Member News
By Sean Beynon - 12th December 2009
As political attention turns to the Copenhagen conference on climate change, the House of Commons' own environmental performance is getting worse, an MP has claimed.
David Heath (Lib Dem, Somerton and Frome) told Members and Commons authorities that they "need to do better" as MPs debated the annual report of the House of Commons Commission, the body that oversees the workings of the house.
Mr Heath cited figures which show that energy use per square metre has increased substantially since 2004/05. He said:
"I was very disappointed that the House was not prepared to accede to the motion that I and my right honourable and honourable friends tabled a few weeks ago, effectively to sign up the House to the 10:10 campaign to reduce our emissions. I was disappointed that apparently we could not even make that an aspiration. We are moving in the wrong direction."
There was some degree of consensus on the issue. For the Conservatives, Shailesh Vara (Con, North-West Cambridgeshire), said:
"There has not been the reduction in energy use that we would have liked to achieve; in fact, there has been a six per cent increase.
"I accept that the size of the estate has also increased, but given that all of us in this place are in the business of asking people outside to try to conserve energy, we need to lead by example."
Barbara Keeley (Lab, Worsley) was, she said, a supporter of the popular 10:10 campaign. She agreed that more needed to be done, "because we shall otherwise be very much pressed to do so by our constituents".
The Commission's spokesman, Nick Harvey (Lib Dem, North Devon) assured members that work was being done to put the Commons' own house in order. He said:
"I reassure Members that both the director general of facilities and the whole management board take the issue seriously. Nearly a year ago we appointed someone to the new post of head of environment, charged with tackling the issue.
"A detailed environmental assessment is being carried out and early next year I expect to see significant recommendations on how we will tackle those issues, including some challenging changes that we will have to make.
"However, it was not possible to sign up to the 10:10 campaign and state that we could achieve a 10 per cent improvement during 2010.
"The Commission considered it and representations were made to us, but we unanimously arrived at the view that we could not sign up to the campaign in all conscience and in good faith, because we could not guarantee that we would achieve its targets."
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd