ENVIRONMENT : UK’s Stern review and Gordon "Green", what it means for Europe ?

Britain’s political landscape at last appears to be turning green. MPs across the spectrum are shaking off traditional coloured robes in favour of more organic shades. Conservative leader David Cameron has taken to London’s perilous cycle paths and formed alliances with Greenpeace to show that right wing politics is no longer blue. The yellow Liberals have proposed a greener looking climate change levy and higher taxes for gas-guzzling cars. And

Britain’s political landscape at last appears to be turning green. MPs across the spectrum are shaking off traditional coloured robes in favour of more organic shades. Conservative leader David Cameron has taken to London’s perilous cycle paths and formed alliances with Greenpeace to show that right wing politics is no longer blue. The yellow Liberals have proposed a greener looking climate change levy and higher taxes for gas-guzzling cars. And by commissioning October’s Stern Review on the economics of climate change, UK chancellor Gordon Brown has attempted to assure voters that he is infact Gordon Green.

The Stern report warns of catachlysmic floods, widespread diaspora and a rise in global temparatures that could push nearly half of the world’s species to the brink of extinction. And the global economy will be pushed into the worst recession in recent history, it adds.

The European commission welcomed the foreboding British report, saying it proved that climate change can no longer be left on the “too difficult to deal with” pile. But if the latest figures released by the EU executive are anything to go by, you would be forgiven for thinking that environmental ambitions do not even appear on Brussels’ “to-do” list.

October statistics showed that the EU is falling short of its targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Based on current policies, emissions from the EU original 15 members will be just 0.6 per cent below 1990 levels by 2010. This falls far short of the 8 per cent cut by 2012 that is foreseen by the Kyoto protocol. The new figures add that emissions in 2010 will actually be 0.3 per cent higher than they were in 2004.

NGOs have lamented the EU’s performance and attacked member states for allowing international targets to fall by the way side. The Emissions Trading Scheme is a case in point. Environmentalists say the EU wide scheme that allows heavy industries to buy and sell permits to emit carbon dioxide has not succeeded in its most basic aim - reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

"Market mechanisms like the Emissions Trading Scheme must be tightened,” Friends of the Earth said in a recent statement. “Allocations for carbon dioxide emissions must be drastically reduced so that businesses have genuine incentives to cut emissions and invest in green CO2-reducing technology.”

Desperate to keep himself at the front of the international environmentalist pack, the UK chancellor (and wannabe prime minister) has echoed the campaigners’ calls. In a letter to EU leaders at the end of October, newly-green-Brown expressed his support for extending the Kyoto protocol and pushing for deeper cuts in carbon dioxide emissions. He has called for EU wide cuts of 30 per cent by 2020 and 60 per cent by 2050. Other UK plans that Brown hopes to bring to the international stage include running more vehicles on biofuels and introducing taxes on airline fuel and high-polluting cars.

Campaigners believe the Stern review may have provided the sea change in environmental policy that the international community was in need of. By uniting green ambitions with economic rational they hope the report will even be enough entice the US to climb on the green band wagon. But NGOs will be watching November’s UN conference on climate change with interest - to see if European countries are really prepared to put their money where their mouth is.

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