The new British government hasn’t been slow in laying out its environmental credentials, and two campaigns in particular have had reason to celebrate. One is 10:10, which has been inviting people to reduce their CO2 by 10% in 2010. Both the Conservatives and the Lib Dems were supportive of the idea, and on wednesday the new coalition announced that central government was committing to cut 10% in a year.
“The consequences of this pledge are nothing short of immense” the 10:10 campaign said this week. “The government estate covers 250,000 hectares and emits the same amount of carbon as the whole of Liverpool. A 10% cut in government emissions adds up to around 600,000 tonnes of CO2 a year – the equivalent of taking 200,000 cars off the road.”
Also popping the champagne are the Airplotters, who were delighted to see not just Heathrow’s third runway scrapped, but plans for expanding Stansted and Gatwick shelved too. It turns out that Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is among the 90,000 plotters, so it wasn’t such a surprise. Great news, although I’m secretly a little disappointed that Greenpeace won’t need to build their planned fortress.
These are two of the campaigns we’ve been supporting on Make Wealth History, but the government has plenty more promises to make on the environment. There are plans for a smart grid, a green investment bank, a high speed rail network, higher renewable energy targets and better incentives for marine and anaerobic digestion power generation. There’s a summary of the plans here on the Ecologist.
The Earthbound Report 