Renew On Line (UK) 29a

Extracts from the Jan-Feb 2001 edition of Renew
These extracts only represent about 25% of it

2. Labours Green Revolution

Prefiguring Tony Blairs epic ‘Richer and Greener’ speech, DTI Minister Stephen Byers launched some new elements of what he called the UK’s ‘green revolution’ in a keynote speech to the Greenpeace annual business conference. He announced a series of new measures to help businesses to take advantage of the ‘green revolution’. These included the DTI’s new Sustainable Development Strategy, the refinement of the details of Renewables Obligation (see earlier) and the expansion of the DTI's Small Business Service and network of Business Links, which will provide extra to help companies with new green technologies.

Overall, he felt the new measures ‘underline the Government's determination to ensure that the UK is at the cutting edge of the "green" industrial revolution,’ and claimed, in relation to the Renewables Obligation that ‘all in all, these proposals offer the renewable industry a market worth up to £1 billion a year by 2010.’

Win - win? Well, the details of the proposals for the Renewable Obligation are pretty complex, but one thing is clear - any income from the ‘buy out’ escape clause option in the RO, will be recycled, as a bonus, to energy suppliers who have complied with the RO. So someone wins!

In his speech Tony Blair covered much the same ground, arguing that there were win-win opportunities for business and indeed everyone. And he called for ‘a new coalition for the environment, a coalition that works with the grain of consumers, business and science, not against them. A coalition that harnesses consumer demand for a better environment, and encourages businesses to see the profit of the new green technologies. and a coalition that stretches across national frontiers.’

And to back this up he said there would be £150m from the New Opportunities Fund for environmental projects, including £50m for renewables (see left) and £50m for kerbside waste recyling, plus a Carbon Trust (see Renew 128) to channel up to £50m p.a. to develop low-carbon technology, partly funded from the Climate Change Levy. In addition there is to be an office to export Britain's low-carbon technologies, the Kyoto Mechanisms Office. All in all, quite an impressive package.

What with the DETR also coming out with its pre-COP-6 Climate Change policy (see later), the UK now has some pretty green policies in place. But the proof of the pudding will be in the eating - will it be enough to meet the ambitious UK emission reduction targets?