Claire Darke writes about the Climate Change Bill

12.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 5th Oct 2007

"The Bill is not strong enough" writes Claire Darke

Park Ward's Liberal Democrat candidate, Claire Darke has sent a letter to voters in the Ward expressing her worries about the Government's Bill on climate charge. The text of the letter is below.

Dear Park Residents,

The government has published a Climate Change Bill which is to be welcomed as it is a step forward. It sets up a committee of experts to assess our progress which would provide a framework for our efforts to curb carbon emissions. However, the Bill is not strong enough if it is to help us tackle the greatest challenge of our age.

There remain some serious problems with the Bill, notably it has five year targets not annual ones. The argument that annual targets are too difficult is nonsense. With a government being in office for fewer than five years, five year targets are "Not in My Term of Office" targets - and would not be worth the paper they were written on. Ministers must be held responsible if emission controls go off track.

Recent scientific evidence suggests that the Bill's target of a 60% cut in emissions is too low and Liberal Democrats will continue to press for a more ambitious but realistic target of at least 80% by 2050. Our 'Zero Carbon Britain' policy contains the most ambitious proposals on climate change of any political party. The Government has the opportunity to provide genuine international leadership in the fight against climate change but at present the bill is too weak in many key areas for example, the failure to include shipping and international aviation emissions.

Both the Conservative and Labour parties need to be as bold as the Liberal Democrats are in proposing measures to promote and reward efforts to combat climate change. Our 'Zero Carbon Britain' policy includes proposals we call a Green Tax Switch that moves the tax burden from good things like work, risk and effort to bad things like pollution. We need fairer and greener taxes, not more taxes. Our proposals would encourage greater energy efficiency in the home, reduce the carbon output of the household sector and would reduce the energy bills of the average family by as much as £385 a year.

The time for rhetoric and warm words on climate change has passed; the need for action is now. The Climate Change Bill is to be welcomed, but in its present form is too weak and unambitious.

Claire Darke

Liberal Democrat candidate for May 2008