Westminster Diary - 15th June 2006

Thursday, 15th June 2006

Having enjoyed some warm weather this week, it seems a good time to discuss climate change. Many scientists are now agreed that the prospect of global warming, which may in turn lead to the melting of polar ice-caps and consequent flooding in some parts of the world and mass failure of crops due to drought in others, is the most serious challenge politicians face. It may be more damaging than terrorism or war. Worse yet, it may already be inevitable, though the degree to which it occurs may still be within our control.

So what can we, or should we do about it? The first point to make is that what must be done must be done by all of us – politicians cannot solve this problem on their own. Nonetheless, policy matters, Energy policy, for example. The way in which we choose to generate heat and light has a significant impact on the environment – we must reduce carbon emissions in particular. In my view, that means developing a range of sustainable renewable energy sources to avoid long term reliance on fossil fuels and, frankly, it possibly means building more nuclear power stations to meet our medium-term needs.

I believe it also means doing more to improve the energy efficiency of our homes, offices and factories and ensuring that less power is lost between the point of generation and the point of use – at the moment a frighteningly high proportion. I think also that we must change the way we travel. My personal view is that the projected increase in the demand for air travel is unsustainable. In this area we have seen hugely unpopular schemes to develop a massive new airport near Rugby and to extend dramatically the type and number of passenger flights from Coventry Airport. More flights mean more pollution contributing to climate change. I do not support preventing people from going abroad on holiday, but the current tax advantages the airline industry enjoy are inconsistent with a genuine effort to address the pollution they create.

Globally, the real problem we face is persuading fast developing economies like China and India that they cannot have the relatively cheap industrialisation we have enjoyed in this country because the consequences to the environment we all share are too great.

We will have no chance of persuading those countries to have regard for the environment if we do not set an example in the Western World.

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Updated on Thursday, 15th June 2006