Speech by Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP at the Lord Mayor's Lecture - "Bring Climate Change Home", London – 2 April 2008
It is an honour to be here at Guys and St. Thomas’ this afternoon in a place with such a tremendous reputation for learning, for pioneering research, and for the care of the sick.
You may be wondering why I was so keen to accept your invitation to come to this great hospital to talk about climate change.
Well one reason is because you are committed to reducing emissions by a remarkable 20%. Another is because you have sixty people – and I hope some are here today – who have volunteered to lead the practical steps that are necessary to achieve that reduction – turning off unused office equipment and switching off lights.
Another is because you are the first public sector organisation to join the Green500 – the top 500 organisations in London reducing their carbon footprints – at a time when London is transforming to become greener, faster, than at any time in its long history.
But above all it is because climate change is no longer a problem just for environment ministers to talk about with other environment ministers or with environmental groups. It is much bigger than that. It is about our health, our society, our economy, our security and our politics. It is about the future of our planet and so that really does concern every single one of us.
By the middle of this century there could be as many as 200 million people forced from their homes because of rising sea levels, floods and more intense drought. Imagine a world of climate refugees on the move searching for somewhere to live .
By 2080, on current projections, an additional 600 million people – ten times our population - could be affected by malnutrition, and an additional 1.8 billion people will be without enough water.
It might seem as if this is happening in some far off place. But we in Europe will feel these consequences too - of mass migration, destabilisation of politically fragile parts of the world, famines caused by arable land loss, and wars as people fight – not about politics – but about water, energy and other natural resources.
As my colleague Douglas Alexander put it: if today’s image of climate change is the polar bear, could tomorrow’s be the AK47?
Is that really what we want for our future?
No, of course not.
But the way to avoid it does not lie solely in some undiscovered technology, or some clever policy. It lies in each and every one of us taking responsibility.
The simple truth is that over 40% of the CO2 emissions in Britain are the direct result of actions and decisions that we, as individuals make, each and every day – decisions about how we use energy to heat and power our homes, and to travel, and in our jobs.
But I am optimistic.
98% of us say we know about climate change.
Four out of five say we are concerned about it.
And I see a growing movement for change.
All over the country, people are saying, “I will, if you will”, and are taking action together.
But it can be hard, and it can be confusing.
So I want to set out today the practical steps that the Government will take over the next year to help people reduce their carbon emissions and meet our carbon budgets, and how the government is acting where individuals cannot.
I’d like to start with where it can seem hardest to change things: internationally.
This is where the cynics say that the UK is only responsible for 2% of emissions and there’s no point doing anything while China is building a new coal power station every week.
I profoundly disagree. The truth is that unless we act at home, we simply won’t be able to persuade the rest of the world to do the same, especially when the average person in the UK is still responsible for more than twice the emissions of a person in China, and nine times those of someone living in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Last December in Bali things began to change. We took a step forward together when we agreed to try and negotiate a new global climate deal by the end of 2009.
Our chance of doing so will depend on what each of us is prepared and able to bring to the table.
The EU, including the UK, is committed to the most radical transformation of the European economy in a generation: a 20% cut in emissions by 2020, with 15% of energy coming from renewables, and a 30% cut if the world will come with us.
The UK is putting £800 million on the table now for developing countries through the World Bank, for clean technology, forests and adaptation.
And we’re starting to build a low carbon economy at home that will show the world that low carbon growth is possible.
The truth is that the developing world will only come with us if we can show that a low carbon, high growth economy is possible, because this is the only way to overcome the terrible poverty that scars our planet and our consciences, ruins lives and wastes the potential of so many human souls.
When I was International Development Secretary I saw how high and sustained growth is the best hope of doing so.
It’s why developing countries are so clear that tackling climate change cannot stop development.
Take just one example: India.
The Indian Energy Minister told me last November that 45% of his citizens don’t have electricity. Their schools need lighting so the children can study. Their industry needs power so it can provide jobs. And their clinics need fridges so they can keep the vaccines cold.
We need to help India, and other countries provide these jobs, and medicines, in a low carbon way. But there is something else.
Even if the rich world could shut down its power plants today, its runways tomorrow, and throw away the keys to its cars on Friday, the inconvenient truth – to borrow that phrase – is that we would still be facing dangerous climate change because of rising emissions from developing countries that want the kind of development we currently enjoy.
So what are we doing at home to show to the world that a low carbon economy is not only possible but prosperous?
Well, the Climate Change Bill is the foundation.
Let’s remember just how radical this Bill is. It will fundamentally change our entire economy, and affect each of our lives, and that of every one of our children.
We are the first country in human history to propose a legally binding framework to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
When I talk with environment ministers from other countries, it’s clear to me how closely the entire world is looking at this Bill, and thinking about whether they should adopt something similar.
Through the bill, the UK will set a course to reduce emissions by at least 60% by 2050, with at least a 26% reduction by 2020. An independent expert committee, the Committee on Climate Change will advise on these targets, and how we reach them. And because we know the science is changing, the Prime Minister has asked the Committee on Climate Change to advise on whether the long term target should be higher – possibly up to 80%.
But leadership in tackling climate change is not simply about signing up to targets – however tough – it’s about making things happen.
That’s why it’s good to see that our CO2 emissions fell by 2% last year. That’s 11 million tonnes less CO2 from the UK in the atmosphere.
But we need to do more, and we need to make absolutely certain that we will deliver the reductions we need.
That’s why the Bill is introducing an entirely new and radical approach.
Next year – in less than 12 months from now – alongside the financial Budget the Chancellor will set Britain’s first three Carbon Budgets.
Carbon Budgets will introduce a fundamentally different way of making policy.
They will require every policy to be assessed for its carbon effect and they will apply across everything, absolutely everything, that government does and every sector of the economy, including energy, transport, housing.
And if we decide to do something that increases emissions – and this will be the case from time to time because there are difficult trade-offs to make – then we will have to make a saving somewhere else.
And because the budgets will get smaller and smaller, our overall effort will need to be ever more ambitious.
Next spring we will publish our low carbon Britain plan, detailing how we will meet the budgets. It will show how a huge expansion in renewable energy generation, the unprecedented investment in energy efficiency we have enabled, and the help and support we are providing to industry and communities to Act On CO2, will help us to meet our targets.
Our approach in developing this plan is based on the principles set out in the Stern Review.
Nick Stern’s genius was to show very clearly that the long term costs of doing nothing far outweigh the costs of bold action to reduce emissions now. And that countries could benefit from taking action early in terms of new technologies and jobs.
So we have adopted his three principles.
First, that carbon must have a cost. To give business the incentives they need to Act on CO2, you need to put a price on CO2.
That’s why we are in - and strongly support - the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. This caps emissions from the biggest polluters across Europe, covering almost half of the UK’s emissions, and then lets them trade amongst themselves, so creating a carbon price.
To go further, we are setting up another trading scheme in the UK, linked to the EU one, to reduce emissions from large organisations and the public sector, from supermarkets, banks and department stores, as well as Local Authorities and all Government Departments. This will help central Government to be carbon neutral by 2012 and to reduce total emissions by 30% by 2020.
The second principle is increasing public and private investment in technology.
Through the Energy Technologies Institute the UK is aiming to invest over £1 billion in new energy technologies in partnership with the private sector, and we will fund the first post-combustion coal carbon capture and storage plant in the EU. And new technologies can not only provide new jobs and industries for the UK, they also provide some of the most exciting solutions to the problems of climate change.
The third principle is energy efficiency. Too often, businesses don’t invest in this, even though it makes good economic sense. So as part of our Act on CO2 plan for industry, we have the Climate Change Agreements which, if they take up energy efficiency, give businesses a discount on a green tax they would otherwise have to pay.
So how are we doing?
The good news is that we are on course to nearly double our Kyoto targets, and greenhouse gas emissions are down by 7% since 1990, while the economy has grown by about a quarter in real terms.
We are seeing real change in our lives. We are phasing out the old-style incandescent light-bulbs so that they will be a thing of the past within three years. Every home sold now comes with an Energy Performance Certificate. And we have said that all new homes will be zero carbon within six years, and all new buildings within ten. ‘A’ rated appliances used to be the exception, now they are the norm. Hybrid cars used to be on Tomorrow’s World; today they are on our streets.
And we’re learning. Five years ago, some environmental groups were saying that we should stop our addiction to oil, by switching to biofuels.
Now we know that some biofuels can actually use up more greenhouse gas emissions to make than they save. And they can have terrible indirect effects such as cutting down of rainforests to plant more crops, or displacing other crops which pushes up food prices.
So we’ve asked Ed Gallagher to look at this and we won’t go any further than our existing commitments until that review has reported.
In other areas, however, we have been too cautious.
When we first introduced a requirement for energy companies to help people invest in energy efficiency measures in their homes, such as loft insulation, we set it to save 1.2mtCO2 a year. We have doubled it every three years since so that the current phase will save around 4.2MtCO2 a year.
We have learned to be bolder.
But perhaps the most important thing we have yet to learn – and which makes climate change so different – is that while the problem could not be more large scale and global, much of the solution has to lie in the small scale and the local. The steps we can take as individuals.
Ultimately, all of us have an absolute responsibility to start the shift towards a low carbon life. When we are given the low carbon choice, we need to take it. Policy makers cannot sit in a room in Whitehall working out the answer. This is one revolution that genuinely needs to start in the living room, the supermarket and the workplace.
It was Martin Luther King Jr – who died 40 years ago this week – who said “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is ‘what are you doing for others’”.
Climate change poses this question anew.
There are five simple things that if we all do, we can make a real difference. They’ve emerged from detailed research carried out by Defra with other organisations over the past year.
First, to Act on CO2 in the way we travel we need to buy more efficient vehicles, to use the car less for short trips and avoid unnecessary, usually short haul flights. Because if 1 million of us switched our car to the most efficient in its class, we could save three quarters of a million tonnes of CO2. To help, Government has changed car tax so it reflects the environmental performance of the vehicle, we will put labelling on cars so it is clear how efficient they are, we have increased investment in public transport, and are increasing taxes on flying.
And if we do need to fly, then we should offset our emissions. And to help this, the Government has introduced a Code of Best Practice, so we can identify genuine products that are leading to emissions reductions elsewhere.
The second step is to Act on CO2 in the things we buy, by purchasing more energy efficient products. So the Energy Saving Trust is working with product manufacturers and retailers to get the least efficient products out of the system. And we have agreed with retailers and manufacturers to get rid of high energy bulbs by 2011 – a simple step that if we all took it today, could save up to 5 million tonnes of CO2.
Third, to Act on CO2 with water by using it more responsibly, installing water efficient devices and wasting less heated water. We are now working with the water companies so that all of them offer free or discounted water efficiency devices. Because if half of all households saved water in these ways, we could save nearly two million tonnes of CO2 and save people money too.
Fourth, to Act on CO2 with waste, we all need to increase recycling and waste less, particularly food. Because if all households halved the amount of food we waste, we could save eight million tonnes of CO2.
This is where we can see a real change in culture. Recycling rates have nearly quadrupled over the past decade and we will increase household recycling to half of waste by 2020. We will take action against single-use carrier bags by the end of the year. We are working with the supermarkets to cut packaging, and with land owners to put more recycling bins in public places.
Fifth, to Act on CO2 in our homes we need to insulate them as much as possible, we need to manage our energy better - wasting it less, and, in time, more of us will need to install our own home energy generation.
To support this, the Government has obliged the energy companies to invest around £1 billion a year in improving the energy efficiency of their customers, saving over 4 million tonnes of CO2 every year by the end of the programme. And as a result, we expect over two and a half million lofts and almost 3 million cavity walls to be insulated. We have more to do to support home power generation, and we will be publishing plans in the summer, including looking at feed-in tariffs.
These are all simple steps. But sometimes we need a bit of practical advice and encouragement to take them.
So I am pleased to announce that a Government funded Act on CO2 advice line starts operating today. The number is 0800 512 012. You can call for practical advice about how to Act on CO2 through energy efficiency, home renewables generation, sustainable transport, water efficiency and waste and recycling.
It is being run by the Energy Saving Trust and is the first step in a broader Act on CO2 at home programme that we are going to extend over the rest of the year.
Within 12 months, we will have advice centres in every region. These will be one stop shops providing locally specific advice on water, waste, energy and transport. And they will not be based in an office, waiting for people to knock on their door. They will be working in shopping centres, in village halls and with community groups to try and spread the word about the simple steps we can all take towards a more sustainable lifestyle.
Last week I met three people who are way ahead of most of us in living low carbon lives today.
John, Kat and Anna are the winners of Oxfam’s Eco-Footprint competition, and they came to see me to talk about how they have reduced their emissions, and how they’re encouraging other people to do the same.
They told me about how many of the changes they had made had actually improved their lives. Walking and cycling more made them feel healthier. Recycling and composting more, and thinking a bit more carefully about their weekly shop, had helped make sure they only buy food they will really eat, and don’t end up throwing away food that has gone off each week, and had saved them money. And insulating their homes, and pestering their landlord to improve energy efficiency, had saved them money on their fuel bills.
But they also told me how sometimes it was hard to keep going. They are all pioneers, and if the history of political change tells us anything, it is that you have to be strong if you’re leading the way.
What has kept John, Kat and Anna going has been the support and encouragement they received from other people.
I think we can learn a lot from their experiences. And the main lesson is this: that if we do this together, as a community, and tell each other about what we’re doing, and support each other, then transforming our country together will be a lot easier than if we pretend we’re doing this alone.
We need to move from ‘I will if you will’ to ‘I have, now you can’.
And so I am pleased that today I can also announce that I have asked the Energy Saving Trust to develop a new programme to show the potential to transform homes and streets into green neighbourhoods, as part of our Act on CO2 campaign.
This will invite local people, community groups, local councils, energy suppliers, private companies and banks to come forward.
By pooling their resources, and with additional loan capital made available from Government, we hope to transform 100 neighbourhoods across England, with the aim of reducing their carbon footprints by over 60%.
These green neighbourhoods will demonstrate to all of us what can be achieved by working together. The Energy Saving Trust aim to launch details of the competition so that proposals can come in for funding in September, with the first successful projects being funded from April 2009.
And I think local government has the will, the imagination and the capacity to lead this, and I want them to be at the forefront of the bids that come in.
Right here in London, the Climate Change Action Plan sets out proposals to reduce London’s CO2 emissions to 60% of 1990 levels by 2025 – 25 years ahead of the national government’s target for 2050.
And there’s lots of other examples too.
Through its Older Persons Energy Network, North Somerset Council is training older and retired volunteers to act as energy efficiency advisors, doing home visits, and providing advice at events.
Shropshire County Council has established a Solar Club to encourage DIY installation of solar hot water heating systems.
And Woking council has created a private electricity supply network, established an energy services company, used micro-generation – such as solar panels, small wind turbines, and a static fuel cell – and has got serious about energy efficiency.
They – and many others – are making it happen.
Politics and changing things is about understanding and then taking action.
We know our planet is sick, and we have no other.
We know it is ours to care for, and it is our responsibility.
We know the time is now, and that time is running out.
And when we understand, that helps us to answer the real question – when all is said and done – do we believe we can do it?
Faced with the enormity of the challenge, do we have the will to do it?
Is it impossible, or possible?
The answer?
It is impossible to ignore because none of us will be immune to dangerous climate change. And, of course, it is possible to take steps to prevent it happening.
Steps taken in people's kitchens, in their living rooms and communities, alongside steps in the boardrooms of industry, in the chambers of Parliaments or around the negotiating tables of the world.
I think the greatest cause for optimism is our history – and what it teaches us.
In 1860, Florence Nightingale founded the School of Nursing here at St Thomas’. She was not a scientist.* She did not discover some miracle cure. But she saved many thousands of lives, and her legacy has saved millions more. And her gift to us was to change the way all of us think about the care of the sick.
We too do not need to be brilliant scientists to understand the dangers of climate change.
We too do not need to wait for the discovery of a miracle technology to act.
If all of us follow the modest yet determined example of Florence Nightingale, then we too can find within ourselves the ability to take the small, necessary steps to stop climate change.
We can do it.
But none of this will happen unless each and every one of us wills it so.
And as we find that will, each one of us can become an example to each other and to the rest of the world.
Thank you.
* "I have since learned that Florence Nightingale was a statistician and was the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society"
Page published: 3 April 2008