Leggett demands action from government mired in ‘half-policies’

Environmental policy is a hodge-podge of half-policies and will end up in a blind alley if the government does not rethink its response to climate change, a leading environmental campaigner will say today. In a debate at the Guardian Hay festival, Jeremy Leggett, a former Greenpeace campaigner and now chief executive of the environmental group Solar Century, will argue that last week’s energy white paper does not go far enough to tackle climate change because the government has failed to stand up to conservative institutions in Britain.
Speaking before today’s debate, called Greening Britain, Dr Leggett said he would expose the gap between what the government says and the policies it is actually pursuing. The difference was exemplified last week, he said, in the government’s new energy white paper, which highlighted the need for nuclear power to balance the country’s future energy needs and targets to cut carbon emissions.

It was a huge step backwards from the government’s 2003 vision for energy, which had followed intensive consultation with industry, he said. “It’s almost bewildering for someone who saw that process leading up to the 2003 energy white paper. They have managed to disconnect any meaningful policy platform from the rhetorical objectives.”

He said: “I’m going to present to [Mr Miliband] the story of what happened with the real energy white paper in 2003, through the strategic energy review in 2002, unprecedented consultation across the whole breadth of British industry, leading to a pretty good product.”

Guardian