Miliband says government is accountable on targets

Energy and Climate Change secretary Ed Miliband today defended the government's chances of meeting carbon budgets set by the climate change committee yesterday amid widespread skepticism at the annual CBI conference on climate change.

Lord Adair Turner's committee set the upper limits of emissions that can be produced over a five-year budgetary period yesterday, with the first period ending in 2012.

The government agreed not to emit more than the equivalent of 3,018 million tonnes of CO2 in that period, with increasingly strict targets for five-year periods thereafter.

But at the CBI conference this morning, a show of hands revealed very few delegates believed that the government was capable of delivering on the targets, highlighting a fear that the government is not accountable.

Mr Miliband defended the carbon budget scheme and said that the climate change committee would hold the government to account over targets, even if Labour were not still in power.

"Of course I can't guarantee that my department will not be closed down, or that I will not be sacked, but we will have to issue annual short-term progress reports," he said.

"The point of the climate change committee is to make long-term decisions and predictions and provide a public and independent voice and a body that will continue to hold government to account."

CBI members also raised concerns that any potential political changeover would provide an uncertain regulatory regime for the move to a low carbon economy when certainty was needed.

Shadow climate change minister Greg Clarke said he was aware of this issue and that the Tories would make their regulatory position clear next year and stick to it should they win the next general election.

"There is a great tendency for ministers to do something flashy and new," he said. "I will not be tempted to instigate [policies] so I can pull a rope and unveil a plaque."

Tom Crotty, chairman of plastics firm INEOS Chlorvinyls, said consistency is vital in the current economic climate.

"In a recession you have to ensure that investments are rewarding," he said. "We need to be confident that a change of government will not mean a change of regulation."