There is all-party consensus on the Climate Change Bill – apart from one or two bits of it – and that's consensus that I welcome
Hilary Benn
Speaking at an 'Environmental Question Time' fringe event held last night (September 22) at the Labour Party conference in Manchester, Mr Benn explained that “we have seen a change in our politics but we've got a long way to go.”
The event, which was organised by Labour's SERA environment group, saw a call from the chairman of the Environment Agency, Lord Chris Smith, for a broad political consensus to tackle the problems created by climate change.
“Consensus is absolutely essential in all of this,” he said. “We are going to have to work with all political parties of all political complexions.
“Governments will come and go but the commitment needed to solve the problems associated with climate change will need a long-term commitment,” he added.
Climate Change Bill
Mr Benn cited the Climate Change Bill – which includes a proposed levy on single-use carrier bags (see letsrecycle.com story) – as an example of consensus working across party political lines.
“There is all-party consensus on the Climate Change Bill – apart from one or two bits of it – and that's consensus that I welcome,” he said.
He added that “the Climate Change Bill is using regulation to help people to do the right thing”.
The call for consensus was echoed by Dirk Hazell, chief executive of the Environmental Services Association, who said that ” when it comes to saving the planet, we deplore the lack of political consensus.”
He added: “The need for progressive and effective environmental policies is greater than ever.”
Mr Hazell also highlighted the need to promote sustainability, stating that: “We now need to move towards genuinely sustainable production and consumption across the economy, and we're simply not where we need to be,” and adding that “in this particular area, the private sector is often ahead of the public sector.”
Producer responsibility
And, he called for more action to be taking on producer responsibility, mirroring the policy recommendations made within the Friends of the Earth 'Zero Waste' report published last week (see letsrecycle.com story).
“I think the labelling of electrical goods has been very helpful; we need to have progressively stricter producer responsibility,” he said.
In particular, Mr Hazell highlighted the need for a strong stance on producer responsibility when the UK transposes the EU Batteries Directive – a process which begins on Friday (September 26), but is not expected to be completed until late this year or early in 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story).
“There is an opportunity coming up, the government's been a bit timid on producer responsibility historically, but you've got an opportunity coming up with batteries,” he explained.
Carbon
The event, which was sponsored by the ESA, also saw panel members call for a greater reduction in carbon emissions than the target of a 60% fall by 2050 which is proposed in the Climate Change Bill.
After warning of the consequences of climate change, Lord Smith said: ” If we want to do something to mitigate against the worst effects of it, we need at least an 80% cut in carbon emissions in the next 30 to 40 years.
“The only way to achieve that is the complete de-carbonising of energy production in that timescale,” he added.
Mr Benn described the government's renewable energy policy as “quite radical”, and explained that “energy is much on our minds at the moment”.
“We're coming face-to-face with the unsustainability of the way we do things and our energy policy has to reflect that,” he said.
In its Waste Strategy 2007, Defra made a commitment to increasing take up of both energy-from-waste and anaerobic digestion (see letsrecycle.com story) as a means of contributing to the UK's energy policy and reducing carbon emissions.
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