The Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference today backed proposals to make Britain carbon neutral by 2050.

The plans include commitments to:

·        Hugely increase investment in the railways, paid for by introducing motorway tolls for lorries

·        Carbon neutral, non-nuclear power generation by 2050

·        The phasing out of petrol cars by 2040

·        Increased use of green taxes to help cut pollution, using the money to cut income tax

·        Introducing ‘green mortgages’ to enable people to make their homes more energy efficient

The Liberal Democrats' ten-point plan to tackle climate change follows:

1. Make Britain carbon neutral. The Liberal Democrats are the first major party to aim for a carbon neutral Britain where we absorb as much carbon as we emit by 2050. The Government is aiming for a 60 per cent cut, and the Tories for an 80 per cent cut.

2. Build a high speed rail line and back rail improvements. The Liberal Democrats are the only credible party on rail investment because we identify a way of paying for it – tolling lorries on motorways.

3. Set up a leapfrog fund to back clean energy in developing countries. There will be no solution to climate change if the developing world has to choose between prosperity and the planet. We must back cheap renewables to power their growth.

4. Boost flood defences and other changes to respond to climate change. New threats need to be met with new responses in a UK national adaptation plan.

5. Commit to 100 per cent carbon free, non-nuclear electricity by 2050.  Provide new incentives for renewables and micro-generation through appropriate guaranteed prices.

6. Introduce ‘green mortgages’ to fund the upgrading of our housing stock. On present progress, the Government would take 125 years to meet modern energy efficiency standards. The Tories have no plans.

7. Tax pollution not people. The Liberal Democrats want to reverse the decline in green taxation under Labour, and use the revenue to cut income tax. The Tories have not come up with specific plans.

8. Toughen up the EU emissions trading scheme by auctioning permits. The Conservatives cannot admit the EU is key to tackling climate change, while Labour is in the back pocket of the CBI.

9. Back a global treaty with fair carbon shares for all. The only just basis for carbon-sharing is where each person is entitled ultimately to emit the same total: contraction and convergence.

10. The Liberal Democrats are the first party to set out a comprehensive plan to curb carbon emissions.  Labour’s policies are full of contradictions whereas the Tories do not have firm plans. We will reform Whitehall to ensure all departments take climate change seriously.

The full text of the motion is below:

Zero-Carbon Britain – Taking a Global Lead (Climate Change Policy Paper)

Conference recognises that the scientific evidence for man-made climate change is now overwhelming and that if decisive action is not taken in the next decade, any prospect of a stable climate may be lost.

Conference calls for an urgent response to this serious threat.

Conference believes that:

i) 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.

ii) 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.

iii) The latest available evidence suggests that the objective of climate change strategy must be to make the UK carbon-neutral over the longer term.

Conference endorses Policy Paper 82, Zero-Carbon Britain – Taking a Global Lead, which sets out a framework for a clear, long-term strategy to set this country on the path to a carbon-neutral future.

Conference in particular welcomes specific proposals to:

1. Provide UK leadership for an international framework that will enable each country to manage the transition to a low-carbon economy by:

a) Reaching agreement on a much more ambitious set of targets in the negotiations for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and beyond.

b) 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.

c) In the medium-term, allocating emissions on a per capita basis, first to developed countries, but eventually to all countries.

2. Introduce credible and predictable mechanisms for pricing carbon by:

a) 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.

b) 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.

c) Making a green tax switch by more steeply graduating 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.

3. Bring forward environmentally sustainable technologies by:

a) Setting a target for 30 per cent of the UK’s electricity to come from clean, non-carbon 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’).

b) Providing new incentives for renewable heat technologies.

c) Promoting transitional technologies such as carbon capture and storage.

d) Rejecting a new generation of nuclear power stations.

e) Working to introduce mandatory UK/EU average vehicle emissions targets of 120g CO2 /km by 2015, 95g/km by 2020, and zero carbon for all new cars by 2040.

f ) Increasing the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation to require at least 10 per cent of all fuel sold on UK forecourts to come from renewable sources by 2015.

4. Encourage behavioural changes by:

a) Requiring all new homes to be built to the GreenHouse standard no later than 2011 (this is the best known standard for building homes that require no fossil fuels for their space heating).

b) Introducing ‘WarmHomes’ packages of improvements available for existing houses funded through ‘green mortgages’, which enable people to use the savings from their lower energy use to pay back the cost of the package through their quarterly energy bill.

c) Setting up a Future Transport Fund to invest in key rail and light rail improvements and extensions, including High-Speed Rail, by using the proceeds from charging road freight for using the motorways and the proceeds from a climate change charge on air flights within the UK, exempting ‘lifeline’ flights.

5. Enhance the UK’s ability to adapt to the effects of climate change by:

a) Developing a UK national adaptation plan to educate individuals and businesses about what adaptations are necessary in response to climate change.

b) Ensuring that government departments are given a clear responsibility for planning for the effects of climate change.

c) Investing in flood management systems.

6. Help developing countries mitigate and adapt to climate change by:

a) Working for the establishment of an International Leapfrog Fund to facilitate the development of low-carbon technologies, energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies in developing countries.

b) Advocating a new UN Adaptation Fund.

7. Ensure that UK climate change strategy is credible and capable of being implemented by:

a) Placing a legal duty on ministers to achieve the long-term goal of a carbon-neutral UK and producing annual carbon budgets.

b) Setting up a Cabinet Committee on climate change.

c) Creating a new Department of Environment, Energy and Transport.

Two votes on deleting parts of the motion 3)d) and 3)f) were both rejected.