| Oliver Letwin offers hope for government's green agenda Conservative party conference speech by former shadow chancellor welcomed as a sign that key government figures are still pushing the low-carbon agendaCutting carbon emissions and building a green economy is "equally important" to economic growth, a leading Conservative minister declared today, signalling that the government's environment agenda might be saved from the worst impact of the upcoming budget cuts.Oliver Letwin, minister of state at the Cabinet Office and former shadow chancellor, appeared to offer reassurance to green businesses and environmental campaigners alike after weeks of speculation that green key policies could face the axe. There have been rumours that the feed-in-tariff for small-scale renewables like wind turbines and solar panels for homes and offices, the subsidy for electric vehicles and the scale of ambition for the green investment bank were at risk."I predict the 20th of October [the date of the comprehensive spending review] will see the preservation of our carbon agenda and indeed the ability to follow it through," Letwin told a fringe meeting at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham. "Both growth and the green bits of the agenda are equally important to us."Letwin, whose predecessors include Lord Mandelson, listed many of the government's policies and promises, including the Green New Deal for a big increase in energy efficiency, building a smart grid, electric vehicles, generating energy from waste, feed in tariffs, carbon price support, and carbon capture and storage for fossil fuels.The country needed to do "the lot" to cut carbon, improve energy security and protect homes and businesses from volatile fossil fuel prices, he said. "The [economy] will look a hell of a lot better than if we try to work out how we save the last pence today," added Letwin. "That's the direction the government is on. That's the brave decision, but I think it's the right decision."Letwin's comments, at a session organised by the Policy Exchange thinktank, will be welcomed as a sign that key government figures are still pushing the low-carbon agenda. Although Letwin is not in the Cabinet, he chaired the party's policy review in opposition, and was part of the team that wrote the party's 2010 election manifesto.However, the depth and breadth of the threatened cuts will continue to fuel concern about whether those commitments will be supported by funding where necessary. There have been suggestions, for example, that the Department of Energy and Climate Change may have to be merged or relocated to the Treasury.Among the many policy suggestions put forward are that subsidies and other financial support could be replaced by emissions standards, a floor on the price of carbon, and other regulations, while critics want the government to do both."Signals are important in politics, but it's then even more important that you don't lead to people feeling cynical and sceptical if that's not followed up with the doing things," said Andrew Simms, policy director of the New Economics Foundation.Letwin was not able to offer many specific promises, though he did confirm that the government is planning to announce a minimum "floor" price for carbon emissions later this autumn, saying: "We need a long-term carbon price, that's what we're going to have."Letwin will, however, have offered some hope to experts who believe key decisions about supporting nascent renewable technologies and investing more in energy efficiency have been held back by strict Treasury cost-benefit rules.Criticising the reliance on net present value (NPV) as a way of making decisions, Letwin said that such an approach would not have led to the building of the pyramids or Chartres cathedral, or "all the things that make life worth living"."NPV is an extremely valuable tool for taking short-term investment decisions which are single generational decisions," added Letwin. "But the most important decisions society has to make are intergenerational decisions, and those economic and accounting tools we have break down at that point and you're forced back on much deeper considerations."In particular many current cost-benefit analyses do not take into account the damage done by volatile fossil fuel prices or uncertainty about which would be the best future alternative energy sources, said Letwin."We have to pay attention to wisdom, which is deeper than those calculations," said Letwin. "Winston Churchill had a view about energy security: his view was that it's good to have it very diverse; he was right."Letwin also criticised modern economics for treating environmental damage as an "externality", outside core models of costs and benefits. "After all, trashing the planet is bad for business," he added.At a separate fringe meeting, Henry Bellingham, the Foreign Office minister responsible for climate change, appeared to rule out suggestions that the post of Foreign Office envoy on climate change, held by John Ashton, would be abolished, after criticisms inside the department that the unit cost £600,000 a year to run.Bellingham said he and the foreign secretary, William Hague, found the advice and knowledge of Ashton "invaluable", and he had been a key part of recent negotiations and decisions, including Hague's well-received speech on the subject last week."We may have to cut our budgets ... but climate change is an absolute key priority," added Bellingham.Green economyGreen jobsCarbon emissionsClimate changeEnergyRenewable energyFeed-in tariffsElectric, hybrid and low-emission carsCarbon capture and storage (CCS)Emissions tradingGreen politicsConservative conferenceConservativesOliver LetwinJuliette Jowitguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
'Embarrassed' gunman's shot claim A man tried to shoot himself but was too embarrassed when it went wrong and blamed someone else, a court hears. bbc.co.uk |
David Cameron orders defence to be spared from deepest cuts George Osborne agrees that the Ministry of Defence will face cuts of 8% over the next four yearsBritain's multi-billion pound defence budget was finally settled tonight after a personal intervention by David Cameron, who ordered the Treasury to soften cuts due to be imposed on the armed forces.Liam Fox, the defence secretary, was said to be relatively pleased after George Osborne agreed that the Ministry of Defence would face cuts of 8% over the next four years.The chancellor, who had been demanding cuts of 10%, backed down after the prime minister intervened.The main points of the deal, which Cameron will outline to MPs on Tuesday in a statement launching the strategic defence and security review, are:• The MoD's annual £37bn budget will be cut by 8% between 2011-2015. It will face an effective cut of a further 9.5% as it deals with a £38bn "overspend" over the next 10 years in its procurement budget inherited from Labour.• A saving of £750m will be made in the budget of the Trident nuclear deterrent.• The army, which at one point was to be cut from 105,000 personnel to 80,000, will not face substantial cuts.Cameron intervened 24 hours after the service chiefs marched into Downing Street in their uniforms to warn that the 10% cuts were unacceptable. There were suggestions that some could resign.A government source said: "The prime minister stood up to the Treasury and said, 'you have got to give these guys [the service chiefs] figures they can live with'. He also intervened on army numbers."Cameron acted after a five-month battle between the Treasury and the MoD. Fox, who told friends tonight that Cameron had sided with him against the Treasury, signalled his unease in a recent letter to the prime minister that warned him the planned cuts would inflict severe damage to the armed forces. The letter was leaked.The battle continued into today when air force chiefs mounted a dramatic fight to save the RAF's fleet of ageing Tornado fighter-bombers.The move would see the RAF axing the Harrier squadrons now shared with the navy. This would leave a huge question over the future of the first of the two aircraft carriers which ministers this week finally agreed should be built.Some officials said tonight that a decision to dump the Harriers had already been taken in principle. "It is a ridiculous situation," said a defence source. "The navy will have a carrier with no aircraft."If the Harriers do fall victim to the Tornados, there may be no suitable aircraft available to fly from the first carrier, the Queen Elizabeth, which is due to enter service in 2016. The alternative, expensive US F35 fighters, will not be ready in time, leaving the navy with the prospect of a large new carrier equipped only with helicopters.Getting rid of all the 120 GR4 Tornados would save £7.5bn in the next five years, it has been estimated. Cutting the smaller Harrier fleet would save £1bn.The intense pressure on the budget was highlighted today when the prime minister's spokesman refused to say whether Britain would still be able to spend 2% of GDP – the Nato target – on defence. It currently spends 2.7%.RAF chiefs have claimed that dumping the Tornados would threaten their ability to mount proper air defence operations around Britain. They have fought back as the navy has got its main prize – the carriers – with the army protected because of the conflict in Afghanistan.The navy argues that the latest GR9 model of Harriers, of which there are 50 in total, are much more versatile than the RAF's Tornados. Harriers, which are deployed in Afghanistan, can fly from land bases or carriers.Defence officials said that the RAF could use Eurofighter/Typhoons for air defence, including against any future 9/11-style terror alert, and not Tornados.The last-minute wrangling over the MoD budget came as Nick Clegg, who is facing criticism after Vince Cable ditched the party's manifesto commitment to abolish university tuition fees, hailed two wins for the Liberal Democrats ahead of the spending review on Wednesday:• Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury, managed to fight off plans by the work and pensions department to cut emergency cold weather payments to the needy from £25 a week to £8.50.• Clegg made an early announcement of the Lib Dems' £7bn "fairness premium" today after he received the support of Cameron and Osborne to "bounce" the Treasury into accepting his plan. It had wanted Clegg to pay for the measures designed to support poorer pupils through the existing education budget.MilitaryDefence policyPublic sector cutsRichard Norton-TaylorNicholas WattAllegra Strattonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
A day swinging through the trees Grown-ups nostalgic for the tree-climbing adventures of their childhood can now indulge themselves at one of several treetop obstacle courses around the UK. bbc.co.uk |
Wikileaks: Death toll 15,000 above previous estimate More than 15,000 previously unrecorded deaths are contained in the leaked Pentagon files published by Wikileaks, according to one analysis of the figures. telegraph.co.uk |