statutory agency to
champion the natural environment.
3 Reduce land take and habitat
damage by making best use of
existing buildings and developed
land, raising the minimum density
target for new housing and
protecting locally important
landscapes and sites.
4 Adhere to environmental
capacity limits in meeting genuine
development needs.
1 Introduce monitoring of out of
classroom experiences as part of
formal school inspections by 2006.
2 Spend an extra £4 million to
train 20,000 teachers a year in the
skills needed to deliver out of
classroom learning.
3 Invest £3 million annually to
support and encourage quality out
of classroom educational
experiences for 500,000 children a
year.
For more information contact Tracy
Carty, [email protected]
“green alliance...
“7
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increased the percentage of household
waste recycled from 7.5 per cent in
1997 to approximately 17 per cent in
2004 and increasing. A doorstep
recycling service now serves two-thirds
of households.
a top priority
Labour’s manifesto in 1997 promised
that Labour would be the ‘greenest
government ever’. We have been. We
did set some tough targets. I know that
it is expected that we should meet our
commitment to reduce CO2 emissions
by 20 per cent by 2010. Rightly so, it is
a top priority for us.
We launched the climate change
review to identify what we need to do
to meet our CO2 target. But we are
proud of what we have achieved
already. Greenhouse gas emissions
have fallen six per cent since 1997.
Renewable energy is rising and we
have committed £500 million to a
range of technologies like wave
energy. Provisional figures for 2003
indicate that we have already
exceeded our commitment under Kyoto
to reduce emissions by 12.5 per cent
by 2010, five years ahead of schedule.
That record is the envy of many
countries.
A third term Labour
government would be the
greenest yet, says Elliot
Morley MP, minister for
environment and
agri-environment.
“8
Britain’s current leadership on climate
change is respected across the world.
Our decision to make it a top priority
for our presidency of the G8 group of
the world’s richest countries in 2005,
and of our EU presidency later in the
year has given climate change the
prominence it deserves in international
diplomacy. It also provides a terrific
opportunity to do even more at home.
Labour will take that opportunity. A
third term would be the greenest
Labour government ever.
We have achieved a huge amount since
1997, with the constant chivvying of
the environmental movement to keep
us on our toes: the first new national
park for over 40 years in the New
Forest; the Countryside and Rights of
Way Act providing access to about one
million hectares of additional land;
19,000 hectares added to the green
belt, roughly equivalent to the size of
Liverpool; and radical reform of the
Common Agricultural Policy which
eluded all previous governments. It
opens the way to a new future for
farming; more profitable, better
connected to the market and with
higher standards of environmental
protection and animal welfare. All
Labour achievements.
Our environmentally friendly budgets
have put in place financial reforms to
help improve the environment. Since
1997, there have been significant
reductions in air and water pollution.
Our beaches and rivers are cleaner
than ever. Our policies have also
But people will want to know at the
next election about our plans for the
future, not simply about our
achievements. Defra’s five year plan
set out our plans and commitments,
with the strong support of the prime
minister. It set out how we will make it
easier for business, the public, farmers
and others to change their behaviour
in ways that improve the environment.
We pledged to make improved access
to coastal areas a priority for our
future environmental work. We
committed to introducing a Marine Bill
to improve protection and
management of the marine
environment, allowing different uses of
the seas - including biodiversity
protection, fisheries and offshore wind
- to develop harmoniously and
sustainably.
Other departments made commitments
in their plans. The ODPM plan set out
our commitment to raise
environmental standards for new and
existing housing, with a particular
focus on housing in the Sustainable
Communities Plan growth areas with
reduced water, energy use and green
spaces.
Under this government, the prime
minister has given real international
leadership on climate and
environmental issues.
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at the heart of a
vision for Britain
Norman Baker MP, Liberal
Democrat spokesman on the
environment, explains how
environment is central to the
party’s vision of a vibrant,
thriving Britain.
We believe that
environmentally
responsible
action is
ultimately
economically
sensible. When
the cost of
environmental
damage and
inaction to the
economy in 2004 was a massive £67
billion - over £1,000 for every man,
woman and child, we cannot be under
any illusion as to the scale of the
challenge we are facing.
Environmental taxes and traded
permits can be used to encourage
people to act in an environmentally
sustainable way. We will create an
Environmental Incentive Programme
within the Treasury to advise
government and parliament on ways to
reform taxes and incentives to
encourage sustainable development,
and would start by changing the
Climate Change Levy into a Carbon Tax.
This would however be about taxing
differently, not taxing more.
Liberal Democrats would ensure that
Britain leads by example by achieving
its targets from the Kyoto Protocol well
before the deadline. We believe that
negotiations for the next stage of
international agreements on climate
change should bring in the developing
countries on the basis of a long term
goal of ‘contraction and convergence’
of CO2 emissions. In addition, we
advocate reviews of the World Bank,
World Trade Organisation and the
International Monetary Fund to ensure
that they are sensitive to the needs of
the poorest, and promote sustainable
and effective development outcomes.
Our energy policy is based on two
approaches. First, we will introduce
measures to reduce energy use overall,
since half the energy currently used in
the UK is wasted, for example, through
better home insulation, which will also
tackle ‘fuel poverty’ faced by
pensioners.
We will make building regulations
tougher, by requiring all new housing
to meet improved energy and water
efficiency standards through
environmentally friendly building
materials and techniques. We would
also set a target for 30 per cent of
electricity used in the public sector to
be generated from Combined Heat and
Power by 2015.
Second, we will ensure that 20 per
cent of the UK’s electricity comes from
renewable sources by the year 2020,
and phase out existing nuclear power
stations as they come to the end of
their safe operating lives.
Pollution and congestion have a major
impact on people’s quality of life. We
would reward motorists who drive
less-polluting vehicles by reducing car
tax (Vehicle Excise Duty) on more
environmentally friendly cars and
motorcycles, abolishing it altogether
for the greenest vehicles. We would
fund this by increasing the amount of
VED charged on the most polluting gas
guzzlers. This can only be short-term
answer however. We believe that the
technology will soon be available
which will allow us to scrap current
petrol duties and VED altogether and
replacing the revenue with a charge
based upon location, congestion and
pollution created by the vehicle.
We will not proceed with major new
road build schemes unless there are
clear environmental benefits overall,
and will use the money instead for
public transport schemes.
Aviation is the fastest growing sector
of greenhouse gas emissions. As an
immediate step we would implement
per aircraft rather than per passenger
charges, to discourage half empty
flights and to encourage more fuelefficient aircraft, whilst pressing for
multinational agreement on aviation
fuel duty.
We will set a long-term goal of zero
municipal waste. As a first step, we will
ensure that we move towards kerbside
recycling for all. Producers should also
be held responsible for disposing of
their products and materials that are
difficult to reuse or recycle. In addition,
we will not allow new incinerators for
municipal waste. We must also
improve enforcement of pollution
controls through an expanded
inspectorate for the Environment
Agency, and a new specialist
Environmental Court to deal with
enforcing environmental rules. We will
also ensure the level of penalties
which polluters have to pay are
appropriate to the offence.
Liberal Democrats believe that by
helping the environment, we can help
our own pockets, our families, our
communities and our world. Our
manifesto for the forthcoming general
election will set out how we plan to
achieve this, and why we put the
environment at the heart of our vision
for Britain.
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a moral duty
S316
Tim Yeo MP, shadow
secretary of state for the
environment, sets out the
Conservative’s future
intentions for
environmental policy
Conservative
governments have
always had a long
history of strong
environmental
protection and of
giving the
environment
priority in
Whitehall
departments.
In fact we created
the original Department of the
Environment and the Environment
Agency.
Conservatives believe that we have a
moral duty to protect the inheritance of
the next generation, conserving all that
is best without inhibiting the growth of
prosperity. Our key priority would be
resource efficiency, which should
translate into sustainable
consumption. That means greater
energy efficiency in homes and
businesses, more renewable energy
development and greener vehicles.
We believe that market-based
incentives, emissions trading and
consumer awareness are more likely to
deliver environmental benefits and
technological innovation than
government-imposed systems. Local
decision-making on key environmental
issues – such as planning, and the
improvement of local environmental
services – can also contribute
powerfully to the creation of stronger
more sustainable local communities.
Between 1990 and 1997, Conservative
policies achieved a 7.3 per cent
reduction in carbon dioxide emissions,
partly owing to the dash for gas.
“10
However, urgent policy changes are
now needed to get Britain back on
course both to meet Labour’s targets
for CO2 emission cuts and to honour
Britain’s Kyoto Treaty commitments,
focusing on transport, home energy
efficiency and renewable energy:
We would ensure much faster
introduction of greener less polluting
vehicles by market instruments such
as wider differentials on Vehicle Excise
Duty so that emissions from cars are
cut. We would also introduce colour
coded licence disks so that the
consumer is much more aware of the
environmental impact of a vehicle.
Aviation must be tackled. Agreement
on some form of tax on aviation can
only be achieved at international level,
but we could make a start, firstly, by
including aviation emissions from EU
flights in the EU Emissions Trading
Scheme, and, secondly, by stating
flight emissions on passenger
documentation. Consumer
engagement is the key to behavioural
change.
In addition, we would put energy
efficiency at the heart of Britain’s
energy policy. We want to see a much
more dynamic market offering financial
incentives to encourage home owners;
tenants and businesses to invest in
energy efficiency improvements . We
also believe that there is considerable
scope to tighten enforcement of
existing building regulation and work
towards the long term goal of zero
emissions on new British homes.
Finally, we need a more broadly based
renewable energy policy harnessing
Britain’s natural advantages to support
the development of marine energy
technologies and to promote biofuels,
combined heat and power and
microgeneration. Transforming the
network to facilitate more
microgeneration would engage more
individuals and communities more
directly in climate change mitigation.
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european
development policy?
all change for
Now is the time for the UK to take the lead on the
European and world stage in setting a progressive,
multilateral environment and development agenda,
says Tony Long.
The opening months of 2005 would be
hard to beat for sheer quantity and
breadth of EU policy initiatives
underway on overseas development.
Some of these initiatives, like the
seven-year review of the EU’s financial
perspectives, or the forthcoming
assessment of the EU’s 2002 Financing
for Development (Monterrey)
commitments, go to the heart of the
EU budget. They will determine the
amounts of money that will be
available for development in the
2007-13 period.
Others are the ‘softer’ policy directions
to be undertaken in the name of
sustainable development, including
the sustainable development strategy
review previewed in a Commission
communication published in February
2005. Still others will set the direction
of EU development policy, for instance
the EU position for the Millennium
Development Goals review in
September, or the review of the EU’s
2001 development policy, for which a
consultation is currently underway.
Many of these initiatives will require
decisions - or at least deft political
leadership - during the UK
government’s presidency of the
European Council in the second part of
2005. And with Africa as one of the
chosen themes of the government’s
priorities, the timing could not be more
propitious. In one way or another, all
the above will have a real significance
for the country and regional strategy
papers that deliver the EU’s
development assistance. In fact, with
climate change being the other priority,
what better time for the UK to take a
leading role on the European and
world stage in setting a progressive,
multilateral environment and
development agenda for Europe’s
external relations?
The European Union aid budget taken
together with the member states
accounts for more than half of all OECD
aid. But this aid effort continues to be
a messy sum of parts rather than a
coherent whole. One of the most
pressing deficiencies is the failure of
many, although not all, of these
European aid agencies to understand
and to act upon poverty and
environment linkages.
Bilateral as well as multilateral
programme lending and general
budgetary support over the past two
decades have failed in large measure
to increase the competitiveness of the
small to medium-size rural producers
who account for the 70 per cent of the
world’s poor. These groups have found
little option but to increase pressure
on natural resources assets to try to
maintain living standards.
continued overleaf
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Continued from previous page
In the meantime, their access to these
resources is increasingly jeopardised
by large, intensive natural resource
extraction activities – for instance,
agriculture, fisheries, timber, and
water extraction – undertaken at a
frenetic pace, and often illegally, to
meet an insatiable global demand.
The EU has multiple layers of
commitment to sustainable
development. They start with the
Treaty of Nice but also include the
development policy statement adopted
in 2001 and the Cotonou Agreement
with the 77 African, Caribbean and
Pacific (ACP) countries signed in June
2000. Many of these countries are the
poorest in the world measured by per
capita income. The EU is ideally placed
to understand and act upon this cycle
of environmental and social neglect.
But a survey commissioned by the
European Commission in 2002 shows
an opposite story. Of the 60 EU country
strategy papers reviewed, only six
included a country environmental
profile and just three were
“12
“The EU is ideally placed to
understand and act upon
this cycle of environmental
and social neglect.”
common policies – agriculture, trade
and fisheries to name but three – still
lack a coherence with the objectives of
development policy, which no amount
of Council declarations of good intent
has so far been able to overcome.
accompanied by a strategic environmental assessment.
So what more precisely will we be
looking for the UK presidency to
achieve in its brief tenure? Bearing in
mind the report of the UN Millenium
Project under Professor Jeffrey Sachs
in January 2005, this is the year in
which political will and political action
must be shown at the highest level to
have any chance of meeting the
Millenium Development Goals. What
can the UK do to face the EU in the
right direction to achieve 2015 targets?
But country and regional programming
is only part of the story. One of the
more intractable problems shared not
only by the EU but also all member
states is the failure to understand and
tackle the ‘spill-over’ effects of national
and regional policies on prospects for
international development. Despite the
bold attempt of the last UK presidency
to give meaning to the Treaty
requirement for environmental
protection to be integrated into all EU
policies, the so-called ‘Cardiff process’,
the fact is that it has not happened.
The EU’s most entrenched and powerful
First, given the depressing lack of
integration of the environment in
country and regional strategy papers
noted earlier, the UK must use the
Millenium Development Goals +5
review taking place in September to
shake up the programming process.
Specifically, the Council should set the
directions in EU programming to show
how target 9 of MDG 7: to integrate the
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european
development policy?
all change for
“...new life has to be
breathed into the EU’s
sustainable development
strategy...”
principles of sustainable development
into country policies and programmes
and reverse the loss of environmental
resources, will be implemented in EU
external policies and financial
instruments.
Second, the review of the EU
development policy due to be unveiled
after the summer is an opportunity for
the fragmented European aid effort to
begin to be concentrated into a more
effective whole. This would entail
forging a common ground between the
EU and European bilateral agencies on
their understanding of poverty and
environment linkages. The shared
analysis in the Development Policy
review should in turn lead to the
promotion of sustainable natural
resource use as a focus of aid for
countries whose economies and rural
livelihoods are heavily dependent on
resource extraction.
Third, new life has to be breathed into
the EU’s sustainable development
strategy, first adopted in Gothenburg in
June 2001. Unlike that first attempt, the
strategy now clearly has an external
relations dimension. First discussions
of objectives, targets, milestones and
monitoring arrangements are foreseen
under the UK’s term as Council
president. Turning the whole strategy
in the direction of achieving the MDGs,
including getting greater coherence of
EU internal policies for their external
impacts - and perhaps also involving
‘quick wins’ as proposed by the UN
Millenium Project - would be a major
achievement for the UK.
and safeguard a thematic line for
environmental co-operation in the
external dimension of the EU’s
financial perspectives. As currently
conceived, budget lines for
development will be mainly
geographically driven. But Europe and
developing countries will need
resources to address global
environmental governance issues that
cannot - or simply will not - be
expressed through country and
regional strategies. These would
include compliance with, and
monitoring of, multilateral
environmental agreements, capacity
building for developing countries to
prepare for, and participate in,
international fora, and support for
governmental and non-governmental
organisations actively promoting
sustainable development.
Tony Long is director of the WWF
European Policy Office in Brussels
Last, but not least, money for
development. The UK government
would strike an enormously important
deal for international environmental
diplomacy if it were able to propose
“13
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mind the gap
The UK must show true leadership on future climate
policy with its G8 and EU presidencies, says Anja Köhne
multilateral climate policies will not
‘only’ be avoiding the abyss. There is
also the promise of positive innovation
and globalisation processes which
might lead to better understanding
and improved integration across the
planet.
There is one trend: the ever more
certain scientific evidence about ever
more alarming climate change
scenarios, demonstrated at the
scientific workshops of the
international climate negotiations in
Buenos Aires in December 2004, and
by increasingly worried scientists
during the UK-hosted scientific
conference in early February. A view
shared clearly by the US scientific
community in recent statements.
Then there is another trend: the loss of
momentum of absolute and specific
reductions of greenhouse gases
“14
among the climate-leader countries,
such as Germany and the UK; the
hesitation of EU leaders to take on
further concrete commitments and put
in place urgently required policies and
measures; international negotiations
brought to a standstill between the
egotism of the US and Saudi Arabia on
the one hand and the partial mistrust
of important developing countries such
as India and China on the other.
The gap between what is needed and
what is done on climate change is
becoming an abyss, threatening to
devour human lives, security and
stability, and economic welfare
(particularly of the poor). The
challenge for Tony Blair, and the UK’s
G8 and EU presidencies, is to show
true leadership, to achieve strong, real
and sustained steps towards closing
this gap. The reward for intelligent,
brave and inspired national and
Here are some concrete suggestions in
this context:
International leadership requires
credible action at home
This is true for the UK as well as for
the EU as a whole. While national and
international action by the UK and the
EU has gained some credibility in
recent years particularly when
compared to other countries, current
discussions and foreseeable trends are
not so promising. The EU-15, which
have so far achieved emission
reductions of 2.9 per cent, require
further action to get on track towards
“The gap between what
is needed and what is
done on climate change
is becoming an abyss”
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their Kyoto commitment (eight per
cent). In the UK as well as in Germany,
emission levels have stagnated since
the late 1990s. Both countries have
backed down against pressure from
their industries on their National
Allocation Plans (NAPs) within the EU
emission trading system. Emissions in
major sectors – notably transport and
households – are off-track; emissions
from aviation are not reined in yet.
The EU budget does not adequately
reflect climate policy goals, in its
overall structure, nor in sufficient
mainstreaming. Not least, the current
political discussion is often focused on
a very narrow and old-fashioned
understanding of competitiveness, in
which climate policies and measures
are portrayed as a ‘threat to business’
as well as ‘exaggerated’ or ‘too costly’
by some actors. The contrary is true: if
well managed by politicians and
business, climate protection makes
economic sense and provides business
opportunities and a competitive edge.
The success of Tony Blair as a climate
policy leader will depend on two tasks:
1) changing the political climate in the
EU towards a greater sense of urgency;
2) setting in motion more ambitious
policies and measures.
Set targets for 2020 and 2050
Political decision-making, business
planning and societal debates need a
sense of direction and planning
security. International negotiations,
particularly the climate dialogue with
major developing countries, require
credibility concerning the future
willingness of the EU to shoulder its
share of ‘common but differentiated
responsibilities’. The UK’s EU
presidency should aim for a setting of
concrete targets, such as a 30 per cent
reduction by 2020 and 60-80 per cent
in 2050. This would be in line with the
emerging EU position that global
warming should be kept ‘below 2°C’.
The EU presidency is at least as
important as the G8
While the G8 is an intergovernmental
process not involving a continuous
dialogue with developing countries,
the EU provides more reliability and
clout both regarding implementation
and diplomatic outreach. Therefore,
the climate policy preparation of the
UK’s EU presidency requires at least as
much attention as the G8. It should
further the introduction of policies,
measures and targets at home, and
continue international dialogue on
energy and climate, for example in the
framework of the forthcoming EU-India
and EU-China summits.
Dialogue with developing countries is
important
International climate negotiations have
suffered from a lack of common
language and understanding between
the EU and developing countries. Any
attempts to improve this situation
would be helpful, as long as dialogue
on climate change is based on a
sensitivity for the other countries’
perspective, and takes into account the
needs and interests of these countries,
notably access to energy for the poor,
energy supply security, economic
growth, technology transfer and
support for adaptation to climate
change. While it is important to talk to
major global players such as India and
China, it is also important not to
overlook other countries and regions
which are perhaps as important in the
climate context. It seems logical to
include those countries most
vulnerable to climate change (e.g.
small islands, Bangladesh, subSaharan Africa). Particularly, there
should be a better integration of the
G8-Africa agenda and the G8-climate
agenda.
Don’t stop where the US stops
The UK’s attempts to convince the US,
particularly its current administration,
of the reality of climate change are
laudable. As is talking to the US about
the climate mitigation policies they are
willing to talk about. However, the UK
presidency will be challenged by the
following: 1) not to confine its G8
climate activities to what might be
acceptable to the US and 2) to
underline clearly that multilateral
climate negotiations in the UNframework continue to be the chosen
and most appropriate forum for all
countries, apart from the US and
Australia.
Tony Blair has claimed that the prices
and loyalties paid to the US
government will bear fruit when tested.
The G8 presidency will prove if he is
right, and whether he will have the
personal integrity to claim what is
needed from his partner.
The importance of the UK presidency
for climate protection cannot be
overestimated. The UK is renowned for
its skill at managing political
processes and communicating them.
Let’s hope that the political substance
at the outcome of 2005 proves that UK
leadership is to the benefit of us all.
Anja Köhne is a board member of
Germanwatch, an NGO working
towards the implementation of the
Rio/UNCED-goals at national,
European and international level.
Further information:
www.germanwatch.org
[email protected]
“15
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Green Alliance is an independent
to promote
sustainable development
by ensuring that the
environment is at the heart
of decision-making. We work
charity. Our mission is
how old?!
Like all youngsters Green Alliance grew up before we knew it. We celebrated
our 25th birthday in style at the Science Museum in February. Thanks to
support from Severn Trent and the Defra Environmental Action Fund, we were
able to throw a party in the museum’s impressive Welcome Wing, and we
filled the IMAX cinema with over 300 members and friends for the debate.
with senior people in government,
business and the environmental
movement to encourage new ideas,
dialogue and constructive solutions.
staff
director
Guy Thompson
head of policy
Russell Marsh
principal policy adviser
Ben Shaw
policy officers
Caroline Read
We didn’t just use the evening to pat ourselves on the back, but took the
opportunity to look forward to where we should go next. Tom Burke provided
plenty of food for thought, with a sweeping review of Green Alliance’s past
record and the progress of the wider environment movement; he also
presented some stark challenges for the future.
Our ‘question time’ panel: Tim Smit, Bill Dunster, Stephen Tindale, Ed Mayo
and Michelle Harrison, gave their responses in a wide ranging debate which
reflected the current tension between those who see the future of
environment campaigning as more creative engagement with popular opinion
and those who see securing stronger political leadership as the top priority.
The event left us feeling reinvigorated for our next phase.
Tracy Carty
development co-ordinator Karen Crane
fundraising and
communications manager Rachel Butterworth
membership officer
Catherine Pamplin
office manager/
PA to the director
Paula Hollings
“Green Alliance’s is a story whose end is yet to be
written. But, it began, as good stories always do, with
a very simple idea. The environment needs to be at the
heart of politics.” Tom Burke CBE, at Green Alliance’s 25th celebration
Read Tom Burke’s full speech at www.green-alliance.org.uk
Green Globe Network
convenor
Kate Hampton
assistant convenor
Nasser Yassin
contact each staff member at:
[email protected]
associates
Julie Hill
Rebecca Willis
Derek Smith
office
Green Alliance, 40 Buckingham Palace Road,
London SW1W 0RE
t: 020 7233 7433
f: 020 7233 9033
e: [email protected]
w: www.green-alliance.org.uk
Green Alliance is a registered charity number 1045395,
company limited by guarantee, registered number 3037633.
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registered to EMAS
and ISO14001.
EMAS registration
number UK-000073
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recycled paper made from 75% de-inked
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a new head
best way to pay
We were pleased to welcome
Russell Marsh to Green Alliance’s
team in January as our new head of
policy. He is overseeing the
development and delivery of Green
Alliance’s policy programme, as part
of the senior management team,
and leads on our climate and energy
work. Prior to joining Green Alliance,
Russell was head of policy at the
UK Business Council for Sustainable
Energy and Climate Change Policy
Officer at WWF-UK.
We are now able to offer our
members the opportunity to pay their
subscriptions by Direct Debit.
This allows flexible payment by
instalments and really eases our
administration costs. Membership
officer, Catherine Pamplin, will be
writing to members soon with the
new forms.
new members
Welcome to: Ben and Catherine Bell,
Simon Bullock, Joanna Collins,
Phillip Dale, Philip Douglas, Hywel
Lloyd, Alex Mun, Dr Elizabeth Ness,
Matthew Rhodes.
If you haven’t already, please also
take this opportunity to sign up for
Gift Aid. The extra we can claim from
the Inland Revenue for gift aided
subscriptions and donations means
a £40 standard subscription becomes
£51.28 and a £100 donor
subscription becomes £128.21 – at
no additional cost to you.