“Vote blue, go green” under attack

The Financial Times report this morning that:

“Environmentalists are becoming increasingly concerned that a Conservative government could fail to live up to David Cameron’s early promise to put green issues at the heart of government.”

The FT goes on to outline criticism from Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace. It also mentions that the Tory leader’s conference speech contained just “four vague paragraphs” on the environment.

Meanwhile, his speech on Friday on the “Green Consumer Revolution” has been roundly condemned by Green party leader Caroline Lucas.

She said:

“‘Post-bureaucratic’ essentially means Thatcherite. Cameron has shown today that his guiding principle is not that we must make sure we meet our climate targets, it’s that profit must come first and government isn’t allowed to tell manufacturers what to do.

“We didn’t have time to waste last time there was a Conservative government, and we certainly don’t have time to turn the clock back now. Labour have been inadequate, but the Tories in government were a lot worse.

“If we have a Conservative government it will be weak on climate change because it will tiptoe round big business. Cameron has shown today that he daren’t even legislate for energy-efficient TVs, only ‘appeal’ to manufacturers to be ‘responsible’. Well we’ve had decades of that, and it hasn’t worked. We need a government that’s going to take action.”

Left Foot Forward has previously reported that senior Green MEPs regard the Conservative party’s move to a new fringe grouping in the European Parliament as a blow for progress on climate change and Copenhagen negotiations.