Howard's "green" rhetoric contradicted by facts, says Green MEP - 13th Sep 2004
Is the Tory leader a zealous convert - or "guilty of outrageous hypocrisy"?
Responding to Conservative Party leader Michael Howard's speech on climate change today, Green Party MEP Dr Caroline Lucas commented:
"Either Mr Howard has had a Road to Damascus conversion - which I very much hope he has - or he is guilty of the most outrageous hypocrisy.
"For example, his apparent commitments on hydrofluorcarbons (HFCs) are flatly contradicted by the way Conservative MEPs have voted in recent months in the European Parliament."
Dr Lucas, the Green Party's Principal Speaker, had this year personally proposed in the European Parliament that HFCs be banned where alternatives exist - but Tory MEPs helped defeat the Green proposal. She explained:
"As recently as March, Conservative MEPs voted against amendments that I tabled which would have banned HFCs in all applications where alternatives exist.
"They voted against any phase-out of stationary air-conditioning systems, and of commercial and domestic refrigerators using HFCs."
On mobile air-conditioning units, the Conservatives voted against Green proposals to begin a phase-out in 2007, against the European Commission's proposal to begin the phase-out in 2009, and in favour of their own proposal to delay phase-out until 2011. "This is hardly the action of a party which has 'consistently placed concern for the environment at the heart of its philosophy' as Howard claims," Dr Lucas said.
Tories "wrecking EU legislation"
Dr Lucas, a Member of the European Parliament's Environment Committee, continued: "Michael Howard urgently needs to clarify his position. Has the Conservative Party changed its policy since March, or is he prepared to say that he is committed to phasing out HFCs, even as his party is busy wrecking EU legislation designed to do just that? If the Conservatives are ever to be taken seriously on climate change, then he needs to clarify this contradiction without delay, and admit that his Party's previous policies were wrong (1)"
She added: "The Conservative Party is committed to more road-building, more airport expansion, and increased freight-mileage. Conservatives have routinely opposed rises in fuel tax, have rejected a European levy on aviation fuel which could be implemented immediately, and have failed to invest in public transport.
"While we would certainly agree with him that climate change desperately needs renewed leadership, it stretches credulity to breaking point to think that the Conservatives can provide it."
12-point "Climate Change Challenge" - Howard scores zero
Dr Spencer Fitz-Gibbon, the Green Party's spokesperson on climate change, today issued a 12-point climate change challenge to the bigger parties, ahead of Michael Howard's speech and a similar speech by Tony Blair scheduled for tomorrow.
Fitz-Gibbon commented after Mr Howard's speech: "HFCs are one aspect of Tory failure on this issue. Unfortunately Michael Howard has not gone remotely close to adopting even one of the twelve urgent commitments he ought to make if we're to take him seriously on climate change" (2).
Notes
1. The legislation - a Proposal for a regulation on certain fluorinated greenhouse gases (COM (2003) 492 - C5-0397/03 - 2003/0189COD) is currently being discussed by the governments representatives in Brussels and should go to the Council of Ministers in October for a political agreement. The European Parliament will consider it in its second reading next year.
2. Climate Change Challenge: 12 urgent commitments the government must make will be published on Monday 13 September 2004.
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