"The Lib Dems must ensure that come the next election, the Energy Bill is something they can be proud of, rather than an additional thing they must defend on the doorstep," said Greenpeace Political Director Doug Parr. "For the sake of households struggling with gas bills, and for the sake of the climate, they must not allow clean energy to be another concession to the Tory right."
The Bill will be debated and voted on tomorrow. Missing from it is a target to decarbonise the UK’s electricity sector by 2030 – a target investor groups, trade bodies, and hundreds of businesses say is necessary to give certainty to low carbon investors and which Government advisors say the UK needs to meet its climate targets. Today, over 50 companies, charities and trade associations including Cisco, PZ Cussons and Unison have reissued their call for MPs to back the target. Meanwhile businessman Lord Alan Sugar has spoken out saying that without the target the Bill is “aimless”.
Tory MP Tim Yeo has tabled an amendment that would see the target included in the Bill, but despite it being Lib Dem policy, the party’s MPs have been whipped to vote against the amendment by their leadership.George Osborne fought to keep the target out of the bill in order to push ahead with his dash for gas.
"Without the target, there is no certainty for the low carbon sector, a sector that provided over a third of the UK’s economic growth in 2011/2012," said Doug Parr. “Without the target, the Energy Bill leaves the door open for dirty coal and gas power stations to stay on line for decades, which will blow the UK’s carbon budgets."
Concluding Mr Parr said: "This is a key opportunity for the Lib Dems to push for a win for business and the economy and to differentiate themselves from their coalition partners. If they don’t, the UK could end up locked into a high-carbon, gas-dependent energy system that fatally undermines the Climate Change Act. Voters who care about the environment –which is nearly all potential Lib Dem voters – may never forgive them. The Lib Dems campaigned hard on the environment before the last election."
The Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George said last week: "To not support 2030 decarb would be a disservice to our Party’s core principles and one of the key reasons we came into Government". Labour have confirmed they will be voting in favour and Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls called on "all Liberal Democrats to vote with them".
