UK: September 14, 2007


LOND0N - A Conservative Party advisory group proposed on Thursday a mix of taxes, bans and incentives to green the British economy in a bid to beat global warming.


Under the plans, gas-guzzling cars would face penal taxes, there would be incentives for greener homes and offices, flights would be taxed, and inefficient appliances phased out.

"This is a blueprint for a green revolution," said group leader and former environment minister John Gummer. "I see no contradiction between greenness and economic success."

"The green revolution can do for Britain what the industrial revolution did a couple of hundred years ago," he told a news conference to launch the widely leaked report.

The Quality of Life Policy Group's report was commissioned by party leader David Cameron and is intended to form the backbone of a Tory environmental policy that still has to be defined.

Cameron has put the environment at the heart of his attempt to make the Tory Party electable again, but Labour has responded with a Climate Change Bill still going through parliament and aimed at cutting climate-warming carbon emissions.

But the Quality of Life report has already upset some mainstream Tories with its interventionist proposals, and there is no guarantee how much will eventually appear as policy.

Airlines, road user organisations and a taxpayers group promptly rejected the proposals as unfair and unworkable.

But environmentalists took the opposite view.

"There is some very good stuff in here," said Friends of the Earth chief Tony Juniper. "Our job now is to make sure that as much of it as possible becomes Tory Party policy."

The report comes as the Green Alliance lobby group issues an assessment of the green credentials of the three main political parties that rates the Tories bottom, Labour second and the Liberal Democrats top.

Under the Quality of Life proposals, stamp duty would be cut for greener homes, VAT on refurbishment would be cut, smart electricity meters would be installed in all homes and there would be lower council taxes for green homes.

Aviation, the fastest growing carbon emitter, would be brought into the tax fold with VAT on domestic flights and passenger duty shifted to a per-flight basis rather than per passenger to discourage empty flights.

Polluters would be penalised, recycling promoted, landfill banned, and public transport supported.

The proposals advocate moving towards decentralised energy generation to cut transmission losses and promote local participation, with a levy on the vast amounts of heat lost from traditional power stations.

"Technology is central. But financial mechanisms are also essential," Gummer said. "We have to shift from taxing families to taxing polluters."

"We have become too centralised. We want to push down ... to the community and the individual to allow then to take their own decisions," he added.


Story by Jeremy Lovell


REUTERS NEWS SERVICE