Zero Carbon Britain – Taking a Global Lead

I've just read through the new national Lib Dem policy “Zero Carbon Britain – Taking a Global Lead”. The headline is it’s very good and I’m really, really happy with it.

In brief, it says the Lib Dems would:

• Seek to establish the UK as a leader on action against Climate Change by setting a target of producing 30% of our electricity from renewable sources by 2020 and 100% by 2050, and by pushing for much tougher targets in Phase 2 of the Kyoto Agreement.
• Work towards a post-Kyoto international framework based on “Contraction and Convergence” (This means all countries would end up having the same per capita allocation of carbon emissions which is the only way to persuade developing countries like China and India to take action.)
• Toughen the EU carbon trading system. (It doesn’t work at present because too many permits were given out and the price of carbon is therefore too low.)
• Lobby for the EU to tax aviation fuel, apply VAT to airline tickets and include airlines in the EU carbon trading system.

Here in the UK the Lib Dems would:

• Prepare a national Climate Change Adaptation Strategy.
• Invest in low carbon technologies rather than nuclear. (Nuclear is often touted as low carbon but it isn’t because of the high carbon emissions associated with uranium mining, power station construction and waste disposal. It’s also incredibly inefficient like all centralised power stations.)
• Promote Combined Heat & Power systems and district heating. (As per the Camden Sustainability Task Force Report on Energy.)
• Rule out major airport expansions and road-building schemes in favour of rail and cycle networks.
• Finance an expansion of UK rail networks paid for by charges on road freight and domestic flights.
• Require all UK homes to be built to the “Green House” standard by 2011. (This is based on the German Passif Haus standard and means no fossil fuels to be used for space heating. Definitely one for our new planning rules - the Local Development Framework.)
• Introduce “green mortgages” to allow householders to invest in energy efficiency measures and repay the loans out of savings on their energy bills. (The same sort of idea as Camden's Revolving Energy Fund for council buildings.)
• Impose carbon taxes on energy as it enters the economy.
• Establish preferential “feed-in tariffs” for individuals, institutions and businesses wishing to supply electricity to the National Grid. (This has been a huge success in Europe.)
• Require all gas to be used for heating to be bio gas made from food waste, animal waste or biomass by 2050. (Watch out for this in the Task Force Report on Waste and Recycling.)
• Force all vehicles to be low carbon by 2020 and zero carbon by 2040.
• Steeply increase vehicle excise duty for vehicles with the biggest engines. (Something for us to bear in mind in Camden when we review our emissions-based parking policy.)

All in all an excellent package as The Guardian belatedly made clear:

www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/sep/03/climatechange.energy

Now we need to step up to the plate in Camden.

Travelling past St Pancras the Lib Dem way

The CNJ's John Gulliver recently took a swipe at Camden's Liberal Democrats for not attending the launch at St Pancras of our national party's new environmental policy:

www.thecnj.co.uk/camden/083007/gulliver083007.html

Here's my response: My apologies to "John Gulliver" for not meeting him at the St Pancras launch of the Liberal Democrat national policy to transform Britain into a carbon neutral country which absorbs as much carbon as it emits by 2050. I would have been there but I was on holiday - visiting Portugal by train - putting Lib Dem principles into practice.

London-Paris-Lisbon-Faro-Seville-Madrid-Paris-London. A magical ride through some phenomenal scenery on some fantastic railways that put our own to shame (see photo of Madrid's magnificently upgraded Atocha station).

One of the key planks of the new Lib Dem policy is more investment in trains to be paid for by carbon charges on road freight and flights. Another is for incentives to be given to individuals, businesses and institutions to. supply electricity they have generated themselves to the National Grid. This has been a phenomenal success elsewhere in Europe so it's hard to see why Gordon Brown is so set against it.

Now that the national Liberal Democrat party has provided a radical, practical and coherent blueprint to help the UK play its part in the battle against climate change I hope and believe that our local Lib Dem-led council will follow suit and put even more effort into creating a low carbon Camden.

I note that at the St Pancras launch the Lib Dem environment spokesman Chris Huhne (right) commended Camden's new administration for making a good start in terms of environmentally friendly policies. An excellent and crucial next step would be to make combatting climate change a core strategy of our new planning rules - the forthcoming Local Development Framework - options for which are due to go out for consultation this autumn.

Cleaning up the Stables Market in Camden

There's currently a petition running on the Downing St website calling for the Prime Minister to cancel the "plan to replace Camden's unique market area with a shopping centre". Just so we’re all clear - this is nothing to do with Camden Lock market which is flourishing and sparkling and looking good. Nor is it anything to do with Inverness Street where the newly redone market is also looking good.

This is about the Stables Market, which is a later offshoot of Camden Lock Market, and is somewhat scruffy and a bit threatening. It was high time for a clean up. There will be lots of independent stalls it will NOT be a Brent Cross/Bluewater whatever.

The original plans for this were agreed under the previous Labour administration. The new Planning Committee took another look at them at the end of last year and, I think, dramatically improved them.

Camden Town Unlimited, which is the local business group, is in favour. They have elaborate plans for the local streetscape and "urban realm" to turn Camden Town into a much more user friendly and pleasant environment for EVERYBODY - residents, local businesses, tourists alike. Tree/wider pavements etc. Furthermore the new design will open up lots of the arches which cannot currently be viewed and make the whole of the stables more attractive for small businesses.

So I really don’t think this is anything to worry about.