... but their timeframe will not avoid dangerous climate change.

The Liberal Democrats have launched a policy document called ‘Zero Carbon Britain – Taking a Global Lead’, only six weeks after the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) launched its own report entitled zerocarbonbritain.

The similarity is no coincidence - the Liberal Democrats were influenced by the CAT report, which was presented to all the major political parties at various events in Westminster in July.

Lembit Opik, MP for Powys and Montgomeryshire, and Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Enterprise said: “These proposals were largely inspired by the Welsh based Centre for Alternative Technology and I would like to thank them for the ground-breaking work.”

CAT supports the Liberal Democrats for announcing many progressive policies we urgently need to avoid the climate change ‘tipping point.’ However, although the Lib Dem report is ambitious, it does not move fast enough according to CAT researchers.

CAT Development Director Paul Allen said: “Whilst we congratulate the Lib Dems on recognising the need to reduce carbon emissions to zero, we believe 2050 is too late – we have recommended the same cuts by 2027. This is based on reading the latest climate science, which has shown climate change is already starting to feed back on itself, and could rapidly spiral out of control.

“Also, the tax-based policy proposed by the Lib Dems will not deliver the cuts we need. If we are to cut emissions by 100%, you have set the taxes very high – high enough to price even the super-rich out of the market. This would leave the poor severely disadvantaged during the transition period to a zero carbon Britain. We favour a more equitable system of carbon allowances, specifically Tradable Energy Quotas, or TEQs.”

Within CAT’s report, TEQs are distributed free to citizens, and auctioned to industry. They are only used when buying fossil fuels, and their number is gradually reduced until fossil fuels are completely eliminated after 20 years. This ensures that everyone has access to energy, the quotas can be traded between individuals and busineses, but the system still ensures that the total national cap is not exceeded.

CAT supports many of the other policies in the Liberal Democrat Zero Carbon Britain, including the call for a 100% renewable National Grid, the adoption of Contraction & Convergence as the post-Kyoto international framework, incentives to reduce emissions from homes, and the rejection of new nuclear power stations as a climate change solution.

“It is a huge, bold step for a political party to say we should reduce our emissions so drastically,” Mr Allen said. “But the Government needs to go even further than the Liberal Democrat document. We are inviting all politicians from all parties to discuss these policies with us, and we can help them build a solid policy framework. We can avoid serious climate change, if we act quickly – unfortunately, we do not have until 2050 to make these cuts.”

Above: CAT Development Director Paul Allen with Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik.

Contact: Arthur Girling 01654 705953 (Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )