The Monday
Interview Elliot Morley, Minister for Climate Change: 'To deliver the
20pc target every g...
Nov 7, 2005 - Independent-London
Author(s): Michael Mccarthy
He's not a household name; he's not up there in the public mind with
the Mandelsons and Blunketts and Mowlams but in eight long years of
Labour government, Elliot Morley has been uniquely successful: he is the
only minister, apart from Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, still working in
the department he joined when Labour was elected to power in 1997.
First, he was in the old Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
(Maff), and now he is in the super-ministry that absorbed it in the wake
of the foot-and-mouth crisis in 2001, the Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
The quiet, burly Scouser has progressed steadily with an
unspectacular but very sure touch, until now, as No 2 to the Environment
Secretary, Margaret Beckett, he has reaped the reward for such
reliability: a very large political hot potato has been dumped in his
lap.
They don't come much hotter than Labour's climate target. No
government likes admitting that one of its key policies, the subject of
endless pledges, seems destined to hit the rocks, especially when the
policy is in an area that the Prime Minister has made his own; and with
Tony Blair's high-profile campaign to fight climate change, that's just
what is happening.
Eleven years ago, the Labour Party, then in opposition, promised it
would cut back the UK's own emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) " which is
causing global warming with potentially disastrous consequences " by a
hefty 20 per cent by the year 2010.
In three successive general election manifestos, 1997, 2001 and 2005,
and in many other ministerial speeches or platform pronouncements, that
promise has been solemnly reaffirmed. It has put a particular shine on
Labour's green credentials, because it was over and above what was
required.
For Britain has two targets for cutting its greenhouse gas emissions.
The first is the one mandated by the Kyoto protocol, the international
climate treaty: to cut emissions from a 'basket' of six different
greenhouse gases, including CO2, by 12.5 per cent by 2010. The good news
is that we are almost certain to meet that target, largely because of
the 'dash for gas' in the 1990s, when many coal-fired power stations
were replaced by gas-fired units,
The 20 per cent target is different: an entirely voluntary commitment
of Labour's own making. But it has assumed an enormous importance in the
past two years because it has become clear that, on present trends, it
is going to be missed by an embarrassingly large margin.
UK emissions of CO2 in 1990 were 161 mtC (million tons of carbon),
and 20 per cent below that figure is 129mtC " there's the target. In
2004, C02 emissions were down to about 155mtC " about 4 per cent below
1990 " and, on present Government projections, will be about 140mtC in
2010, about 13 per cent below the 1990 level " instead of the 20 per
cent the Government has been promising till it is blue in the face.
Get out of that one, Tony.
No matter that, as Mr Morley points out, to get your CO2 emissions
down to 13 per cent below 1990 levels five years from now is probably
doing better than any other industrial nation.
Politics is about appearance as much as reality and, at the very
moment when the evidence of climate change is piling up, at the moment
when Tony Blair is seeking to lead an international global- warming
crusade, people can point to his domestic climate policy, and say it's a
failure.
That's the hot potato Mr Morley, the 53-year-old MP for Scunthorpe,
has been given: to turn things around and put policy back on track to
meet the target after all. He has been charged with a root-and-branch
review of the Climate Change Programme, the long list of measures
intended to cut Britain's output of CO2, from energy efficiency
agreements with industry to insulation projects for homes. A reflection
of the job's importance is that he has the title of Minister for Climate
Change (and Environment) " the first such title, he thinks, anywhere in
the world.
Look him up on the Defra website and you will find he has 18 separate
defined responsibilities, from floods and coastal defence to radioactive
substances, but the review, he says, is taking up nearly all his time.
His first comment on the job is that it is possible. 'I think, if I'm
being honest with you, we're going to see a bumpy ride on this, because
the figures [for emissions over the next few years] are going to go up
and down. But I think we can get a downward trajectory that will get us
to the 20 per cent.
'It isn't going to be easy, and I wouldn't pretend otherwise. But I
think it can be done.'
Progress towards the target has gone off course for two main reasons,
he says. The first is the high price of oil, which has meant that coal "
which produces the most CO2 " has become a cheaper option for power
generators.
The second is the increased economic activity of Britain's recent,
unprecedentedly long period of economic growth has meant many more
movements in the transport sector, with transport CO2 emissions rising
very fast. So, for the past two years, the UK's total emissions have
risen rather than fallen.
Mr Morley doesn't have the option of a magic answer, a technical fix
such as a massive increase in nuclear power, which Tony Blair is eyeing
as a long-term weapon in the climate fight.
Nuclear, which does not produce CO2, is no help towards the 2010
target because even if a dozen new atomic power stations were started
tomorrow, they would not be on stream in time. And, anyway, as is clear
from Mr Morley's careful comments on the atomic option, he is not a
nuclear fan. Speaking personally, he says, he feels 'the great Achilles'
heel of nuclear power is its cost'. The sums involved, especially when
decommissioning of stations is factored in, are enormous, and the
billions of pounds involved could perhaps be better spent on other forms
of energy, such as renewables.
Rather, Mr Morley has to take existing policies and tighten them as
much as he can. There will be some bold proposals in the review, he
says, such as the biofuel obligation, and about which he is enthusiastic
" 'It would save us a million tons of CO2 every year. Just that' " and
the use of new technologies such as carbon capture and storage, by which
the CO2 emitted by power stations is trapped and sequestrated deep
underground.
But much of it will be making current policies work better, and
sometimes, that will be expensive, for a relatively small increased
return.
The key difficulty is that everything has to be agreed across
Whitehall. He wants to increase the tax on gas-guzzling cars? That's the
Treasury. He wants to tackle rapidly rising emissions from aircraft,
because of the cheap flights bonanza? That's the Department of
Transport.
He wants new technology for power stations? That's the Department of
Trade and Industry. 'I do need to emphasise that while we are taking the
lead on this in Defra, we can't deliver this on our own, and to deliver
this 20 per cent target every government department has got to make its
contribution.'
The Whitehall ride has already been bumpy. The Independent has
learnt, from sources outside Defra, that recently a determined attempt
was made within government " in which the Prime Minister's industry
policy adviser, Geoffrey Norris, was a key figure " to have the target
scrapped, on the ground that it was proving too much of a burden for
industry.
When I put that to Mr Morley directly he was caught off guard for a
second, I asked him: 'Has anybody ever suggested, in Government, that
the 20 per cent target should be abandoned?'
He said: 'Er ...' Then he laughed. Then he said: 'What can I say to
this, really?' Then, fluent as always, he responded: 'I think it's fair
to say, that in terms of all government policies ... there is always
discussion within government about whether they're realistic, about
whether the costs exceed the benefits, and whether there are alternative
approaches " and those discussions have applied to the target on climate
change as they have to every other policy.'
But asked if he would accept that if the Government did abandon the
target, it would look very bad, he replied: 'Absolutely. And the
Government is not going to abandon the target. Let's be absolutely
clear. The Government is not going to abandon the target.'
In many ways, Mr Morley is the ideal man to pursue it. A passionate
birdwatcher since boyhood, he has the most impressive green credentials
of any Labour minister " he has been a member of the council of the
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds " and it is widely accepted
that his heart is in the right place. Whether that will be enough to
perform the biggest political conjuring trick of recent years, and
rescue Labour's flagship policy, remains to be seen.
The CV
n Born: 6 July 1952
n Education: St Margaret's High School, Liverpool; Hull College of
Education (B Ed)
n Family: Married in 1975, one son and one daughter
n Career: Head of special needs, Greatfield High School in Hull from
1979 to 1986; councillor on Hull City Council from 1987.
Elected Labour MP for Glanford and Scunthorpe (from 1997, Scunthorpe)
1989-1997: Opposition frontbench spokesman on food, agriculture and
rural affairs
1997-2003: Parliamentary under-secretary at the Ministry for
Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Maff), then Defra
2003- Minister for Climate Change
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