Just bag it
Posted 14 March, 2008 in Alternative power, Biofuel technology, Carbon offsetting, Carbon trading, Climate change, Footprint reduction, Political issues
One of the documents released with this year’s UK budget – intriguingly entitled “An environmentally sustainable world” [they forgot to add the bit about being in a human timescale] — gives thirteen announcements on how the Government intends to tackle climate change. Number twelve is “to eliminate single-use carrier bags” and warns that the “Government will legislate and impose a charge if retailers do not take voluntary action.”
The carrier bag argument is almost a complete red herring. Despite grabbing the headline on the other side of the world, even the environmental argument seems flawed. According to this article in The Times, figures quoted for the wildlife impact of rogue carrier bags are based on a misunderstanding of official bycatch figures – from a Canadian study – published a few years back.
So what a shame to be giving such an obviously bandwagonnish cause such prominence. Then again, the rest of the announcements don’t stack up to much either. Some examples:
“Laying the ground work” for the introduction of five-year carbon budgets… hmmm
Delaying the planned fuel duty increase from April to October… ‘nuf said
“Incentivising only the most sustainable biofuels…” huh?
“Increasing climate change levy rates in line with inflation…” Wow!
“An ambition for all new non-domestic buildings to be zero carbon from 2019…” Ambition?
It’s about time this government, that promised us evidence-based policy, but then manifestly failed to deliver it, got its act together. Or considered a change in personnel…
1 comment to “Just bag it”
Just bag it, March 14th, 2008 at 11:45 pm:
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[...] Architectradure: Seamless Technology in Design wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptOne of the documents released with this year’s UK budget – intriguingly entitled “An environmentally sustainable world” [they forgot to add the bit about being in a human timescale] — gives thirteen announcements on how the Government intends to tackle climate change. Number twelve is “to eliminate single-use carrier bags” and warns that the “Government […] [...]
