Tory environment policy - where do they stand?

This is another example of how the Labour Government has decided to take the lead where the Tories would allow us to drift into isolation.

The Climate Change bill is a world first. It sets ambitious binding emissions reduction targets in legislation and introduces a new system of Carbon Budgets across the economy. This will provide the right legal framework to ensure the UK continues to provide global leadership in tackling climate change.

But Labour has realised that this cannot work if it is just the UK that tries to tackle climate change. That is why, as well as setting targets of a 26% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020 and 80% by 2050 in the Climate Change bill, Labour has been at the forefront of similar measures at EU level. This bill has been designed to compliment EU climate change laws, not replace them.

Of course with their new 'green mask', the Tories supported the majority of the bill. Greg Barker even called 'to strengthen and improve this landmark piece of legislation'. Yet they have opposed large swathes of important environmental legislation - most importantly the renewables obligation, which provides finance for renewable energy, and home information packs, which give prospective buyers information on the energy efficiency of a property.

Not all Tories agree with their Party's policy either. This week a Conservative MEP, Roger Helmer, tabled amendments to a report in the European Parliament, arguing that 'the world has experienced no global warming for a decade' and 'measures to reduce CO2 emissions, such as the Kyoto Protocol, even if fully implemented, would have a trivial effect on climate'. Positions like this are still commonplace in the Conservative Party.

Our region stands to be very badly hit by climate change if no action is taken. Flooding is already a problem across Sussex, and many of the marshlands around Bexhill and Eastbourne will disappear if sea levels rise even a tiny bit.

As Greg Barker is still the Shadow Minister for Climate Change, he owes it to us to give an explanation for the Conservatives' multiple positions on the environment, and how views like Helmer's would fit with his Party's position.