Lib Dems Radically Green? (17-Sep-07)

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Full article: Lib Dems Radically Green? (17-Sep-07)

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The claim

"We are the only party with radical and detailed policies to deal with climate change." Sir Menzies Campbell, 15 September 2007

The background

Tackling climate change is the big theme at this year's Lib Dem conference, with a raft of squeaky-green policies up for the vote.

Last year, the party's conference saw plans to switch to green taxes being given the go-ahead. Reducing carbon emissions - a major factor in halting global warming - is on the agenda this year, with plans to make Britain carbon-neutral by 2050 being debated today.

On his arrival at this year's conference, leader Sir Menzies Campbell boasted to reporters that his party's "radical and detailed" policies were a cut above those of their rivals. FactCheck looked at how the parties stacked up.

The analysis

Backing up Ming's claim is a report out last week by the Green Alliance - an association of nine leading green groups - which compared the green credentials of the major political parties in six key areas.

The report looked at the party's existing policies, and the proposals for a zero-carbon Britain, which its authors expect to be passed at conference.

On this basis, the Lib Dems ranked well above Labour and the Tories, receiving green traffic lights - the highest of the three ratings - in three of the areas on which they were assessed.

These were UK action on climate change, environmental tax and subsidies and green living (i.e. making it easier for individuals to do their bit). In contrast, Labour received only one green light, and the Conservatives none.

The party's densely written 50-page document is certainly filled with radical eye-catchers, such as the replacement of petrol-driven cars with cleaner alternatives by 2040.

Being radical doesn't necessarily mean the plans will work, however. The party is calling for 30 per cent of UK's electricity to come from clean sources by 2020, rising to 100 per cent by 2050.

With many green technologies still unproven, the government has argued that greater use of nuclear energy - which the Lib Dems strongly oppose - is necessary to reduce carbon emissions from energy.

On international action on climate change, for which the Lib Dems were awarded the middle-ranking amber light, the Green Alliance report noted that "foundation stone" of their approach - the reduction of countries' per capita emissions - was problematic: "given the resistance of a number of key countries to the concept of contraction and convergence a strategy based exclusively around this is unlikely to be successful".

It's also worth noting that the Lib Dems aren't given a completely clean green slate - the Green Alliance report criticised the party for neglecting other aspects of the environment, such as the countryside and wildlife.

The Tories' Quality of Life policy group published its bumper 547-page final report last week. The Blueprint for a Green Economy is the "most thorough review of environmental policies ever conducted by a political party", according to the group's vice-chair and Ecologist editor, Zac Goldsmith.

The hefty document contains a host of recommendations, including new taxes on short-haul flights and 4x4s. Plenty of common ground with the Lib Dems, too: the document also calls for the reform of Air Passenger Duty to tax flights (the source of carbon emissions) rather than the passengers that happen to be on board each plane.

However, the devil in the Conservative's case is not in its lack of detail, but in the future of the plans.

At present, the document is only a floated series of proposals, up for debate at the conference.

Leader David Cameron has voiced his support for the report, but it's too early to say how much of it will make it to the manifesto stage.

Other policy reviews have also produced conflicting suggestions - notably the economic competitiveness group chaired by John Redwood, which recommends airport expansion.

The Conservatives are already out-greening Labour in several areas, such as the call for an annual target for a reduction in carbon emissions.

But as the Green Alliance report said, the test for the Tories is not what the Quality of Life policy group finds, but what is put into action.

The verdict

With the Tories' ultra-detailed recommendations yet to become policy proper and Labour lagging behind in green commitments, Sir Ming is on pretty solid green ground.

The Tories, however, have been making giant steps in the Lib Dems' environmental direction - although it's too early to say whether many of these will translate into substantive policies.

And of course, a problem with radical policies is that, to get to a position where they can be implemented, they also have to be sufficiently popular with the electorate.

This isn't to say that there's no merit in an opposition party putting pressure on the government with a radical set of proposals, but whether the Lib Dems are likely to be able to put their policies into practice any time soon is another matter entirely.

• Source: Channel 4 News

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