Can you be green without pain?

On the eve of the budget the Government has sought to regain the initiative on green issues with the publication today of their proposed climate change bill.

The plan is to create a framework that will bind future governments to work towards a targeted 50% cut by 2050.

But what happens if future governments don’t obey? Is the bill simply a way of postponing the pain?

For the hard fact is that if emissions are to be cut then individuals, households and businesses have to change the way they act and that requires a combination of both the stick and the carrot. It needs more than just a target.

It will be interesting to see how the Lib Dems and the Tories deal with this.

Mike Smithson