Owen Paterson op oorlogspad tegen Britse klimaatwet

Een ontslagen minister mobiliseert oppositie tegen het beleid waarvoor hij tot voor kort politiek verantwoordelijk was. Inzet: £ 1.300 miljard!

Eerder schonk ik aandacht aan Owen Paterson, de Britse minister van milieu, voedsel en plattelandsontwikkeling, die vond dat het Britse duurzaamheidsbeleid ook een tandje minder mocht. Ter bescherming van het groene imago van de conservatieven, dacht zijn baas, David Cameron, daar anders over en onthief hem van zijn functie.

Paterson ging niet zielig in een hoekje zitten pruilen, maar ging actief de boer op om de oppositie te mobiliseren tegen het beleid waarvoor hij zelf als minister verantwoordelijk was. Aanstaande woensdag zal hij daarover een voordracht houden voor de 'Global Warming Policy Foundation' (GWPF) van Lord Nigel Lawson. Zijn speech is uitgelekt, zodat we er nu al van kunnen genieten.

Onder de titel, 'Scrap the Climate Change Act to keep the lights on, says Owen Paterson', schreef Christopher Hope in de Britse 'Telegraph':

The Climate Change Act 2008, which ties Britain into stringent environmental measures, should be suspended - and then scrapped - if other countries refuse to agree legally binding targets, says Owen Paterson MP

Britain will struggle to “keep the lights on” unless the Government changes its green energy policies, the former environment secretary will warn this week.

Owen Paterson will say that the Government’s plan to slash carbon emissions and rely more heavily on wind farms and other renewable energy sources is fatally flawed.

He will argue that the 2008 Climate Change Act, which ties Britain into stringent targets to reduce the use of fossil fuels, should be suspended until other countries agree to take similar measures. If they refuse, the legislation should be scrapped altogether, he will say.

The speech will be Mr Paterson’s first significant intervention in the green energy debate since he was sacked as environment secretary during this summer’s Cabinet reshuffle.

In his address, he will set out an alternative strategy that would see British homes serviced by dozens of small nuclear power stations.

He will also suggest that home owners should get used to temporary power cuts — cutting the electricity to appliances such as fridges for two hours at a time, for example — to conserve energy.

Mr Paterson will deliver the lecture at the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a think tank set up by Lord Lawson of Blaby, a climate-change sceptic and former chancellor in Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet.

In the speech, entitled “Keeping the lights on”, he will say that Britain is the only country to have agreed to the legally binding target of cutting carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.

He will argue this week that ministers should exercise a clause in the Act that allows them to suspend the law without another vote of MPs.

In his speech, on Wednesday night, Mr Paterson will state that, without changes in its current policy, large-scale power cuts will plunge homes across the country into darkness.

“Blind adhesion to the 2050 targets will not reduce emissions and will fail to keep the lights on,” he will say. “The current energy policy is a slave to flawed climate action.

“It will cost £1,300 billion, fail to meet the very emissions targets it is designed to meet, and will not provide the UK’s energy requirements.

“In the short and medium term, costs to consumers will rise dramatically, but there can only be one ultimate consequence of this policy: the lights will go out at some time in the future.

“Not because of a temporary shortfall, but because of structural failures, from which we will find it extremely difficult and expensive to recover.”

He will say that the current “decarbonisation route” will end with the worst of all possible worlds. ...

However, his intervention was dismissed last night by Edward Davey, the Liberal Democrat Energy and Climate Change Secretary.

Mr Davey said: “Ripping up the Climate Change Act would be one of the most stupid economic decisions imaginable.

“The overwhelming majority of scientists agree that climate change exists while most leading British businesses and City investment funds agree with the Coalition that taking out an ‘insurance policy’ now will protect the UK against astronomical future costs caused by a changing climate.

“The majority of European countries are ready to implement proposals that would see [them] adopt targets similar to our Climate Change Act in a deal the Prime Minister should seal later this month.

“With the USA, China and India also now taking the climate change threat seriously, the global marketplace for green technology is increasingly strong.”

Lees verder hier.

Maar zoals Tim Engelbart al meldde, gaat UKIP, die tegen het huidige duurzaamheidsbeleid is, volgens de peilingen een monsterzege behalen. UKIP staat nu op 128 virtuele zetels tegen de Lib Dems op zo'n 11.

Als deze ontwikkeling doorzet, zou er op wat langere termijn best wel eens een coalitie denkbaar zijn die het Verenigd Koninkrijk verlost van het juk van de klimaathysterie en de klimaatwet in de prullenmand deponeert.

Voor mijn eerdere DDS–bijdragen zie hier.