09/12/2005

Cameron focuses on environment policy

Conservative leader David Cameron has shifted his focus to the environment, with the establishment of a policy group on the environment.

Launching the group at the London Wetland Centre, Mr Cameron said that the environment was central to his political agenda.

Zac Goldsmith, editor of ‘The Ecologist’ magazine and former environment secretary, Sir John Gummer, will lead the policy group.

The policy group will examine issues such as climate change and transport policy, over the next 18 months. Mr Cameron said that the “real test” would come then, when the Tories would show they were prepared to take the necessary “tough decisions” to meet carbon reduction targets and other environmental challenges.

Mr Cameron questioned Tony Blair on climate change during Prime Minister’s questions this week.

However, Labour’s Environment Minister, Ben Bradshaw, said: “We don’t need to wait to know what needs to be done about the environment. As the Prime Minister observed on Wednesday, it is important not merely that we say how much we care about climate change and the environment, but that we take the tough action necessary.

“The Tories may at last have woken up to the fact that people care about these issues but continue to oppose many of the policies that are necessary to deliver real change.

“The Tories need to set out new policies, not platitudes. Otherwise people will conclude that they are simply putting a new gloss on the same old policies."

(KMcA/SP)

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