Colin Challen, MP for Morley & Rothwell and Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group, talks to Aneeta Ahluwalia*.

Focusing on climate change

When I was first elected in 2001 I was very interested in trade issues and globalisation. It quickly dawned on me that I was approaching a subject that was having a very serious influence-our climate and its deleterious influence. I thought that it would become a greater problem and so I started the All Party Climate Change Group in 2005. I have a long-term interest in environmental issues going back to the 1980s when I was campaigning against nuclear and have long felt that environmental policy was the Cinderella of politics. If you look at the opinion polling that was done at the time of the last election, the environment did not even come in the top ten in terms of public importance. I think that may change with the increased coverage of climate change. We need to make sure people really get to grip with the issues, to understand the severity of the problem that we face.
 Encouraging MPs to reduce their carbon footprints

When we launched the All Party Group we also launched the 25/5 challenge to reduce personal carbon emissions by 25 percent over five years. Sixty MPs have signed up.

Discussing issues

We have had a very full programme of meetings on the European Trading Scheme (ETS), the Climate Change Bill, building regulations and embedded carbon product labelling-we have recently had Tesco, Walkers Crisps and Boots talk to us about that. Our general focus tends to be on the institutional arrangements to tackle climate change.
 A political consensus

We had an enquiry last year which looked at whether it would be desirable to have a cross-party consensus on climate change policies. All the parties were agreed that climate change is happening and that it is anthropogenic in nature. We agree that tough measures should be taken but once you go beyond that the consensus begins to break down. Our second enquiry is going to consider the level of targets that we should have in the Climate Change Bill.

Reducing emissions

My preferred option is the route of personal carbon allowances, where people have a carbon allowance which reduces every year in order for us to meet our national targets.  What you do with your personal carbon allowance is entirely up to you. You can either use it all or you can sell the surplus. And if you need more you can buy them on the market. That leaves the choice of how you live your life up to you - without having to be taxed. The trading of personal carbon allowances requires people to pay directly to the people who are in surplus and generally speaking poorer people tend to use less energy.

One wouldn't simply introduce an allowance system in isolation. We would improve public transport, make options better so that people can address the issue of carbon emissions and know that they can reduce them by providing good alternatives. It is ridiculous that most car journeys are for three miles or less.
 Climate change policy

The Contraction and Convergence Bill died a death at the end of the last session as Private Members' Bills tend to do. I brought it to try and put a legislative footing to the contraction and convergence framework.

Trading is one of the main mechanisms by which we are going to get efficient transfers of investment to avoid development using fossil fuels. If you focus only on the top 15 emitters, who may well be responsible for 75 percent of global emissions, what then is there to stop, large, dirty industries from relocating to those countries not part of the global agreement? So you need a global agreement with 100 percent involvement, as the Indian Government has argued. We need all our actions to add up to something significant.

*Aneeta Ahluwalia is a member of CIWEM's Air Panel.