10:10 Chance for Parliament to Lead by Example

Today the Lib Dems have secured an opposition day motion to call on Parliament to commit to 10:10 cutting Parliaments carbon emissions by 10% in 2010.

It will be a real test of the greenery of the Tory party. while their front bench have signed up to the premise the rest of the party are lurching forward less keenly. Unlike the Lib Dems who passed a motion at conference calling for Parliament, councils and individuals to sign up, and Labour who followed as a party down in Brighton. Only last week the Tory members down the river at the London Assembly walked out of the discussion on signing up to 10:10 and left the meeting inquorate. Of the 41 councils to sign up or are waiting to do so only two are Tory-led councils, Stroud and East Sussex which considering they have the majority is shockingly poor.

But even Labour are hedging somewhat. From talking to friends last night some Labour MPs are being non-committal, while other are accusing the Lib Dems of playing party politics with the issue and threatening to vote against if Labour are attacked in the debate. There does seem to be some pre-emptive ground work going on in some Labour camps to excuse saying no. Is there some whipping agenda afoot?

While Labour have set targets for carbon reduction they are leaving much of the work to the end rather than a steady reduction. The real effect of their slumbering towards climate targets is shown below.

However, 10:10 is a real effort to shift that balance and make a real impart in a short term, to get us ahead of the curve, show us what is doable. Indeed worryingly if you look at the split by industry you will see that the biggest contributors to CO2 emissions our power stations have actually increased their emissions over the last 10 years and only just started to come back down but are still over 20 Megatonnes over their 1999 low point.



Worryingly today it may well be that party politics gets played with the future of our planet. But if it is it will be from the tired old Labour party trying to look like they won't be pushed and the Tories who will be revealed for who they really are. There is still time to visit the 38 Degrees Website and get an email off to your MP before he goes through the lobbies this afternoon click here for an easy way to let your MP know the importance of this issue today.