Committee on Climate Change

Joan Ruddock on the Government’s Carbon Budgets

Joan Ruddock is Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change and Labour MP for Lewisham Deptford. She has worked at the forefront of both the feminist and environmental movements in the UK.  She won her seat in Parliament after many years as an anti-poverty and equalities campaigner. She gained national prominence as chairperson of CND in the early eighties.

Q1/ Do you think the Government will succeed in meeting 2020 target and carbon budgets?
I am grateful to the Committee on Climate Change for their important work, which has been vital to bringing carbon budgets about. Yes we will meet our carbon budgets, even with a 2020 target of 34%. These are stretching targets, and rightly so, but it’s not just about what the Government is doing - all sectors of the UK need to play their part and we need to see changes in how we live, how we work and what we buy.

Q2/ What will Government do to ensure continued flow of capital to renewable energy companies that are suffering as a result of the recession?
In the recent budget we proposed providing further incentives to offshore wind in the form of two Renewable Obligation Certificates. This builds on the recent uplift to 1.5 Certificates. The additional support would be worth up to £3.5 billion over the lifetime of the projects. Over the next two years there will be an extra £70 million for decentralised small-scale and community low-carbon energy, including £45 million for small-scale renewable electricity and heat, primarily through the Low Carbon Buildings Programme, and £25 million for at least 10 community heating schemes. This will create jobs and growth now, and develop the low carbon supply chain and industry for the upturn and meet our 2020 renewables targets and energy goals.

Q3/ What things do you think will become ‘socially taboo’ in future as we work to tackle climate change?
People Power is an important element in fighting climate change.  We know that climate change is real and happening now and, given the weight of scientific evidence, it would be folly to pretend otherwise. I believe it is reckless to obstruct the changes we need to make in our country to fight climate change. Developing green technology such as wind farms for example is not just about cutting carbon, it’s about creating jobs in Britain, providing energy security, and having more control over our energy prices. But I hope that if anything becomes taboo, it will be turning a blind eye to waste, whether that’s unnecessary car travel, leaving your television on standby or not recycling. I would like to see more people take positive steps in this direction. For example, if every home used one energy efficient light bulb, after a year enough energy would have been saved to light 100,000 homes.

Q4/ What will you be doing to ensure other government departments reduce their emissions?
The UK’s carbon budgets will be met through collective action across Government. All departments will be involved in delivering the carbon budgets, through formulating policies to reduce emissions and through reducing emissions from the buildings in the public sector. Key departments and the Devolved Administrations will work with DECC to set out  proposals and policies for meeting the carbon budgets. They will be published in an Energy and Climate Change Strategy this summer. But we should recognise that other departments are already doing a lot. For example we are working in partnership with the Department for Business on a low carbon industrial strategy based on a clear vision for developing advanced green technology for the benefit of the environment and the economy. We have been working closely with the Department for Communities and Local Government on improving energy efficiency in people’s homes to reduce domestic carbon emissions and help poorer households with their bills.  We are also working with the Department for Transport on low carbon cars. So there is work already going on across Government.

Q5/ What part should climate change protesters play in helping to tackle climate change?
I have enormous respect for those people who feel strongly about climate change and are, quite justifiably, roused to take action through peaceful and law-abiding means. Climate Change protestors have a vital role to play. It is their tireless work which has helped keep the issue in the political spotlight. They are the ones who inform their family, friends and neighbours about the threat of climate change and set an example for a low carbon lifestyle.

Q6/ How hopeful are you that a global deal will be reached at Copenhagen?
As we head to Copenhagen there is a palpable sense of optimism, buoyed by recent support at the G20, leadership from the European Union and positive steps from the Obama administration. But there is still a lot of work to be done and some serious issues to be resolved, to make sure that a deal in Copenhagen delivers the necessary reductions in carbon, and is also fair and equitable. The UK will be at the forefront of these talks and we have already showed global leadership by signing up to an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050.

Q7/ What do you think life will be like in 2020 if we can meet the budgets?
Well as a wise person once said, I don’t make predictions and I never will. But if we do what’s necessary then I expect to see changes in every part of our lives. The Heat and Energy Saving Strategy will see a transformation in our housing stock with all lofts and cavity walls insulated by 2015,  reducing our energy bills and making our homes warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. Harder to treat homes will be using new technologies such as air-source heat pumps.  Increasingly homes will be generating their own energy and benefitting from feed-in tariffs.  We will see much more large-scale renewable energy on stream plus the first of the next  generation nuclear facilities and revolutionary new carbon capture and storage plants come online. And hopefully more and more people not generating emissions when using  their cars because they’ve opted for a new electric vehicle. Thanks to the carbon budgets and the work of the CCC we will know sooner rather than later whether we are making the necessary changes quickly enough and put in place the polices to keep us on track for a greener, cleaner future.