Committee on Climate Change
Independent advisors to the UK Government on tackling and preparing for climate change
Profile on Chris Huhne, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change |
 Chris Huhne has been the Member of Parliament for the Eastleigh constituency in Hampshire since 2005, having been the member of the European Parliament for the same area for six years (1999-2005). On entering parliament, Chris Huhne served as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury until 2006 when he became Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and then most recently, Shadow Home Secretary.Before entering politics, Chris was a financial and economic journalist for nineteen years at the Guardian, Independent and the Economist. He also founded one of the City’s largest teams of economists advising pension funds on overseas investments. 1. What will you do in your new role to ensure the UK is on track to meet carbon budgets? We want to be the greenest government ever. This is not a hollow claim, but one we are backing with sound policy and actions. To help make this pledge a reality we have set out in our Coalition Programme wide-ranging plans on energy and climate change. With the first 100 days of the coalition now under our belts, DECC has made good progress but there’s much more to do. We need a new and transformational approach to energy efficiency. Our ‘Green Deal’ will help households and businesses to finance the more expensive energy saving measures, such as solid wall insulation, with no upfront costs to the householder. We’ll introduce legislation before Christmas to deliver the ‘Green Deal’ as part of our Energy Security and Green Economy Bill. In the meantime, we have reformed and extended the existing requirement on energy companies to insulate people’s homes - the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target – which will see an additional 3.5 million homes lagged by 2012, with a newer, greater focus on action for the poorest in society. But we need to ensure that tackling climate change is at the heart of every government policy. So we will publish a cross-Government carbon plan to ensure real action on climate change is achieved by Government. The new carbon plan will set out, department by department, the policies and deadlines to ensure that the Government’s strict climate change targets are met. 2. The Prime Minister’s announcement to cut carbon emissions from central government by 10% in the next 12 months is the most ambitious commitment on UK Government emissions ever made. How will you achieve it? It’s important that the government leads by example. So far all departmental HQs have installed real time displays so people can see if they are living up to their promises. Savings are being achieved through common sense measures as simple as not heating and cooling buildings at the same time, or turning off IT equipment when not in use. But we need to go further and my department is supplementing this with a behaviour change plan to help individual civil servants become more involved. 3. What do you hope to achieve at the next climate change summit being held later this year in Mexico? There’s hard work ahead to maintain and build on the level of commitment embodied in the Copenhagen Accord and to rebuild the credibility of the UNFCCC process. We in the EU still need to finalise our positions in advance of COP16, but I think there’s a real chance the negotiations could take important steps forward in Cancun, in particular to implement parts of what was agreed in Copenhagen and to work towards the global deal the world needs. We are also working with our French and German counterparts to encourage the EU to be more ambitious globally and at home, moving to 30% cuts by 2020. 4. How will public spending cuts impact on the implementation of your governments policies on climate change? The whole of Whitehall is making savings and it’s only right that DECC plays its part in tackling the deficit. However DECC will still be investing more than £150 million in low carbon technology this year and more importantly leveraging the scale of private sector investment needed – that’s why we’re acting to bring greater certainty to the carbon price and to establish a Green Investment Bank. But many of the policies we are introducing will help people save money as well as reduce their emissions, such as the Green Deal. The beauty of this policy is that it will not be on government books, because it is delivered through private finance. We’ve been talking to well known high street names who are interested in getting involved in offering energy efficiency packages. Upfront cash will pay for quality-assured home energy improvements, repaid alongside cheaper energy bills. 5. What have you done at home to reduce your carbon footprint? I bike in and out of work when I can and I’m walking to the Commons quite a lot now we’ve got rid of the Ministerial cars. I let the train take the strain on longer journeys to and from my constituency. I’m also working on putting in LED lights to cut my electricity use. |
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