MEMO To: Tony Blair
From: Stephen Tindale
Subject: Environment policy in the second term
My top priority would be more ambitious action to tackle climate change. The current Government has accepted that reductions of greenhouse gas emissions of up to 90 percent will eventually be needed, meaning a major shift away from fossil fuels. This means exploiting every alternative source available.
So, every new building should have solar panels, something the Government could achieve by amending the building regulations. This would be enough to galvanise the manufacturers into scaling up production, so bringing the price of solar energy down to a level comparable to fossil fuels. Britain will eventually be able to supply most of its electricity from solar power.
Much of my time would be spent lobbying colleagues. I’d be constantly on to the DTI, urging them to implement a proper strategy to promote offshore wind and wave power, which would bring employment as well as environmental, gains. I would also encourage the Chancellor to raise the Climate Change Levy, an excellent tax, which will, despite the noisy special pleading of some industry lobby groups, cut greenhouse emissions without damaging competitiveness. Ideally, the Chancellor should announce in advance that the Levy will go up year by year, to give businesses time to plan and alter investment decisions.
Assuming that environment and transport are still housed within one department, which they should be, I would insist on much stronger action to tackle pollution from vehicles, not only greenhouse emissions but also the toxic pollutants which, according to the Department of Health, kill up to 24,000 people every year in the UK. Much of this would need to be done at European level, but the UK is often a key swing vote in the Council, so UK initiatives could lead to a tightening of standards. Carcinogenic pollution from diesel engines is particularly ripe for regulatory attention.
I would also encourage local authorities to use their powers to implement congestion charging and workplace parking charges. I would advance money to them to enable them to improve public transport before the charges came in, or allow them to borrow against the future receipts if money was not available to me. Overall, I would channel money towards councils implementing integrated transport packages supporting walking, cycling and public transport, rather than those wanting to build or widen roads. And I’d slash the national roads programme, which will only generate more traffic – as Labour realised in Opposition.
We should change the speed limit in urban areas to twenty miles per hour. This would have a double benefit. First, it would save lives, particularly those of children. Second, if any other reason is needed, it would encourage more people to cycle, so cutting both congestion and pollution. The present Government has accepted all this, but nevertheless says the decision should be left to local authorities. Why? The 30 mph limit is a national one. Why not change the national limit to twenty and give local authorities powers to alter it to 30 on specific roads if they think it necessary?
My third priority would be extracting the UK from its nuclear cul-de-sac. Reprocessing spent nuclear fuel is highly polluting. Sellafield discharges eight million litres of contaminated liquid into the Irish Sea every day. It is outmoded. BNFL’s ‘flagship’ THORP was planned and started back in the 1970s, when Tony Benn was Energy Secretary. And it is, to quote British Energy, ‘economic nonsense.’ BNFL would be far better off, and its workforce far more secure, if it concentrated on winning orders to carry out clean up and management of radioactive waste.
I’m assuming that the Countryside Bill has been passed. The right to roam is supported by over 80 percent of the British people, so I can’t believe the Government would be foolish enough to abandon it.