Greenpeace has asked Tony Blair today (27/08/02) to not bother making a speech at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) unless his address shows world leadership and commits the UK to real action. The summit starts this week in Johannesburg, South Africa. Greenpeace has identified two obvious examples where earlier Blair rhetoric has been discredited by official sloth and offered a checklist of four concrete achievements that the Prime Minister could instead deliver within the next two weeks.
The two key areas (among many others) which will be central to discussions at WSSD but where Blair's words have not been matched by action are:
1. Forests
Rhetoric:
Five years ago at Rio+5 in New York Mr Blair said, "if we are serious about sustainable development, we must show we are serious about sustainable forestry management". In 2001 Blair promised to source all Government timber from 'legal and sustainable sources' [2001, 'Environment: the next steps'].
Reality:
- In fact his Government continued to buy criminal tropical timber as demonstrated by the Greenpeace raid on the Cabinet Office in April this year. The Environmental Audit Committee report into the Cabinet Office concluded "While Government rhetoric has been laudable, we see no systematic or even anecdotal evidence of any significant change in the pattern of timber procurement"
- The Government refused to seize illegal mahogany from Brazil when it was imported this year, even though other EU states has seized similar timber and the environmental authorities in Brazil had banned its export last year.
2. Climate Change
Rhetoric:
Five years ago at Rio+5 Blair said, "Perhaps the most worrying problem is climate change" and announced that Britain would go for a 20% target in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. He said, "this target will require significant measures[including] greater use of renewable sources of energy".
Reality:
- The proportion of UK electricity generated from renewable sources has fallen in the past year from a total of 2.8% to 2.6% [Environmental Audit Committee 2002].
- The Government has continued to give export credit guarantees to British companies building coal-fired power stations in developing countries, even though they have huge impacts on global warming and would not be built in the UK. The DTI estimates that UK-supported fossil fuel power plants overseas cumulatively emit 13.3 million tonnes of carbon annually. This is a third of UK domestic annual emissions and will wipe out half of the gains we will make at home under the Kyoto Protocol.
- The Government is committed to eliminating HFC refrigerants because of their enormous potential for causing global warming. The Government says that HFCs 'should be avoided' because they are 'many times more powerful than carbon dioxide' in causing climate change. Despite this the Home Office has specified HFC refrigerants for the air conditioning system for their new London offices.
Stephen Tindale, Executive Director of Greenpeace in the UK, said:
"We've had five years of fine phrases and fancy rhetoric with precious little to show for it. We don't want any more empty speeches - we want action. Unless Blair can show world leadership by committing the UK to real action he simply shouldn't bother. We have identified four key goals that Blair can achieve for the UK irrespective of how other countries behave at WSSD and we'll judge him on the practical results."
Stephen Tindale continued:
"The rest of the world is only going to be convinced by Mr Blair's words when they know that they will be translated into action back in the UK. The Prime Minister will win far more international respect by devoting himself to action rather than rhetoric."
The key four goals that Blair could achieve at WSSD regardless of agreement by other countries are:
1. Act on climate change, by:
- leading efforts to set a firm target to bring renewable energy to the two billion who lack access to clean energy, whether or not the US delegation is prepared to support this
- committing the UK to provide at least £00 million of new money as our contribution to providing renewable energy to the two billion people who lack access to clean energy
- committing the UK to a target of getting at least 30% of electricity from renewable sources by 2020
2. Act on protection of biodiversity by:
- committing the UK to place environmental concerns above trade concerns by banning the import of endangered species, including timber, unless it can be shown to have come from sustainable sources
- committing the UK to provide £0m of new money a year to help halt the loss of biodiversity resulting from ancient forest destruction by the end of this decade
3. Act on environmentally destructive subsidies, by:
- announcing a change to the operating rules of the Export Credit Guarantee Department so that in future it will not be permitted to subsidise coal-fired power stations overseas
- announcing an end to all government support for the coal, oil and gas industries in the UK, and a shift in these subsidies into support for energy efficiency and renewable energy
4. Remember that environmental protection begins at home (or, more specifically, at the Home Office). Ensure that all official procurement is in line with the stated environmental objectives of the Government. For example, all timber should be certified as coming from sustainable sources, air conditioning systems should only be fitted when no architectural solution is available and should never contain HFCs.
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