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Tory Leader David Cameron Still Losing the Plot on Climate
Conservative Party leader David Cameron is still trying to please Guardian readers, even though they are very unlikely to vote Conservative. Cameron did start to talk some sense on climate when he said, “If the environmental agenda becomes limited to well-suited politicians stepping out of aeroplanes on to tarmacs, telling people how to live their lives and sounding like everyone else will just have to sit in a darkened room, wearing woollies with the lights turned off and the heating down, we are not going to get anywhere.
“People do not like being lectured. You have to take people with you, and the way to do that is to connect individual behaviour and rewards, and help people see the advantages of going green. We have to have carrots as well as sticks.”
Cameron sees the idea for a “localist green revolution” as an answer to his fear that what he describes as the current top- down climate change agenda is “in danger of starting to lose people”.
Cameron starting to sound sensible? Swapping ‘top-down’ for ‘bottom-up’ policies? Sadly he goes on to spoil it by supporting Prime Minister Gordon Brown giving away £1.6 billion of UK tax payers’ money at Copenhagen without asking us, and wanting to make any Copenhagen agreement into a legally binding document. Then he shows his ‘top-down’ approach to his own party: Faced by a mini-revolt from climate change sceptics within his own party, he said: “A very small number of people take a different view on the science, but the policy is driven by me, and that is the way it is going to be.”A very small number? Not exactly – actually about 75% of Conservative voters.
Cameron’s main plan is to spend £20 billion (I wonder where that money will be found?) insulating homes by offering £6,500 to 6 million homes, with an initial investment of £1500. The hope being that energy savings would fund repayments. The trouble is that, as seems highly likely, if the cost of energy continues to soar, any savings will be eaten up by increased energy bills. I wonder if Cameron has thought of that?
Anyway, it probably won’t help me. My house was built in 2000 to modern insulation standards, including cavity wall insulation, double glazing, and polystyrene slab in the concrete floors. My gas central heating boiler is 9 years old, and about 75% efficient. A new bolier would cost about £1500 and be 90% efficient, but I wouldn’t spend that until the current boiler needs replacing, although if Cameron wants to give me the money then I certainly would replace it. That would be nice Dave, but don’t confuse energy and climate – they aren’t related in any big way and climate certainly won’t be influenced by the UK’s less than 2% contribution to global man-made CO2 emissions.
The Guardian: ‘Cameron’s £20bn plan for green homes’
December 16th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Bring on David Davis!
December 17th, 2009 at 1:01 am
Yes – I’m not sure it’s possible for Cameron to climb down from his ridiculous position on the massive scam that is climate change. I doubt he believes all the nonsense himself but probably sees it as a way to raise taxes which he has to do anyway.
I take heart from the ousting of Turnbull by Abbott in Australia – so there is some hope for the future – however until the Tory’s stand up against this madness the only party with a sensible policy is UKIP.
December 30th, 2009 at 5:37 am
I Completely agree with the article. let us not confuse energy with global warming. Just think about the amount of CO2, ash and other green house gases emitted by an active volcano.. No industry would emit that much gases for the whole year, instead our focus should be on the positive side.. like growing more trees and so on
January 3rd, 2010 at 4:24 pm
Are the money making carbon traders involved?