Policy News

Monday 12 April 2010

Gordon Brown has launched Labour‘s election manifesto, which reaffirms the party‘s commitment to the 2020 renewable energy targets

Labour has established low-carbon policy as "one of the principal engines of our economic recovery and future growth" in its election manifesto, launched today (April 12).

The party's manifesto, 'A fair future for all', devotes a whole chapter to the 'green recovery', in which it reaffirms its commitment to achieving the target of 15% of energy demand coming from renewables by 2020.

The document states: "We already have more offshore wind power than any other country in the world, and our plans could see this increase up to 40 times, alongside other renewable technologies such as tidal and marine, solar and sustainable bio-energy."

Labour also pledges to make a decision early in the next Parliament on the feasibility of alternative options for a tidal energy project on the Severn, taking full account of the environmental impacts.

Earlier this year, energy minister David Kidney announced that the government was currently carrying out a feasibility study to decide whether the UK could support a Severn tidal scheme and, if so, on what terms. He claimed that all the evidence gathered would be published alongside a second public consultation, which he expected to be held later this year (see this NewEnergyFocus.com story).

According to the document, some of Labour's key low carbon aims include to:

• achieve around 40% low-carbon electricity by 2020 and create 400,000 new green jobs by 2015;
• make greener living easier and fairer through ‘pay as you save' home energy insulation, energy-bill discounts for pensioners and requiring landlords to properly insulate rented homes;
• link together new protected areas of habitat; maintain the Green Belt; increase forest and woodland areas.

Along with its future aims, Labour also points to some of its achievements in helping to develop renewable energy, including the introduction of the Feed-in Tariff scheme at the beginning of this month (see this NewEnergyFocus.com story).

The manifesto states: "Already with our new ‘Feed-in Tariffs' and incentive for renewable heat, households fitting micro-generation technologies such as solar can earn financial rewards from the energy they generate themselves."

International

Internationally, Labour claims it will continue to work for an ambitious, fair and legally binding climate change agreement, building on the Copenhagen Accord, to limit global temperature rises to two degrees Celsius.

Labour also pledges to use its leadership in the EU to push for a strengthening of Europe's 2020 emission reductions from 20 to 30% by 2020, as part of an ambitious global deal. This would mean the UK increasing its current target of a 34% reduction.

Green jobs

On the issue of creating green jobs, Labour claims: "Only active government can shape markets to prioritise green growth and job creation.

Labour's manifesto also re-iterates its commitment to create a Green Investment Bank, as announced in this year's Budget (see this NewEnergyFocus.com story), to help finance the "transformation of the regulatory system" and provide certainty to investors in renewable projects.

Councils

On a local level, the manifesto sets out Labour's intention to devolve power to local councils to hold energy companies to account for community energy efficiency programmes, and give them powers to develop local energy systems, such as renewables and district heating.

The document states: "We want local people to have a stake in local renewable energy projects such as wind farms. So, we will support community organisations, co-ops and social enterprises to provide energy services, meaning lower prices through bulk purchasing, and the development of small-scale renewables."

IPC

Finally, Labour proposes to extend the public interest test for the newly formed Infrastructure Planning Commission, so that it is applied to potential takeovers of infrastructure and utility companies.

In a scathing attack on the Conservatives' low-carbon policy, Labour's manifesto claims: "For the Tories, the environment has been all about image - by failing to deliver on our renewable energy targets, reversing our planning reforms and giving up on our new industrial strategy, they would put Labour's low-carbon revolution in jeopardy."