David Cameron today dropped the strongest hint yet that a future Conservative government would not lend its support to a third runway at Heathrow airport. Addressing a "Cameron Direct" town hall meeting in Brentford, Cameron remarked "I haven't heard any persuasive arguments for Heathrow expansion". The statement is the strongest indication yet that the Tory leader is unconvinced by the economic and environmental justifications used by the aviation industry and the Labour government.
On Thursday the transport secretary Ruth Kelly announced that an imminent decision on the expansion of the third runway was to be postponed until the end of the year, despite repeated government assurances that the announcement would be made this month. The area's MP, Ann Keen (a parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Health) recently broke ranks with the government and announced her opposition to further expansion at Heathrow. Ann Keen's Commons majority is just over 4,000 votes. Cameron's move highlights the threat of a 'Heathrow swing' in a number of marginal West London constituencies.
Commenting on the news, Robin Oakley, the head of the climate change campaign at Greenpeace UK said:
"David Cameron's words are a body blow to the government's case for a third runway at Heathrow. The fact that the Conservatives are not convinced by the economic and environmental arguments being put forward completely undermines the aviation industry's position and casts serious doubt on the future of this project. Just this week Ruth Kelly announced that her decision on Heathrow has been put back until the end of the year, and as each day goes past this proposal looks increasingly shaky."
For more information call the Greenpeace press office on 0207 865 8255.
David Cameron today announced a new policy that would see householders receive a guaranteed premium price for any renewable electricity they generate.
A new Conservative paper looks to adopt Greenpeace proposals designed to kick-start a local energy revolution by making the costs of installing technologies such as domestic solar power much more affordable, while ensuring householders who generate clean energy get a higher price for the electricity they feed into the grid.
Introducing David Cameron at the launch was John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK.
David Cameron will today visit the Greenpeace direct action warehouse to announce a new policy that would see householders receive a guaranteed premium price for any renewable electricity they generate.
A new Conservative paper - released today - looks to adopt Greenpeace proposals designed to kick-start a local energy revolution by making the costs of installing technologies such as domestic solar power much more affordable, while ensuring householders who generate clean energy get a higher price for the electricity they feed into the grid.
Greenpeace has led the campaign for the adoption of a 'decentralised energy' system where energy is generated cleanly and close to where it's used, drastically slashing emissions by cutting out waste. Several Greenpeace reports, including one entitled 'Decentralising Power: An Energy Revolution For The 21st Century' called for many of the proposals unveiled today. Now the Tory leader is visiting the organisation's warehouse, where many of Greenpeace's most famous protests were planned, to release a report entitled 'Power to the people - the decentralised energy revolution'. New Conservative polices include:
John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK said: "We've been pushing this climate change solution for many years so it's very exciting to have a major political party take our ideas and adopt them as policy. But we really want to see this as a government priority, no matter who's in Number Ten. Ken Livingstone has been aggressively pushing decentralised energy for London, now Cameron gets it too. The question is, where's Brown? Guaranteed higher prices for clean electricity have kick-started the green energy revolution in Europe. It's high time Britain joined in."
The new policy will be announced by David Cameron at 2pm today (Thursday) in the Greenpeace direct action warehouse, where many of the organisation's most famous protests were planned. The building is powered by solar panels - just the kind of technology supported in the new Conservative report.
David Cameron is likely to be lobbied by energy dinosaurs to drop these plans. Greenpeace today urged him to stand his ground and develop his plan to include:
Massive improvements in energy efficiency to reduce demand - the quickest, cheapest way to cut emissions.
Ambitious decentralised energy programmes - like the one proposed today - that will cut waste from the energy system and slash emissions.
Massive uptake of large scale renewable energy including wind power (onshore and offshore), wave power, tidal power, solar and sustainably sourced biomass.
Greenpeace has written to Gordon Brown urging his government to embrace the ideas in the organisation's climate change solutions reports and has invited ministers to see decentralised energy in action. Today we are again urging the Prime Minister to adopt this simple climate solution and adopt energy efficiency, decentralised energy and large-scale renewable energy
ENDS
Photo and video available - Greenpeace 0207 865 8255
Decentralising power: an energy revolution for the 21st Century
The Convenient Solution: a short film about the real solution to climate change
Notes:
Guaranteed prices for electricity from renewable generation have been operating in Germany since 2001. The feed-in tariff has led to a massive expansion in the German renewable energy sector. Germany now has 300 times the installed solar capacity of the UK, and has also led to the installation of ten times as much wind power capacity, despite the UK having the best wind resources in Europe. Estimates suggest that the German economy has generated over 250,000 'green collar jobs' under the scheme.
This price would be guaranteed for a number of years, meaning that renewable energy installers would be able to offer packages to UK households which would be far more competitive than had previously been possible. The current grant scheme, known as the 'Low Carbon Buildings Programme' lacks the required resources and is often criticised for its complexity.
Under an EU scheme the UK is expected to provide around 15 per cent of its energy from renewables by 2020. The energy sector encompasses heat, transport and electricity, so experts have predicted that in order to hit this target, the UK must produce as much as 40-45 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources.
Currently, the UK is lagging far behind its European competitors when it comes to renewable energy. Only the small island state of Malta produces a smaller percentage of its energy from renewables.
Commenting on David Cameron's conference speech in Blackpool today, John Sauven, Executive director of Greenpeace UK, said:
"David Cameron failed to give us any real substance on how he would deliver his environmental vision. There was no mention of airports or forests, and nothing on energy. The Tories won't be seen as the party of 'sensible green leadership' until we see his rhetoric reflected in radical manifesto pledges during the next election. However, Peter Ainsworth's earlier proposition - to penalise power companies that waste huge amounts of heat in the electricity generation process - is very welcome."
For more information please contact the Greenpeace press office on 0207 865 8255.
Three conferences in three weeks is hard work! Although I am fond of Blackpool, the toll of endless meetings and snatched conversations takes it toll after a while. I am writing this from a web café with a much needed cup of tea before going to talk to the Social Market Foundation about transport policy.
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Part of the Climate Clinic blog
So, having lambasted the leader of the opposition for being all talk, perhaps in fairness I should talk a bit more about what he talked about. It's mostly good stuff. Blair may have said that climate change is our biggest threat and challenge, but he clearly hasn't put it at the top of his to-do list (although as Bush seems to have editorial control that's not really surprising). Cameron stands in marked contrast for having given the issue as much time as Tony's apocalyptic pronouncements imply that it deserves, so firstly that should be acknowleged - every time Cameron has spoken about the climate, he was sacrificing the opportunity to talk about law and order or some other issue which might have given him a political benefit. Talk may be cheap, but it isn't free.
Part of the Climate Clinic blog
Last night I was privileged to experience the combined force of the two politicians who've done most to get climate change in the UK media, Cameron and Gore. First was An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore's block-busting documentary about climate change. If you haven't already seen it then do try to catch it. He refined it over a period of decades, and it's a great primer on climate science and far more entertaining than you'd expect.
Remember 1997? Imagine somebody had predicted then that, within a decade, the Conservatives would be advocating "a revolution in green energy" and New Labour would be the only mainstream party still clinging to nuclear power as a central part of their energy policy. You probably wouldn't have rushed down to Ladbroke's.
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Drax power station
Commenting on David Cameron's speech to the Local Government Association, in which he said "the future is decentralised energy" and that nuclear power is "a last resort", Greenpeace campaigner Charlie Kronick said:
"David Cameron seems to get it. Decentralised energy can deliver huge cuts in carbon emissions and reduce our dependence on foreign energy supplies. The Tories have traditionally been solid supporters of nuclear power, so to see their new leader order nuclear to the back of the queue is very encouraging. It shows just how out of touch Tony Blair is. If the Prime Minister shed his fixation with nuclear power and looked starkly at the evidence he'd agree with David Cameron. Decentralised energy really is the future, while Tony Blair looks increasingly like the past."
Decentralised energy involves generating energy in the form of either heat or electricity close to or at its point of use, giving massive efficiency savings. It is already successfully employed in many European cities.
ENDS
Greenpeace press office 0207 865 8255
Hundreds of Stop Climate Chaos supporters came together on March 1st to 'carbon date' some of the UK's leading MPs.
They weren't trying to guess the ages of these venerable decision makers; they were borrowing the 'speed dating' format to tell MPs what they thought the government should do about climate change.