Miliband calls for ‘clear’ decarbonisation goal

Labour Leader Ed Miliband has called on government to produce a ‘clear’ 2030 decarbonisation target, in a written piece for Inside Track, the journal of environmental think-tank Green Alliance.

Writing in Inside Track, Mr Miliband said: ‘Investing in the infrastructure for a low carbon economy will both kick start the growth that is missing and make our economy resilient to price shocks in an age of scarcity.

'It is governments which set the low carbon targets and correct market failures; and the degree of support for policies shown by governments is a major part of perceived risk for investors.

'To attract the investment we need, governments must cover that risk and commit to a clear goal of decarbonising the power sector by 2030’.

The piece, published on Green Alliance’s website today (24 September) appears at a time the Liberal Democrats (Lib Dems) are holding their annual conference, which includes a vote reducing the carbon intensity of power generation to between 50g-100g of CO2 per kilowatt hour (kWh) from 2030 - down from the current levels of 430g CO2/KWh.

Greenpeace's Political Adviser Joss Garman welcomed Mr Miliband’s stance, saying: "There is now no excuse for Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats not to commit to carbon-free electricity by 2030.

"Both the Energy Committee, and John Gummer's climate change committee, are advising the Lib Dems that this measure is essential for our economy and environment. Miliband's announcement means that with Labour and Lib Dem votes, this policy can and should become law."

‘Wake-up call’

The Lib Dem conference in Brighton comes just a day after a Populus poll commissioned by Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace found that 55 per cent of people who voted for the Liberal Democrats in 2010, would be more likely to vote for the party again, if it ‘took action to achieve carbon-free power in the UK by 2030’.

The poll also found that 43 per cent of Lib Dem voters in the last General Election would be more likely to vote Lib Dem again if the party opposed George Osborne’s planned ‘dash for gas’.

“[The] polling results should be crucial reading for Nick Clegg. This is a wake-up call for the Liberal Democrats that standing up to George Osborne’s reckless push for gas will win them back voters”, said Friends of the Earth’s Executive Director Andy Atkins.

He added: “Ed Davey’s Energy Bill must contain a clear target for decarbonising the UK electricity sector by 2030... If the Energy Secretary does not face down the anti-green chancellor the country will fail to tackle climate change, create jobs or wean our economy off dirty and expensive fossil fuels and his party would be punished at the polling booth.”

The poll also shows that 72 per cent of the general public think that renewable power should be prioritised in the forthcoming Energy Bill.

Garman added: “The Lib Dems have long sold themselves as being the greenest of the three main parties. In the coming weeks, Nick Clegg and Ed Davey will face their biggest environmental decisions to date, and this poll shows Lib Dem voters expect them to stick to their promises.

“The 2030 goal is crucial if the UK is to stabilise electricity bills, reduce emissions and drive job creation.”

Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace are now calling for the upcoming Energy Bill (a draft of which is already available) to contain a clear decarbonisation target that would deliver clean electricity by 2030.

‘Incompatible’ with carbon budgets

The debate over the decarbonisation target has been at the heart of calls to amend the draft Energy Bill, after the government’s statement on renewables obligations that said gas will not be ‘restricted to providing back up to renewables’ but will ‘play an important part in the energy mix well into and beyond 2030’, provoked the independent Committee on Climate Change (CCC) to write an open letter to Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey.

The letter, signed by the CCC board on 13 September, said that government could breach the Climate Change Act’s legally binding target of an 80 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 (on 1990 levels), if it pursues plans to see a surge in new gas investment.

The ‘extensive use of unabated gas-fired capacity (i.e. without carbon capture and storage technology (CCS)) in 2030 and beyond would be incompatible with meeting legislated carbon budgets’, wrote the group, who went on to criticise the ‘apparently ambivalent position of the government about whether it is trying to build a low-carbon or a gas-based power system’.

The CCC has recommended that the government adopts a 50g Co2/KWh from 2030.

The final Energy Bill is expected to be published this Autumn.