Speech by Phil Woolas MP to the EIC’s Annual Conference, London - 8 November 2007
I would like to thank you for the invitation to join this conference and thank you to Greg as it is always good to have an opposition. In addition I would like to thank the sponsors (England’s Regional Development Agency, Severn Trent, Enviros and Ecosecurities).
I believe it’s impossible for anybody to talk about environmental priorities today, and not put climate change at the top of their agenda. The evidence for climate change is concrete; there isn’t a country in the world that doesn’t accept the reality that is climate change.
Nick Stern’s report last year was a wake-up call – for all of us. The message to take is that we can be prosperous and can have a clean environment. What I am trying to convey is you can have a carbon footprint, however you must clean it up after your actions.
It must be stressed that doing nothing is not an option, we have to adapt to climate change as it is already with us. The Climate Change Bill is a move towards a low carbon economy, with a clear targets and pro-active approach which examines risk.
We all have a stake in how we adapt to, or minimise its impacts. We all pay the price if we delay the changes that have to be made.
But Nick Stern didn’t just highlight the dangers of climate change, he also suggested some ways of avoiding them, or at least reducing the damage. He even went so far as to mention a few market opportunities.
I thought at this juncture it would be a good idea to outline a few areas of environmental and industrial policy where I can see market opportunities:
The Climate Change Bill will make the UK the first country to set a long-term legal framework for reducing emissions over the next few decades and beyond. Not only will it help the UK meet its climate change commitments. It will also help us move to a low carbon economy. The Bill provides us with an excellent opportunity to take a proactive approach to adaptation, examining the risks that the UK is likely to face and ensuring the Government develops a programme that responds to these risks. It will also provide greater certainty for business and help drive investment in low-carbon solutions.
Waste Strategy
In the area of waste we launched our strategy in May of this year. This set out our aim to look to all sectors to decouple waste growth from economic growth. Taken as red, when there is a growth in GDP there will be a growth in waste, therefore we need targets and direction. Need greater emphasis on stopping waste being created in the first place.
To meet and exceed our Landfill Directive targets, secure investment in the infrastructure is needed to divert waste away from landfill. And get the best environmental benefit from that investment, through increased recycling and energy recovery from the waste.
All this will help us reduce greenhouse gas emissions from waste management by at least 9.3 million metric tonnes of CO2 per year compared to 2006. That’s the equivalent of taking 3 million cars off the road.
We want individuals to reduce and manage their waste. Even outside the home. We want businesses to make sure they use more recycled materials and reduce their waste. All evidence shows that the public are keen to act but they need simple facilities and provision.
We want local authorities to work with their communities to provide convenient collection and recycling services for their area. Whilst at the same time setting in place the infrastructure to divert waste from landfill.
What we do with our waste has an impact on the air that we breathe. Air that in recent years has improved markedly over the last few decades. But air pollution still has a significant impact on our health and our ecology. Over the last year an extensive review of the Air Quality Strategy was undertaken to examine what more might be done. This review has involved one of the most comprehensive environmental analyses ever carried out by the Government. People were closely involved at each stage of the review, both in forming and responding to the official consultation process last year & many of you took part.
The new Air Quality Strategy, which we published in July in partnership with the devolved administrations, draws conclusions from the consultation. The Strategy sets out a way forward for air quality issues, sets out details of the objectives to be achieved and identifies new measures which modelling shows could help achieve significant health benefits and help us move closer towards meeting our targets. We welcome any contribution the environmental industries can offer. Whether, for example, bringing in quickly new Euro Standard and Low Emissions vehicles, or innovating with technologies that lead to co-benefits for air quality and carbon reduction. Your sector has a valuable role to play in keeping Central Government and public authorities informed of the new and emerging techniques and telling us about their benefits and costs, so we can reach evidence-based decisions on how to push forward environmental standards.
Elsewhere the relationship between climate change and our oceans is a vital one and features increasingly in our thinking. The marine environment around our island offers a vast and important resource providing us with valuable economic, environmental and cultural benefits. We must make sure though that we protect and maintain the resilience of this resource, as well as securing our social and economic needs.
That is why we have brought forward proposals for a Marine Bill that will help us achieve a strategic framework for our seas fit for the 21st Century – one that will stand the test of time, so that future generations will continue to benefit from a clean, healthy and productive marine environment.
We are proposing a modern, strategic marine planning system, better protection for marine biodiversity, and more effective management of important marine activities.
Our proposals will allow us to plan strategically for the future, leading to more efficient use of the marine environment, improved capacity to incorporate emerging technologies, whilst ensuring sustainable development and protection of our valuable marine resources. Arrangements will be flexible enough to take account of a changing environment and allow us to respond to changing demands and priorities, enabling us to make the most of development opportunities as they emerge.
We have already seen a huge growth in wind farm development. In the future we will need to find space for wave and tidal power (as a nation we have some of the highest tidal ranges in the world), and can expect demands to change as we make further technological advances. We are proposing a framework that will allow both business and the environment to benefit from those advances.
Other areas where we have seen developments in the recent past include what Governments could do to help bring about the transition to a low-carbon, resource-efficient economy, and so enable our industries to capture the opportunities in that transition. Known in some EU debates this year as an Ecological Industrial Policy.
This led to a call in March by European Heads of Government for the Commission to come up with an `integrated overall strategy for the promotion of eco-innovation' - as a way of bringing together the range of existing and planned EU activities in this area.
These are numerous and include new initiatives from the European Commission on Sustainable Industrial Policy, Sustainable Consumption and Production and on Strategic Energy Technologies, and a related one on creating lead markets, with a strong environmental focus.
It is very encouraging that this is being taken seriously by so many sectors of the European policy-making community: but we must ensure that this activity translates into real action with benefits for economy and environment.
Across all these policies the UK will be seeking to ensure that there is a strong focus on market-based approaches that enable more sustainable goods and services to compete in the Single European Market: ensuring the right regulatory framework is in place; removing market barriers; and achieving better value for public money by procuring more based on robust science and carbon markets.
An example of the kind of action we are seeking is putting in place clear targets and future plans for energy efficiency standards in products, looking ahead at least ten years The Government has recently written to the Commission and EU Member States calling for this and other measures to improve product energy-efficiency; and together with France has proposed a reduced rate of VAT for the most energy-efficient goods.
The challenges presented by the transition to the new, greener economy should not be underestimated – we all have a role to play. And this is why we set up the Commission for Environmental Markets and Economic Performance - to bring together some of the key players from industry and the public sector, the research and innovation communities, academia, universities, finance and trade unions.
We hope that CEMEP's advice will help to develop a new way of thinking for all of us to meet the challenges. We want to work out whether we are heading in the right direction to allow the UK to exploit the opportunities to the full, what more we could be doing, what areas need further in-depth investigation. A report will be published soon and I am looking forward to hearing your views.
Soon, CEMEP will publish its report and recommendations for actions by Government and business to stimulate the UK's environmental goods and services sectors - and other sectors with a significant contribution to environmental outcomes. The Government will also publish an immediate response to the report.
I look forward to hearing your views on both once they are published in help us capitalise on these opportunities.
I would like to end by reminding you of the words of the Prime Minister at the Labour Party Conference:
“…..by investing in energy efficiency, renewables, carbon capture, clean fuels and new environmental technologies, I want Britain to lead in carbon-free vehicles, carbon-free homes and carbon-free industry. And I want the new green technologies of the future to be the source of British jobs in British businesses”.
Thank you,
Page published:
8 November 2007