High Peak Liberal Democrats

Independent on Sunday praises Nick Clegg and Ed Davey for keeping the low carbon show on the road

An Independent on Sunday editorial yesterday acknowledged the contribution made by the Liberal Democrats to furthering the green agenda while in government. They give Nick Clegg and Ed Davey the credit for driving it forward in the face of opposition from our coalition partners, who come in for some criticism:

The IoS has been disappointed with the Conservatives' record on the environment. We were prepared to give David Cameron the benefit of the doubt when he put a windmill on his roof and when he proclaimed his intention that the coalition would be the greenest government ever, but if Mr Davey is now able to make that qualified claim, it is despite Mr Cameron, not because of him.

The turning point was George Osborne's "slowest ship in the convoy" speech to the Tory party conference in 2011, when he said Britain would go along with EU plans for green energy but would not be a leader.

Davey can claim this is the greenest government ever, says the paper, despite David Cameron, not because of him.

Nick Clegg and Mr Davey are entitled to claim, in fact, that they have done more in government than ever before to push the UK along the path to low-carbon energy, which is undoubtedly the most important single goal of environmental sustainability.

And what of Labour in all of this?

As a green newspaper, we say that the Liberal Democrats deserve some credit for keeping the low-carbon show on the road. Ed Miliband, a former Climate Change Secretary himself, is personally committed but seems to have downplayed greenery in favour of an emphasis on the cost of living. The Conservatives deserve some discredit for going back on their "vote blue, go green" promise. And the Green Party urgently needs to sort itself out.

There is a longer interview with Ed Davey who's in pretty pugnacious form, defending the Liberal Democrats' record and outlining future plans:

In a bold assertion, the Energy Secretary said the Coalition could stand by Mr Cameron's prediction, in 2010, that it would be the "greenest government ever". Mr Davey added that this was despite the best efforts of Conservative ministers such as Eric Pickles and Owen Paterson, a leading climate change sceptic, to undermine it.

Mr Davey said: "The last Labour government was not very green. They had a shocking record for the first two parliaments and the effect was an energy crisis. This coalition has done all the hard stuff on energy and climate change. We have a much better record on energy and climate change than Labour. We are the first to admit we would have liked to have been even greener. But it is more difficult where you don't have control [in Tory-led ministries]."

He added: "We are upping the ante on the green agenda. We have done a really cracking job particularly at DECC [the Department of Energy and Climate Change], expanding renewables, energy efficiency, climate change issues. And that is despite quite a few battles with the Tories.

"It is quite clear we need to drive a clear legislative programme. We are ready to go into coalition negotiations saying that the environment is so important to us. We have got the policies in place to deliver it, stay the course and push them through."

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings

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