Labour’s Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband has committed the UK to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80% on 1990 levels by 2050 as a major contribution to a global deal on climate change.

Making his first statement to the House of Commons in his new role, Ed Miliband said that the Government accepted the Committee on Climate Change’s recommendation that Britain’s target should be increased from a 60 per cent cut to 80 per cent, and that the target should cover all the major greenhouse gases, rather than just carbon dioxide.

Ed Miliband said, “in tough economic times, some people will ask whether we should retreat from our climate change objectives. In our view, it would be quite wrong to row back and those who say we should misunderstand the relationship between the economic and environmental tasks we face.  Of course, there are trade-offs but there are also common solutions to both: for example, energy-saving measures for households which cut bills and emissions, such as those announced in September by my RHF the Prime Minister. Or investment in new environmental industries which both improve our energy security and reduce our dependence on polluting fuels."

Labour will now amend the groundbreaking Climate Change Bill, which will make the UK the first country in the world to adopt a legally binding long term framework for reducing emissions, to reflect the new target.  However, Ed Miliband also pointed out that raising the target was only one step in the fight against climate change; ”we all know that signing up to an 80 per cent cut by 2050 is the easy part.  The hard part is meeting it, and meeting the milestones that will show we’re on track. For us in Britain, these will be shaped by the recommendation of the Committee on Climate Change, who will advise us in December on the first fifteen years of Carbon budgets – national limits to our total emissions. We will report next year on how we will meet them. We are also determined to ensure that the signal and the commitment comes not just from Britain but, as the Prime Minister has been making clear in recent days, from Europe too.”

In the same statement, Ed Miliband also announced that Labour would be inserting a provision for a new ‘feed-in tariff’ into the Energy Bill – which will support and incentivise small-scale electricity generation by guaranteeing a price for any energy sold back to the grid by individuals or groups who generate their own.

Meanwhile, he also announced that, having met representatives of the six major energy providers yesterday, he had made it clear the the Labour Government expects the companies to take swift action to remedy any unfair pricing policies.

Last week Ofgem highlighted what they believed to be unjustified higher charges applied to four million electricity customers in areas not connected to the gas main. They also believe that even taking account of higher costs facing companies from customers with pre-payment meters, many homes that use them are being overcharged.

Explaining his tough stance, Ed Miliband said, “Unfair pricing which hits the most vulnerable hardest is completely unacceptable. I made that clear to the representatives of the big six energy companies when I met them yesterday. I also told them that the government expects rapid action or explanation to remedy any abuses and I will meet them again in a month to hear what they have done. We, and Ofgem, are determined to see these issues addressed. Ofgem are consulting on its findings until December 1st as part of a due process.  If the companies don't act in a satisfactory way, then we will consult on legislation to prevent unfair pricing differentials.”

Meanwhile, David Cameron has tried to change the Tories’ image by using environmental photo opportunities and language to deliberately conceal his real agenda - he travelled to the Arctic glaciers to be photographed with Huskies and posed for the cameras cycling to work while a car carrying his shoes and briefcase followed him.
But behind the photo ops that he uses to try to convince people he has ‘greened’ the Tories, David Cameron has not fundamentally changed their values or policies. Across the country Tory MPs routinely campaign against proposed wind power developments – or what Cameron himself described as ‘bird blenders’, and by leaving the EPP and pandering to right wing Eurosceptics, would leave Britain a bit-part player in the international fight against climate change.

Why have Labour raised the target to 80%?

The original  60 per cent target included in the Climate Change Bill was based on a Royal Commission report in 2000, which said that we needed to cut emissions 60 per cent cut by 2050. Since then, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports have found that -

o    Arctic sea ice has melted faster than expected.
o    Emissions from other countries have grown faster.
o    The impacts of each degree of climate change are known to be worse.

The Climate Change Committee concluded that for the UK to play its part, our greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 must be not 60 per cent lower than 1990, but 80 per cent lower, and that they should include all major greenhouse gases.