Committee on Climate Change backs 'urgent action'

ECIU Advisory Board members Lord Oxburgh and Guy Smith comment on CCC progress report

By George Smeeton

info@eciu.net

Share

Commenting on the progress report published today by the Committee on Climate Change, former Shell Chairman Lord Oxburgh of Liverpool said that the government needs to bring forward decarbonisation policies quickly if it is to retain its moral authority on climate change.

The CCC also concludes that more households will be at high risk of flooding. Image: Creative Commons Licence, Kingsley Hughes
The CCC also concludes that more households will be at high risk of flooding. Image: Creative Commons Licence, Kingsley Hughes

Lord Oxburgh said: “As this report makes clear, the government has no room for complacency if it wants to deliver effective decarbonisation at low cost.

“The Prime Minister has promised leadership in talks on a new UN climate agreement, but leadership comes from what you do, not what you say.

“Ministers need to come forward very soon with coherent policies on energy efficiency, low-carbon transport, renewable heat and renewable electricity, otherwise the UK will fall behind other nations and lose its moral authority on the international stage.”

Guy Smith, Vice-President of the National Farmers Union (NFU), urged the government to take the wider impacts on the rural economy in mind when setting renewable energy policy.

“The Committee’s view on renewable energy is pretty clear – we need stable policies to incentivise land-based clean technologies such as wind, solar and biogas, otherwise Britain will not achieve its future climate change targets,” he said.

“We respect the government’s mandate to constrain onshore wind power, but we are concerned that perhaps inadvertently this will catch out every single farm turbine, no matter what the scale or setting.

“Small-scale renewables don’t just produce energy, they’re an essential way for Britain’s farmers to earn a reliable income in a time of volatile food prices, and so keep farming and the wider rural economy afloat. If they have countryside interests at heart, ministers need to value those wider benefits."