Godfrey takes tilt at windmills

Wind turbines blighting our landscapes were slammed by UKIP Euro MP Godfrey Bloom at the party's national conference.

He told the delegates at the Southport Conference Centre at the weekend that it was "nonsense" to blame a rise in Co2 for global warming.

Mr Bloom, MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, told the packed audience that wind turbines "as big as Big Ben" were causing distress to people all over the country.

"I find that very difficult to cope with because we know they don't work. I think it would be marvelous if we could harness the wind - but we can't.

"Germany has 19,000 wind turbines but not one conventional power station has consequently been de-commissioned," he said.

Mr Bloom challenged claims that the science on the issue has been settled and said that 800 international scientists and their institutions do not agree it is settled. He also pointed out that Inter-governmental Climate Change Panel is a political organisation and not an independent scientific body.

Instead of global warming in fact the world's temperatures are falling while Co2 keeps rising, he added.

Mr Bloom told the enthusiastic audience that he is currently working on the subject with fellow UKIP MEP Derek Clark, a former science teacher.

Far from the issue being settled "the debate is only just beginning," he said.

Cameron's Tories barely greener than Thatcher's, says MEP

In a piece in The Guardian's Comment is Free pages today, Jean Lambert MEP reveals the truth behind Conservative leader David Cameron's apparent greening of his party.

London's Green MEP reminds Guardian readers that "The eighteen-year stretch of Conservative government marked the golden age of Tory roadbuilding and airport expansion, of Thatcher's 'Great Car Economy,' of bus de-regulation and rail privatisation and other policies that have contributed heavily to increasing CO2 emissions. Given her neoliberal ideology, all this was probably inevitable. The market was the solution to all problems, including the problems it was clearly hopeless at dealing with, and this trend still exists in Conservative policy."

She acknowledged that David Cameron has improved on his predecessors' policies in some respects, but insists he still has the wrong climate change targets, and inadequate policies even for meeting the wrong targets.

"David Cameron talks about liberating Britain from oil-dependency and from the vulnerability of potential energy price fluctuations, but the bulk of his energy plans involve making us dependent on imported coal and uranium. This is still not the committed change in direction we need," she says.

How green are the Conservatives?

Cameron has improved Tory ideas, but has set the wrong targets and would make us dependent on imported coal and uranium.

However critical we may be of Labour in government, we must always remember the Conservatives were pretty poor – not least on the sustainability agenda. Ironically, a number of more positive policies, such as landfill tax and improvement in water quality, were driven by EU policies and a high Green vote in the 1989 European elections. The 18-year stretch of Conservative government marked the golden age of Tory roadbuilding and airport expansion, of Thatcher's "great car economy", of bus deregulation and rail privatisation and other policies that have contributed heavily to increasing CO2 emissions. Given her neoliberal ideology, all this was probably inevitable. The market was the solution to all problems, including the problems it was clearly hopeless at dealing with, and this trend still exists in the Conservative policy.

The Conservatives in government didn't just do almost all the wrong things. They also avoided doing the one big thing a government could do: namely take responsibility for co-ordinating society's collective effort. They took the challenge to create a sustainable society and dumped the responsibility onto individuals. We all had to "do our bit". It meant driving less despite the fact that public transport was deteriorating and costing much more in real terms. It meant being told to recycle, despite a woeful lack of facilities. If the demand was there, the market would respond.

The Conservatives now congratulate themselves on the "dash for gas", which did in fact significantly reduce emissions. But this was an incidental benefit of a vicious policy of destroying mining communities to break the back of the miners' unions. And a dash for renewables would have been better, in terms of both emissions reduction and alternative job-creation. Replacing coal with renewables would have meant a major net increase in jobs in the energy sector.

David Cameron has improved on his predecessors' policies. He has adopted the Green party policy of a "smart grid". He has workable policies for incentivising small-scale renewables. But the unequivocal positives end about there. He's courting voters by rejecting Heathrow's third runway, but he won't stop giving the aviation industry the multibillion pound tax breaks that drive its growth. In his recent green paper on decarbonising Britain he's borrowed Green language by talking about internalising the external costs of pollution, but there's nothing that indicates how he's going to do it. He talks about sustainable transport, but on closer inspection this means private electric cars rather than improving public transport. He still doesn't have the right CO2 reduction targets, and with these policies he wouldn't even meet the wrong targets.

There was nothing about zero waste in the green paper on decarbonising Britain, although it's an obvious area of cutting emissions as well as waste. There is the same old enthusiasm for nuclear power and a good deal of excitement about carbon capture. Ironically, David Cameron talks about liberating Britain from oil dependency and from the vulnerability of potential energy price fluctuations, but the bulk of his energy plans involve making us dependent on imported coal and uranium. This is still not the committed change in direction we need.

All London homes to be offered free insulation and energy advice

Consistent campaigning for energy efficiency has at last been followed by action in the nation's capital.

The London Development Agency has proposed to offer free energy saving measures to every London home and Green Party member of the London Assembly Darren Johnson said today he was pleased that his consistent questioning and raising of the issue has paid off.

The announcement follows a major investigation by the London Assembly's Environment Committee, which chaired by Darren Johnson, which flagged up the success of a free insulation scheme in Huddersfield which is already delivering lower bills, reduced CO2 emissions and new jobs.

The new London scheme represents a major u-turn by the LDA who were previously planning to abandon home insulation work altogether. The scheme will offer:

* "Ten easy measures" free to all London households (3m total). These measures include: hot water tank insulation, draught proofing, radiator panels, low energy lightbulbs, standby switches etc. The anticipated take up is 1.3m homes and this should generate CO2 savings of 1.4m tonnes per annum.
* Installation of more major measures in 800,000 homes (including loft and cavity wall insulation, heating controls upgrade etc) yielding a further 720,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum. It is unclear at this stage whether this will also be free. The average cash saving to householders taking part in the scheme is estimated at £230 per annum.
* The scheme will be delivered via a street by street, door knocking approach as in Huddersfield.
Initial analysis and comparison with schemes outside London suggests that 2,200 additional jobs will be created as a result of the scheme and a major training programme is likely to be needed to ensure the availability of skilled labour from year (1).

Darren Johnson AM said today:

"Ever since the home energy saving scheme introduced by Ken Livingstone was set for cancellation by the new administration, I have been pushing Mayor Boris Johnson to turn his vague promises to help Londoners insulate their homes into a comprehensive and substantial programme. The new LDA proposals do just that.

"I am pleased that my proposal for a free London-wide scheme to cut fuel bills and save energy has been taken up. It is disappointing that progress was so delayed by wranglings between the LDA and the Mayor over who will pay. However, we now have the foundations of an excellent scheme and I will be pushing to ensure that both cavity wall insulation and loft insulation are also offered free of charge in order to maximise the benefits."

Mr Johnson, who is also the Green Party's national spokesperson on trade and industry, concluded that he would like to see the whole of the UK pursue the best possible programme of domestic energy-saving measures.

Party leader Caroline Lucas MEP will say in her speech to the party conference tomorrow (Friday 20 March) that a nationwide programme along these lines would generate almost 140,000 UK jobs.