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Zero Carbon Britain – Taking a Global Lead

The long-term strategic goal of climate change strategy should be to limit the average global temperature increase to within 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. It is clear that the Labour Government’s aim of a 60 per cent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 will not be enough.

A reduction in emissions of the magnitude that we are
advocating will only happen if developed countries such as the UK take the lead by cutting
their own emissions. The objective of climate change strategy must be to make the UK
carbon neutral over the longer term.

An international approach to tackling climate change is essential, with developed countries
taking the lead in transforming themselves into low carbon, high energy efficiency economies.

Liberal Democrats will therefore provide UK leadership for an international framework that will enable each country to manage the transition to a low carbon economy by:

• Reaching agreement on a much more ambitious set of targets in the negotiations for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and beyond.
  
  
• In the short term, developing a post-2012 framework that allows different countries to participate according to their national circumstances through a multi-stage approach.
  
  
• In the medium term, allocating emissions on a per capita basis, first to developed countries, but eventually to all countries.

• Strengthening the EU Emissions Trading System, by linking it to the EU target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, setting national emissions caps for rolling five year periods on an incrementally reducing basis, aiming for full auctioning of allowances and broadening the scheme to cover aviation, shipping, and road transport through fuel suppliers.
  
  
• Reforming Labour’s Climate Change Levy into a carbon tax that would apply to primary fuels as they enter the economy, once our energy efficiency measures have become effective in tackling fuel poverty, using revenues to cut other taxes.
  
  
• Making a green tax switch by more steeply graduating Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) for new vehicles, based on carbon emissions, reforming the per ticket Air Passenger Duty into a per flight Aircraft Tax, and indexing fuel duty to GDP growth except in periods of oil price spikes, using the revenue to cut income tax.

• Setting a target for 30 per cent of the UK’s electricity to come from clean, noncarbon emitting sources by 2020, rising to 100 per cent by 2050, providing new incentives for renewable energy sources and small-scale micro-generation through guaranteed prices (‘feed-in tariffs’).