Sandy 4 St Albans

The proposed "Britain Day" is another piece of Labour nonsense.  I can think of nothing more depressing and less British than a compulsory celebration of voluntary service, which seems to be what they are proposing.

Today is World Environment Day – another artificial concept but at
least not a fake celebration.  After all there is little to celebrate.
Although we have heard a lot from both David Cameron and Gordon Brown
about the importance of climate change, hard solutions have been
conspicuous only by their absence.

 All the parties are agreed about the
need for a climate change bill to set a long-term framework for efforts
to "decarbonise" the economy, but targets are only part of the answer.

If targets solved problems on their own, we would be the best governed country in the world.

Only the Liberal Democrats have brought forward any significant plans
to change our behaviour – see below. Some of these ideas are beginning
to be copied by the other main parties.  Imitation is the sincerest
form of flattery but I am totally confident Liberal Democrats will
continue to set the pace on policy simply because the other parties do
not understand the urgency
of the challenge or have the team commitment so clearly shown by our
leadership.  

Voters
know which party has been concerned with green issues for longest, and
they know a fake when they see one. I firmly believe that, as climate
change rightly continues to soar up the political agenda, people will go for the
original and not the copy.

Three Key Detailed Green Policy Programmes from the Liberal Democrats 

1) Green Tax Switch:  If we do not tackle the problems caused by
cars and planes there can be no serious plan to reduce emissions. With
a steeply graduated vehicle excise duty, newly purchased low carbon
cars would pay nothing while gas-guzzlers would pay £2,000 a year. Our
reforms of aviation duty would levy a tax on the emissions – whether a
passenger or freight flight – regardless of the number of passengers.
That would encourage fuller flights and a shift to fuel efficient
aircraft. See the details here 

2) Greener Homes:  Our average energy bill is £385 a year more
than the average bill in Sweden, even though January temperatures there
are 7 degrees Celsius lower than ours. We want low carbon building
standards for all new homes by 2011, and a comprehensive upgrading plan
for our existing housing stock. That would fund serious cuts in carbon
emissions with energy mortgages and change the incentives on energy
companies to make more money by selling less, not more, energy. You can
read the details here 

3) Greener Electricity: We have also set out firm proposals for
generating our electricity without resort to nuclear power which, with
all its costs and risks, would tend to compete with, rather than
complement, renewable energy. Renewables need to be matched with a
variable power source, like gas-fired or coal-fired stations, rather
than inflexible nuclear which is either on or off. That is why our
mini-paper stresses the importance of carbon capture and storage as the
only intermediate solution before a fully renewable world. You can read
the details
here