Pilot programme will put Fenland residents first in line for help with energy poverty

Attended a Climate Change and Environment programme yesterday, which was arranged for ten Conservative Parliamentary Candidates. The day was run by the Green Alliance and Ashridge Business School, in conjunction with Conservative HQ.

A particular highlight was a presentation from Professor Brian Hoskins, a fellow of the Royal Society and one of the country’s leading climate scientists. There were also insightful presentations given by David Kennedy, Chief Exec of the Committee on Climate Change, by Ipsos Mori, and by the Green Alliance amongst others.  It prompted a lively discussion, not least given that little impact has been made by the current government on carbon reduction, with the only trend showing improvement resulting from industries where jobs have been exported abroad.  As so often, there are lots of targets for tomorrow but not much has been done so far, for example current targets for loft and cavity wall insulation are not being met. 

I was struck by Professor Hoskins comments that all scientists should be sceptics, and that the debate on climate change should not be discussed for and against in quasi religious terms of believing or not believing.  He discussed the impact of changes in water vapour in the air and how this creates uncertainty in forecasts, the role of methane and other gasses not just carbon dioxide, interesting factual data on trends (for example that aviation becomes 2% more efficient a year but is expanding at 5%), and the importance of tackling deforestation of rainforest and the good progress in Brazil on this and work still to be done in Indonesia.

The day concluded with dinner with Greg Clark, our Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.  Greg is one of the most impressive members of the Shadow Cabinet, with a real intellectual grasp of his policy brief.  During the discussion Greg outlined plans for a pilot for a Conservative government to help people faced with energy poverty.  With energy bills a growing share of families budget, and with the cost of tackling climate change likely to add to these bills moving forward, energy poverty will increasing be a cause of concern and is already a big worry for some.  He is also keen to see local communities benefit from hosting wind farms - at the moment all energy users pay an extra part of their bill towards renewable energy and get no benefit in their bill if their community are providing the renewable energy.  This would be important given the number of windfarms in the Fens.

Having emailed Greg this morning following the dinner, and spoken with new Fenland District Council leader Alan Melton, I am delighted that Fenland District Council will now be one of the councils included in the pilot scheme to tackle energy poverty.  It will place our local issues at the heart of shaping Conservative Government policy, and ensure we are amonst the first to benefit from new proposals.  There are real pockets of deprivation in Fenland - as a district 18 of the 25 most deprived wards in the county are in Fenland - but because the county as a whole is seen as being prosperous we tend to miss out on most national schemes because the aggregate score for the county masks the pockets of deprivation.  It is great news that on this issue our voice will be heard as part of the pilot programme.

Pictured with Greg Clark, Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change are representatives of the Green Alliance, Ashbridge Business School, and Conservative Parliamentary Candidates.

This entry was posted on 15/01/2010 at 09:30 pm and is filed under Climate Change. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.