At last, the Climate Change Bill becomes an Act
Posted by David Howarth, MP for Cambridge, at 17:46, Tue 9 December 2008:
Dear all,
On the 26th November I was fortunate to witness an historic moment: the passing into law of the Climate Change Act. With climate change back in the news after international talks in Poland and protests at Stansted, I thought it might be timely to give constituents an update on what was - and was not - achieved in this important Bill.
The journey from Private Members' Bill to enacted legislation has been a long and arduous one, and stands as a powerful testament to what can be achieved by grassroots campaigning and sustained political pressure. The Bill's journey through Parliament is one in which I have been heavily involved, having sat on the Joint Committee which initially considered the draft Bill, and having spoken in the debates at most stages of its passage. It has been most rewarding to see the Bill strengthened in response to pressure both from inside and outside parliament.
At the Bill's final stage in the Commons we secured two particularly important concessions:
- The target for CO2 cuts by 2050 was increased from 60% to 80%. This was an amendment tabled by the Liberal Democrats which the Government accepted - a far cry from my experience in the joint committee in which I was the only MP to vote for 80%.
- All greenhouses gases are going to be included, not just CO2.
We did not get everything we wanted. The government’s much-vaunted concession on the emissions from aviation and shipping is purely symbolic, since such emissions are still, disgracefully, not to be counted in the five year carbon budgets that the government is required to set. I am also concerned that the Government refused to set a ceiling for the extent to which it can meet its targets by simply buying in carbon credits from abroad. This poses a major threat to the targets' credibility as a tool for de-carbonising the British economy.
Perhaps more importantly, we have yet to see any evidence of the policies we need to turn the targets into reality: as the Minister for Climate Change announces tougher targets, other Departments are announcing renewed commitments to road-building projects, a third runway at Heathrow Airport, and new coal-fired power stations at Kingsnorth and elsewhere without carbon capture and storage technology.
We need to see climate change being taken seriously across the whole of government. But the passage of a strengthened Climate Change Act gives me hope that this can be achieved, as I hope it does for the many constituents who have written to me about climate change over the years.
As ever, please feel free to contact me with your views on this or any other issue.
All the best,
David Howarth MP
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