"The Greenest Government Ever" - Coalition environmental policy

The coalitions pledge to ‘a low carbon economy’ was declared in their 2010 manifesto. The actions regarding this promise have unfortunately been few and far between.A promising start brought a refusal of the BAA’s new runway at Heathrow airport and further banning of any new runways at Gatwick or Sansted being built until 2020. However, this was followed by the agreement to the high speed rail plans for the HS2, linking London directly to Birmingham. Despite a back lash from many in rural areas who fear for their scenic back gardens; the Coalition has gone ahead. This is an attempt to boost local economies and make up for the revenue that will be lost from the lack of an extra runway, maybe not as positive for economic growth but is far more promising for the environment.This may be short lived as 30 Conservative back benchers have wrote a formal letter to the government pleading for reconsideration of the runway ban. This followed tensions between the Climate Change secretary Chris Huhne (now replaced by Ed Davey) and the Treasury. It’s been reported that Paris has 1000 more annual flight links to China than the UK; to reverse the recession we need to compete and have strong links with China’s growing economy. There has also been a proposal for a new airport to be built on the Thames Estuary which would be paradoxical after the recent ban on new runways.Nuclear power plants are, unsurprisingly, outraging those with a NIMBY attitude; however the Conservatives have agreed to continue with the previous Labour government decision that nuclear energy will be good for the environment. Caroline Spellman has been asked by the government to ease up on planning permission and essentially remove local council power to refuse large scale projects such as nuclear plants. To satisfy the Liberal Democrats’ distain towards the plan, it has been agreed that no public funding will be put into building the half hearted solution to replace one dangerous waste product for another. There has also been talk of green investment banks by the government which will finance green, small scale infrastructure. The initial promise was the banks would receive £3 billion in public funds and a further £15 billion of private investment. This paired with the ‘Green Deal’ and the ban on production of any new coal power stations would in theory make reaching the CO2 targets an easy ride.The reality is far less glamorous. Nuclear power stations are extremely expensive and little benefits are seen for private investors as an incentive to plough money into their development. This was a smart move by the Liberal Democrats in making the agreement as it ultimately halts the production. Without admitting it formerly this means government will not be able to fulfil their wishes of nuclear power. The green investment banks are also getting little support as the treasury are using increasingly negative language toward it; changing a promise of £3 billion to ‘up to £3billion’. There has also been scarce interest from private investors as green technology is rarely high on businesses agenda in the absence of an incentive. This gives the impression that yet another environment policy was unlikely from the word go.It’s clear that most of the Coalition’s environment policies have not been reversed, but in hind sight most haven’t actually begun. The policies were flawed and unrealistic in terms of funding which is the key to their success leaving the environment to remain, yet again, a sideline issue.Maddison Hucks