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Mr. Martyn Jones (Clwyd, South) (Lab): Does the hon. Lady not remember that Margaret Thatcher stopped the very important Salter's duck renewable energy project? That project is now nowhere to be seen, but at the time it was at a production level of 10 per cent., and cheaper than nuclear energy. That was one reason why she closed it.
Mrs. Spelman: Perhaps the hon. Gentleman will just wait a little to hear me talk about renewable energy. Technologies have moved on a great deal, even since I wrote my PhD on the subject 20 years ago. Improvements in technology have improved the economic viability of so many renewable technologies, but that was perhaps not the case at the time when Lady Thatcher was leading my party.
Many would seek to demonise centre-right politics, capitalism and business as the arch-enemies of environmental welfare. That simplistic analysis is as flawed as the assertion that because the Conservative
party is pro-business, it cannot be pro-environment. However, centre-right politics yielded the end of the cold war and with it, the beginning of the end of some of the world's most environmentally destructive industrial practices. The word conservatism is a derivation of the verb to conserve, meaning to protect or preserve. Conservatism is all about taking responsibility for one's actions, being prudent, safeguarding the future and nurturing a framework of codes and practices that permit the maximum possible freedoms for everyone.Those four tenets go to the very heart of the protection of our environment, reflected at every level at which my party operates. At global level, as my hon. Friend the Member for North Wiltshire (Mr. Gray) has said, it was the present leader of my party, my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard), who led the negotiations for Britain at the 1992 Rio Earth summit, which gave rise to the Kyoto protocol, of which we remain fully supportive. At European level, the Conservative group negotiated to chair the environment committee in preference to other committees, because we recognised the importance of working with our neighbours to combat environmental threats. At national level, hon. Members on both sides will recognise the role played by my right hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk, Coastal (Mr. Gummer), who continues to be dedicated to environmental matters and who led for the Conservatives in the debate on climate change in Westminster Hall two weeks ago.
Hon. Members will observe that, to show our ongoing commitment to the environment and our understanding that it involves cross-cutting concerns, we have again combined transport and the environment in one portfolio, which we are certainly finding beneficial for policy development. At local level, according to the National Audit Office, Conservative councils consistently perform better on environmental issues than their Labour and Liberal Democrat counterparts.
There is broad consensus among all parties on the need to protect the environment. However, although we can agree on that aim, there are bound to be differences in the way in which we would go about attaining it. It is important, especially in a debate such as this, to give credit where it is due, and many of the Government's intentions on the environment are very good. That is why my party can make common cause with the Government on so many environmental objectives, but where we differ is on how those objectives can best be realised. Too often, the underlying problem has been misdiagnosed, and consequently the wrong priorities are chosen in the attempt to devise an effective solution. There has therefore been a system failure in implementation, creating a whole generation of new problems as a consequence.
It is not difficult to understand how that has occurred. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has evolved comparatively recently, and it has become rather centralised and bureaucratic, having difficulties with its lines of responsibility. I do not make that diagnosis of the problem; it was made by the person whom the Government appointed to undertake an
analysis of DEFRA's structural problems: Lord Haskins. He described the Department as
- "a dog's dinner of the highest order".
The practical effect of the organisational problems in DEFRA is manifest to those who have to use its service and those of us who observe it in action. I shall quote Lord Haskins again. He said:
- "Too many organisations are involved in rural delivery, resulting in confusion—the delivery of sustainable land management, for example, is handled by at least six national agencies working with multiple regional and local organisations."
I have been made aware today, by industry sources, of the industry's estimate of the ground that needs to be made up. In its view, we are so massively off target over meeting the requirements of the landfill directive that unless there is a fourfold increase in the amount of composting that we undertake as a nation, we will fall way short of the directive targets by 2010. In response, the Government have set a target for the recycling rate for household waste to rise to 25 per cent. by 2005, to 30 per cent. by 2010 and to 33 per cent. by 2015. However, the Environmental Audit Committee believes that the UK will
- "not come close to meeting any of the national targets set for recycling",
Paddy Tipping: I agree entirely with the hon. Lady's points on home composting and the need to compost.
However, will she cast her mind back a few months to the passage of the Waste and Emissions Trading Bill? Her Front-Bench colleague in the other place tabled amendments that would, if accepted, have led to the demise of composting.
Mrs. Spelman: It would take an awful lot, in such a nation of gardeners, to lead to the real demise of composting. Fundamentally, we are a nation not, perhaps, of shopkeepers but very definitely of gardeners, and I think that we all understand the value of composting. If our spokesman in another place is unaware of its benefits, perhaps it is for lack of a garden—who knows? I shall speak to him on the subject.
Mr. Morley: On the figures for recycling and composting, the hon. Lady will be aware that I have said that we have a lot to do in that area. I am not complacent about that. The Environmental Audit Committee report said that the Government would not meet any of their targets, but that is just not true. We are meeting our targets, and the rate is accelerating. Will the hon. Lady also, in a spirit of fairness, acknowledge that in relation to recycling and composting, we are starting from the very low base that we inherited in 1997?
Mrs. Spelman: I do not deny that, as a nation, we have a lot of catching up to do, as anyone who is aware of the cultural and lifestyle differences among certain comparable developed economies, particularly on the continent of Europe, in relation to recycling and segregating household waste before it is passed to the municipal authorities will know. However, I am concerned that we sometimes sign up to directives without having put in place the necessary facilities to implement them, so that even if we want, with the best will in the world, to embrace the changes involved, we are unable to do so. A good illustration of that is the batteries directive, which we have signed up to despite there being no facilities in this country for recycling batteries. In comparable developed economies, it is regarded as a heinous crime to put batteries in the waste paper bin. However, that directive remains the only solution to that problem in this country, and I look forward to the necessary facilities being put in place so that when a safe and environmentally suitable solution exists, we really can take advantage of it.
Recycling rates and landfill rates are two sides of the same coin. It is no surprise, given the slow progress being made on increasing recycling, that aspirations towards the reduction of the amount of biodegradable municipal waste going to landfill are also faltering. The hon. Member for Lewes (Norman Baker) made a fair point when he said that the hierarchy of dealing with waste seemed to have been turned on its head. Much more effort needs to be put into this area, because the more that can be segregated and recycled at household level, the less will be the temptation to justify the easy solution of burying it all in the ground, which we want to move away from.
The amount of landfill increased to 22.3 million tonnes in the last year for which there are figures. That is not only an indictment of this country's inability to get on top of waste disposal as an issue—it also means that Britain is perilously close to missing the requirements of
the European landfill directive, which would result in a fine of up to £180 million a year. Perhaps the Government will tell us whether they intend to pass that fine on to local authorities and, ultimately, to council tax payers, should we be faced with such a bill.Another target that is looking increasingly fallible is that of attaining 10 per cent. of electricity production derived from renewable energy sources. The reality is that the 3 per cent. target for 2002 was missed by a considerable margin. That makes the likelihood of fulfilling the 10 per cent. target in a mere six years look more and more like a costly pipedream. I am of course aware of the recent announcements regarding wind farm investments, which the Government have been keen to cite as examples of progress in meeting those targets. However, there are many concerns about wind farms—particularly onshore wind farms—with regard to their reliability, their efficiency and, ironically, their environmental impact. Wind farms can at best be only part of any sensible programme for generating electricity from renewable energy sources. The Government must certainly look to offshore wind farms and wave farms as ways of harnessing renewable forms of energy in a more environmentally acceptable way.
Among the most interesting and logical sources of renewable energy are biofuels. As the author of a book entitled "Non-Food Uses of Agricultural Raw Materials", perhaps I ought to state a private interest in this particular issue. Biofuels, like wind power, are not in themselves the holy grail of environmentally friendly energy production, but they could well offer part of the solution and they certainly warrant further research.
Sadly, biofuels are another area in which the Government's thinking has appeared muddled and little or no effective progress has been made. In October last year, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee published a report which confirmed that. It stated:
- "We deplore the fact that the Government has not nominated any one Department to lead on biofuels and consider that this is the prime reason for the slow progress that has been made in this area."
- "The Government's biofuels policy still appears to be muddled and unfocussed: it has expressed support for biofuels but the mechanisms used to promote their use have had little effect so far".
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