The Gold Standard: Greenpeace and the WWF back the Lib Dem Vision to Halt Climate Change

In a hard-hitting speech today, Menzies Campbell has spelt out the Liberal Democrat challenge on the environment. He outlined five key principles to form a cross party agreement of tackling climate change, and criticised "A failure of nerve from the government. And a surfeit of spin from the Conservatives."

The five principles are:

• Green taxes must be used to change behaviour. They have fallen as a proportion of national income from 3.6% in 1999 to 3% today. The proportion should be rising not falling.
• Green taxes - including excise duty on fuel - should not fall in real terms from year to year.
• There should be a substantial increase in the top rate of Vehicle Excise Duty.
• The climate change levy should be reformed into a universal carbon tax - including household emissions as well as business emissions.
• We should stop subsidising pollution from air travel - Air Passenger Duty should be restructured as a tax on aircraft emissions not passengers.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Greenpeace have both responded warmly to Sir Menzies speech, describing his comments as "spot on" and "the gold standard".

Keith Allott, head of Climate Change at the WWF, commented:

"Sir Menzies' speech shows that he has grasped the need for urgent action to tackle climate change. The range of measures, particularly proposals on green taxation for transport, including aviation, and energy use are welcome. We also support his call to make the new Sustainable Building Code mandatory for renovations and refurbishment as well as new build.

"Sir Menzies has highlighted the steps the government must take to get back on track to meet its target of reducing the UK's CO2 emissions by 20% by 2010. The Lib Dems are spot on - they realise that the best way of getting there is by taking much tougher action on the power sector using the European Emissions Trading Scheme. Sir Menzies is also right that the range of emissions cuts from heavy industry through the scheme, currently being considered by the government, are 'not ambitious enough' and that 'we can and should, do better."

Stephen Tindale, Executive Director of Greenpeace, commented:

"Ming Campbell has set the gold standard for green speeches. He was not only rich on vision but rich on policy details too. He's right that the failure to commit to very basic common sense measures in the face of climate change is the key problem in the UK, so Greenpeace endorses Campbell's challenge to the other parties. There's too much talk from New Labour and not yet enough substance from the Conservatives.

"Campbell was quite right to highlight how vital it is to transform our power sector in particular. The Lib Dems must be credited for their honesty and objectivity in opposing new nuclear power. It is really excellent to hear the Lib Dem leader asking what has happened to the re-wiring Britain agenda. He is quite right that reforms to our electricity network are the kind of measure that will really close the gap between rhetoric and action."

In response, Liberal Democrat Shadow Environment Secretary, Chris Huhne MP said:

"It is great to gain endorsements from the WWF and Greenpeace. The Liberal Democrats are honest enough to accept that individual behaviour must change in order to halt climate change. We are the only party campaigning for an increase in environmental tax, while allowing other taxes to fall, to bring about this change."

Related Links

• Read more of Ming Campbell's keynote environment speech
• Read "Sir Menzies Campbell hits the spot on climate change" from the WWF