Climate Change Package

Dear Ram,

Following your previous e-mail on this issue, I am writing to update you on Labour MEPs work on climate change in the European Parliament.

On the 17th December 2008 MEPs and national ministers reached a final agreement on a package of six new climate change laws. These laws will deliver the EU’s target of reducing CO2 emissions by 20% (or 30% if there is an international agreement) by 2020 and increasing the share of renewable energy to 20%. There is no other country in the world which has such an ambitious and comprehensive plan to reduce emissions in the period 2013-20.

Following nearly a year of discussion, votes and negotiations, the final agreement was approved by a huge majority of MEPs and welcomed by both industry and environmental NGOs as a balanced and effective set of new climate change laws. Some of the key demands of the European Parliament which are taken on board in the final package include the following:

o An expanded and strengthened Emission Trading System (ETS) which will require every industrial company to make major cuts in their emissions. The majority of the ‘allowances to pollute’ will now have to bought, rather than be given for free. In addition, at least half of the revenue that will be created should be earmarked for climate change measures in the EU and developing countries.

o An individual target for each Member State for sectors not covered by the ETS. MEPs made sure that strict limits were placed on the amount of emissions that national governments could offset using project credits in developing countries. A new quality assurance mechanism was also introduced to ensure that the projects represent real, verifiable and sustainable emission reductions. MEPs also insisted that a penalty mechanism was included in the final agreement which means that if a Member State misses its annual target, it gets an even tougher target the next year.

o A huge expansion of renewable energy, including a binding target of 20% of energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020. This target is expected to produce up to 160,000 new ‘green’ jobs in the UK over the next 12 years. Following concerns about the impact if increased biofuel production, the final agreement includes strict environmental and social sustainability criteria. These criteria are the first of their kind in the world and we hope they will be quickly taken on board by other countries.

o A tough binding target for reducing CO2 emissions from cars which is expected to deliver a 60% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2020. MEPs made sure that car manufacturers will make these emission reductions through a “stick” of a tough penalty system and a “carrot” of super credits for very low emission cars.
o A new funding mechanism, worth around 9bn Euros, for demonstration projects of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) which will help not only the EU tackle emissions from coal-fired power stations, but also other countries such as China. In addition, a new law will make it mandatory for all new coal-fired power stations to be built “capture ready” so it can be retrofitted with CCS once the technology becomes commercially available.

These are the highlights of a package of new laws which will prove to the rest of the world that the EU has stopped just talking about climate change, but is now acting. In the run up to the Copenhagen international climate change talks next year, this package will be closely scrutinised by other countries. Labour MEPs hope that it will prove to rest of the developed world that it is possible to reduce emissions without reducing prosperity and that we have a responsibility to lead the way in terms of tackling climate change.

I hope this information is helpful and you can follow Labour MEPs future work on the environment and other issues on the website www.eurolabour.org.uk.

Merry Christmas and best wishes!

Linda McAvan MEP
Labour’s Spokesperson for Climate Change in Europe

I told you so...

David Ross, The Carphone Warehouse co-founder, who was brought in to manage the budget of the 2012 Olympics in London was forced to resign because he was misusing his stake in his Mobile phone company to secure personal loans.

This was the man Mayor Boris Johnson brought in to manage the accounts on the Olympics. Still, at least we found out before he mis-managed the Olympic funds. I did SAY, remember that Boris wanted President George W Bush in power and questioned his judgement?

But still, it is very easy for me to pounce on his mistakes, I mean

And let us make note that he backed David Cameron for leadership of the Tory party out of "pure, cynical self-interest" (The Independent, 5 October 2005).

However, let it not be said that I only bash the Tories (although I do a lot), Gordon Brown was quoted at the Labour Party conference in 1997 saying

"We have learned from the mistakes of the past, you cannot spend your way out of a recession," and yet that is EXACTLY his plan for the current economic crisis!

But, I can't be too hard on him, after all, he is giving us the chance to ask him
DIRECT, via video our questions on the economy. I look forward to his responses.

Ram.

Rebel without a cause

"Ever since the Allies bombed the Axis into submission, Western civilization has had a succession of counter-culture movements that have energetically challenged the status quo. Each successive decade of the post-war era has seen it smash social standards, riot and fight to revolutionize every aspect of music, art, government and civil society.

But after punk was plasticized and hip hop lost its impetus for social change, all of the formerly dominant streams of “counter-culture” have merged together. Now, one mutating, trans-Atlantic melting pot of styles, tastes and behavior has come to define the generally indefinable idea of the “Hipster.”

An artificial appropriation of different styles from different eras, the hipster represents the end of Western civilization – a culture lost in the superficiality of its past and unable to create any new meaning. Not only is it unsustainable, it is suicidal. While previous youth movements have challenged the dysfunction and decadence of their elders, today we have the “hipster” – a youth subculture that mirrors the doomed shallowness of mainstream society."

From www.adbuster.org

'Not a fare rise'

Ken Livingstone's monthly checkup on the new Mayor:

"What has become really striking over the past month is the gap between what Mayor Boris's administration says and what is actually being done.

Boris delivered a keynote speech on his conversion to green issues - but in virtually the same breath announced that the congestion charge zone will be chopped in half. Some residents of Kensington and Chelsea may benefit, where incomes are among the highest in the country, but it will be paid for with fare increases for ordinary Londoners in the future.

Likewise, warm words about improving public transport contrasted with work on new transport links being binned, including the extension to the Croydon tram and taking the DLR route out to Dagenham.

The image is of the cycling Mayor, but the London Cycling Campaign has been despairing of what it says is a 'triple whammy' against pedal power: not just the abolition of the western half of the congestion zone, but news that motorbikes will compete with cycles in bus lanes, plus the announcement of cuts to spending on cycling improvements.

Plenty of press releases have been issued about the need to help London meet the recession. The truth was shown when Boris opposed the higher top up rate on tax for those earning the highest saleries.

In a month's time, our fares will be going up above the current rate of inflation - up 6 per cent overall. Some will rise much more, such as the price of a single bus journey on Oyster, up by a whopping 11 percent.

This may be the honeymoon period but, looking beyond the spin, the Mayor's policy is now a lot clearer.

Protecting the drivers of the most polluting cars, opposing the wealthiest paying more tax and dismantleing measures to improve the environment and reduce traffic - while pushing up fares for ordinary Londoners in January."

(From The London Paper 1-12-2008).

In addition, I read an article today which pointed out how fast the capitalist governments moved to preserve their economies, pumping phenomenal amounts of money into them. If only they could pump money that fast into say, combatting climate change or making poverty history then the world would be much better.

Ram.