Climate check – It’s report time for the Coalition

Climate check – It’s report time for the Coalition

The RSPB has been working on a Green Alliance-led project with fellow NGOs WWF, Christian Aid and Greenpeace to carry out a rigorous assessment of the Coalition Government’s performance on climate change, 16 months on from when it all started, back in the rose garden.

The Coalition Agreement contains some pretty impressive commitments on climate change. They said they would create a green investment bank to channel investment into things like renewable energy, and establish an emissions performance standard to prevent the growth of dirty coal. They promised to be leaders in delivering a global deal to replace the soon to expire Kyoto Protocol.

But have they lived up to their promises?

We found that the government has made either moderate or no progress on 22 of its 29 low-carbon commitments. We’ve had some really positive decisions – most importantly the Coalition stood by and legislated for the future carbon budgets recommended to them by the independent Climate Committee, in spite of opposition from the Treasury and BIS (the Department for Business). They were also quick to move on cancelling a third runway at Heathrow.

These are important successes for the Government, but they have been undermined to a certain extent by a lack of commitment from the top echelon in the Coalition, and by a growing feeling that Government’s real commitment is to growth – at any cost. Witness the current planning reform debacle for further evidence of this.

So, for now, the Coalition have scraped by with a pass, but climate will need to move up the priority list significantly if they’re going to improve on this - let alone pass - next time round.

Here’s some more details about the report:

Climate Check is published by think tank Green Alliance in conjunction with WWF, Christian Aid, Greenpeace and RSPB. It is the product of five months’ research and extensive discussions with over 40 officials and ministers across Whitehall.

The 48-page report examines progress across 11 departments and concludes:

• So far, the government has made some good, high-profile decisions on important policies such as the 4th Carbon Budget, but its overall record is weakened by delayed or poorly-designed policies on many other coalition commitments.
• Seven commitments have been delivered successfully or achieving good progress – for instance, there has been a nearly 14 per cent reduction in emissions across central government.
• On a further 6 policies, the Coalition is failing – for instance, the Treasury has made no progress towards creating green financial products.
• On the remaining 16 policies there is only moderate progress, due to delay (10), poor policy design (9), or both. The Green Deal, for example, is at risk of failing because of a lack of urgency and support across government departments.
• There are clear indications that the Treasury and to a lesser extent BIS have curbed, or attempted to curb, the government’s ambition on the low carbon agenda.
• However, contrary to what observers might expect, there is little evidence of division along party lines. Both Conservative and Liberal Democrat champions of low carbon policies have been held back by others within their own party.