| 10:10 opposition day debate |
| Friday, 23 October 2009 15:01 |
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• Sadiq believes the Government must take the lead on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  • In a recent vote in parliament he supported the motion that he thought would have the biggest effect on climate change overall. • This meant voting for a motion which supported structured Government initiatives which will cut Government departments’ emissions by 34% by 2022 and welcomed the Government’s investment of £20 million to speed these cuts along. In a recent Parliamentary vote Sadiq supported a motion which welcomed and praised the 10:10 Campaign as a motivator of public action, offered its support to local councils who have signed up to 10:10, and welcomed the Government’s allocation of up to £20 million for central Government departments to enable them to reduce their CO2 emissions further and faster. This £20 million supports an existing scheme which will see Government departments reduce their emissions by 34% by 2022, so Sadiq supported this motion rather than a Liberal Democrat motion which sought a 10% cut in emissions in the year 2010. The Government’s revolutionary Climate Change Act 2008 put carbon reduction targets into law – the UK is now committed to reducing its CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050. In July this year the Government published its Low Carbon Transition Plan (LCTP), a comprehensive document detailing how the UK will deliver emissions cuts up to 2020, to meet our targets. As a part of the LCTP, for the first time ever, a new approach is being piloted whereby all major Government departments have been allocated their own carbon budgets, which will include emissions from their own estate and operations. Carbon Budgets have been set for each major Department for three five year periods between 2008 and 2022. Overall, the carbon budgets for these three periods (2008-12, 2013-2017, 2018-2022) represent a total emissions reduction of 22%, 28% and 34% respectively. Every department will produce its own plan to show how it will stay within its carbon budget and, overall, carbon budgets will have real teeth: in effect, there will be a cash penalty for failing to meet planned carbon reductions. As Minister for Transport Sadiq has recently launched the Low Carbon Transport – a Greener Future document recently which sets out the measures we will be taking to reduce transport emissions. Sadiq believes long-term, considered measures such as these have really positive impact. He considers steadily and strategically reducing carbon emissions by up to 34% over a fifteen year period, through well-planned and enforceable means, to be preferable to a one-off 10% reduction in one year. The Liberal Democrat motion was not clear on how it would intersect with the Government’s departmental carbon budgets, how targets would be enforced, the costs involved, or how a Department’s emissions would be calculated. Sadiq therefore voted for the motion which he believed genuinely encourages long-term emissions reductions whilst supporting the wider 10:10 Campaign.  |
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