Earlier this week – a scant two weeks before world leaders meet in Bali to discuss climate change and a successor to the Kyoto Protocol — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spelled out his plan for tackling climate change in the

UK

. This is the first time since becoming Prime Minister in July 2007 that he has spoken about Climate Change and he got straight to the point; he wants

Britain

to become a world leader in the environmental sector.

PM Brown said that the technological transformation to low-carbon and energy efficient economy represents enormous opportunities and challenges.  One of the most significant challenges, he said, is that we can only reach the low-carbon economic status by slashing carbon emissions. Brown even stipulated that he is considering increasing target GHG reductions from 60% to 80% by 2050. That’s the bad news.  But the good news, according to Brown, is that achieving a low carbon economy will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.  In fact, he said, as many as 1 million jobs could be created in

UK

environmental industries within 20 years if the country gets serious about emissions cut backs. “Just as in each of the three previous technological revolutions

Britain

played a leading role, we now have the opportunity to play a leading role in taking the world towards a low carbon future”, he said.

Brown said he’s considering everything from large scale investment projects to small scale awareness-building programs.  His government is examining the possibility of investing £1billion into wind, wave and tidal energy research; investigating bans on plastic bags and establishing a phone hotline to help people carry out “energy audits” on their homes. PM Brown concluded his remarks with the “N” word.  Expects a decision to be made next about construction of new Nuclear plants.

Full text of the speech can be found on http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page13791.asp

Sophie Pim

At the beginning of November the center-right French leader unveiled a wide program of environmental measures meant to catapult France into the forefront of the fight to curb global warming. As some of you have certainly read in the papers, former Vice President Al Gore was at his side and praised all efforts made by President “Sarko” (as French men in the street use to call him).

“We are the first generation in the history of humanity whose mission is to rescue the generation to come” were the words he used at the closing of the summit (that BTW brought together groups not normally used to negotiating with each other: national, regional and local government, employers, trade union and farmers’ representatives, scientific experts and environmental organisations such as Greenpeace and the WWF).

Just to give you a glance of what this " ecological New Deal"  consists of:

- Transport: France will not build any additional motorways or national roads, unless there is a specific road safety reason
- Energy: Nuclear investments are to be frozen and significant additional resources allocated to developing renewable energies with the aim of them providing 20 per cent of France’s requirements by 2020.
- Agriculture: Farmers’ representatives reluctantly accepted the goal of cutting pesticide use by 50 per cent over 10 years – on condition that alternative methods prove themselves. Organic agriculture is to grow to 6 per cent of output by 2012, and to 20 per cent by 2020.
- Taxation: Sarkozy accepted the principle of a carbon tax on emissions, while guaranteeing that the overall tax burden would not rise. Tax focus will shift from employment to pollution. An eco-tax will be levied on pollutant cars, with the revenue generated being used to subsidise more environmentally-friendly models, and France will push for differential EU VAT rates on environmentally friendly goods

In short, the pact commits to placing practical ecology at the core of government action.

Besides these actions, France and Britain are laying out an ambitious plan to reduce value-added taxes on energy-efficient products sold across the bloc’s 27 member states. In a letter to the European Commission, Paris and London said they wanted to make the cuts mandatory, but leave it up to member states to decide how much each country will reduce the tax.  As you can expect, some are skeptical about the proposal’s chances. Debates about any harmonization of EU taxes are notoriously difficult in the European Union so here in Brussels we are keeping a close eye on this reduced VAT to see impact on clients, NB…