Leading From the Front?

As many of you may already be aware, the recent UK election resulted in a coalition government, with seats in parliament being shared by both Conservative and Liberal Democrat members. Both parties have, in the past, had very different views on big issues such as climate change and nuclear power, so I was interested to find out what kind of lies manifesto this new government would produce on the subjects of the environment and energy. Click on the titles for links to Her Majesty's Government.


Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

As you would imagine, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs program contains a lot of pledges concerning key issues that have faced the British public in the past, namely Foot and Mouth Disease, the fox-hunting debate, badger culling, flood defences, and the Dangerous Dog Act. 


One point that particularly interested me was the promise to, "work towards a ‘zero waste’ economy, encourage councils to pay people to recycle, and work to reduce littering."


As one commentator points out below the publication, 


"Recycling is a total waste of money. It costs councils more to send 3 seperate vans/trucks around once a week than to send one a week. Where [does our waste] go? We collect our plastics to be recycled and they’re sold to China who burn them in their power stations, polluting the atmosphere, damaging the ozone layer and causing climate change."


This seems like a ridiculous allegation, but The Independent newspaper did indeed write a story a few years ago that more or less backs it up. (link)


I don't agree that recycling is a waste of money, but I do agree that it's pointless to spend extra money on separating our waste if it all ends up in the same pile anyway. While some of the waste shipped to China remains separated, a lot of it is just burnt in huge incinerators run by private enterprises and illegal waste-smuggling is becoming a huge problem. Whether processed within the law or outside it, our exported waste is wreaking havoc on the local environment of many Chinese waterways, and this passing-the-buck system of waste disposal is absolutely despicable.


I think the government would be better in focusing their efforts towards the cause of the problem and not the solution. Supermarkets need to re-evaluate their packaging policies and the government needs to penalise them heavily if they don't. We've already seen the plastic bag take a huge popularity dip. It's about time that individually plastic wrapped fruit and vegetables and other over packaged products went the same way.




Energy and Climate Change

On the energy front, the new government has indeed promised some progressive implementations. Not enough specific targets for usage of renewable energies for my liking, but they're talking my kind of talk. 


In my opinion, one of the more important promises is the, "reform [of] energy markets to deliver security of supply and investment in low carbon energy, and ensure fair competition..." In normal language? Basically, they hope to encourage investment in energy systems that don't rely on oil, coal, or natural gas. However, this will only happen on the scale that we need it to when investors and innovators can be guaranteed that renewable energies are a safe bet for the future. This can only happen if the government imposes a floor price on fossil fuels that will ensure that the price of, say a barrel of oil, will never be less than $100. This will drive the market to produce more efficient renewable energy systems, knowing that eventually they will become cheaper than the 'dirty fuel' systems and everyone can save some money.


I'm also excited about the 'Green Deal' mentioned in the publication, but so far my search for more details on this has proved fruitless. More to come later...