Zero-carbon
Huhne plans zero-carbon Britain
The Liberal Democrats yesterday became the first Westminster party to back a zero-carbon Britain, including a ban on all petrol driven cars by 2040, but had to fight off warnings from some senior members that the simultaneous rejection of nuclear power meant the plans did not add up.
Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat environment spokesman, told the party conference: "We are the first British political party to tackle global emissions from every part of our economy: from transport, from electricity generation, from our housing, from offices and from factories". At present, he said, "we are tearing up nature by its roots".
Among a wide set of proposals, the party backed eradication of nuclear power stations, green mortgages, building a high speed rail network, charging lorries to use UK roads, and indexing fuel duty to GDP growth. Airport runway capacity would be kept at present levels.
But Chris Davies, the environment spokesman of the Liberal group of the European parliament and normally a radical pushing the leadership from the left, said: "My worry is that this plan is not realistic given the amount of time we have left to tackle global warming.
"We are setting very demanding targets for carbon reduction, relying on immature technologies, and at the same time we are removing nuclear. I fear it does not add up."
Nuclear currently provides 20% of UK electricity. The party document endorsed yesterday set out proposals designed to ensure Britain emits no carbon by 2050.
(Published by The Guardian, September 18, 2007)
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