It does, however , contain environmental and energy policies, including support for
more nuclear, both fission and fusion.
One of Boris
Johnson’s introductory pledges (he calls them ‘guarantees’ reads: “Reaching Net
Zero by 2050 with investment in clean energy solutions
and green infrastructure to
reduce carbon emissions and pollution.”
Here are the other green ( or anti-green
transport) policies, I have found:
Parliament has voted in principle
to support a
third runway at
Heathrow, but it is a private sector
project. It is for Heathrow to
demonstrate that it can meet its air
quality and noise obligations, that
the project can be financed and
built and that the business case is
realistic. The scheme will receive no
new public money. More broadly,
we will use new air traffic control
technology to cut
the time aircraft
spend waiting to land, reducing
delays, noise nuisance and pollution.
We will also build
on Britain’s
pioneering work in electric and
low-carbon
flight.
In the next Parliament, we expect to
train up hundreds of thousands more
highly skilled apprentices. But we will go
further and require
significant numbers
of new UK apprentices for all big new
infrastructure projects – new hospitals,
new schools, major transport projects
and
so on
Places we want to live in
Beautiful, high-quality homes.
We
will
ask every community to decide
on
its own design standards for new
development,
allowing residents a
greater
say on the style and design of
development
in their area, with local
councils
encouraged to build more
beautiful
architecture.or new
Environmentally friendly homes.
We
will
support the creation of new kinds
of
homes that have low energy bills
and
which support our environmental
targets
and will expect all new streets to
be lined
with trees.
Homes for the Future.
We will
encourage
innovative design and
technology
to make housing more
affordable,
accessible, and suitable
for
disabled people and an ageing
population.
The Green Belt. We will
protect
and
enhance the Green Belt. We will
improve
poor quality land, increase
biodiversity
and make our beautiful
countryside
more accessible for local
community
use. In order to safeguard
our
green spaces, we will continue to
prioritise
brownfield development,
particularly
for the regeneration of our
cities
and towns.
The Conservatives have pledged £9.2
billion to improve the energy efficiency of homes, schools and hospitals, as
they make a pitch to voters concerned about the environment. Funding will
include £6.3 billion to install energy saving measures to cut bills in 2.2
million homes, with a focus on social housing and people in fuel poverty, the
Tories say. The plans are part of efforts to meet the legal target to cut
greenhouse gas emissions to zero overall by 2050 to tackle climate change. (“Tories
pledge £9.2bn toward energy efficiency push in homes, hospitals and schools,” Energy Voice, 25 November
2019
https://www.energyvoice.com/other-news/212718/tories-pledge-9-2bn-for-energy-efficiency-in-homes-hospitals-and-schools/)
Under the
sub-heading ‘Unleash innovation’ it
records:
We need to use science and research
to unite and level up our country,
giving people opportunity and hope.
Once we have got Brexit done, we
will turn our attention to the great
challenges of the future such as clean
energy and advanced energy storage;
We are committing to the fastest
ever increase in domestic public R&D
spending, including in basic science
research to meet our target of 2.4 per
cent of GDP being spent on R&D across
the economy. Some of this new spending
will go to a
new agency for high-risk,
high-payoff research, at arm’s length
from government. We will continue to
support our outstanding science sector
as we leave the EU.
We will use our £1 billion Ayrton
Fund to develop affordable and
accessible clean energy that will
improve lives and help us to lead the
world in tackling climate change
Oil and gas sector deal: The oil
and gas industry employs almost
300,000 people, of whom four in 10
work in Scotland. We believe that
the North Sea oil and gas industry
has a long future ahead and know
the sector has a key role to play as
we move to a Net Zero economy.
We will support this transition
in the next Parliament with a
transformational sector deal.
Stewards of our
environment
Our Environment Bill will guarantee
that we will protect and restore our
natural environment after leaving
the EU. Because conservation has
always been at the very heart of
Conservatism.
We
will set up a new independent
Office For Environmental Protection
and introduce our own legal
targets,
including for air quality.
We
will invest in nature, helping us
to reach our Net Zero target with a
£640 million new Nature for Climate
fund. Building on our support for
creating a Great
Northumberland
Forest, we will reach an additional
75,000 acres of trees a year by the
end of the next Parliament, as well as
restoring our peatland.
We
welcome the Glover Review
and will create
new National Parks
and Areas of Outstanding Natural
Beauty, as well as making our most
loved landscapes greener, happier,
healthier and open to all. We will
make the coast to coast path
across the most beautiful areas of
the North a National Trail.
We
will continue to lead the world
in tackling plastics pollution, both
in the UK and internationally, and
will introduce a new levy to increase
the proportion of recyclable plastics
in packaging. We will introduce
extended producer responsibility,
so that producers pay the full
costs of dealing with the waste
they produce, and boost domestic
recycling. We will ban the export
of plastic waste to non-OECD
countries, consulting with industry,
NGOs and local councils on the
date by which this should be
achieved.
We
will crack down on the waste
and carelessness that destroys
our natural environment and
kills marine life. We will increase
penalties for fly-tipping, make
those on community sentences
clean up their parks and streets,
and introduce a deposit return
scheme to incentivise people to
recycle plastic and glass.
Fight climate
change and
protect the
environment
Conservation is, and always has
been, at the heart of Conservatism.
Our Government’s stewardship of
the natural environment, its focus
on protecting the countryside and
reducing plastic waste, is a source of
immense pride.
But today, the climate emergency
means that the challenges we face
stretch far beyond our borders.
Thanks to the efforts of successive
Governments, the UK has cut carbon
emissions by more than any similar
developed country. We are now the
world’s leader in offshore wind – a
fantastic success story of Government
and the private sector working hand
in hand to cut costs and deliver ever
more electricity at plummeting costs.
Unlike Jeremy Corbyn, we believe
that free markets, innovation and
prosperity can protect the planet.
Yet we recognise that there is far more
that needs to be done.
We
will lead the global fight against
climate change by delivering on our
world-leading target of Net Zero
greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,
as advised by the independent
Committee on Climate Change.
We have doubled International
Climate Finance. And we will use
our position hosting the UN Climate
Change Summit in Glasgow in 2020
to ask our global partners to
match
our ambition.
We
will set up new international
partnerships to tackle deforestation
and protect vital landscapes and
wildlife corridors. We will establish a
new £500 million Blue Planet Fund to
help protect our oceans from plastic
pollution, warming sea temperatures
and overfishing, and extend the
Blue Belt programme to preserve
the maritime environment. We will
continue to lead diplomatic efforts
to protect 30 per cent of the world’s
oceans by 2030.
Our first Budget will prioritise the
environment: investing in R&D;
decarbonisation schemes; new flood
defences, which will receive £4 billion
in new funding over the coming
years; electric vehicle infrastructure
including a national plug-in network
and gigafactory; and clean energy.
In the next decade, we will work with
the market to deliver
two million new
high quality jobs in clean growth. We
have ambitious targets:
Our
world-leading offshore wind
industry will reach 40GW by 2030,
and we will enable new floating wind
farms.
We
will invest £800 million to build
the
first fully deployed carbon capture
storage cluster by the mid-2020s.
We
will invest £500 million to help
energy-intensive industries move to
low-carbon techniques.
We
will support gas for hydrogen
production and nuclear energy,
including fusion, as important parts of
the energy system,
alongside increasing
our commitment to renewables.
We
placed a moratorium on fracking
in England with immediate effect.
Having listened to local communities, we
have ruled out changes to the planning
system. We will not support fracking
unless the science shows categorically
that it can be done safely.
We
will help lower energy bills by
investing £9.2 billion in the energy
efficiency of homes, schools and
hospitals.
We
will support clean transport to
ensure clean air, as well as setting
strict
new laws on air quality. We will consult
on the earliest date by which we can
phase out the sale
of new conventional
petrol and diesel cars.
“We should not doubt Mr Johnson’s
environmental credentials. Just look at the way he recycles mouldy gags. The
‘single crouton in the minestrone of Labour’s Brexit policy,’ the ‘just add
water’ line about his own EU departure deal: these and other used routines were
trotted out again,” observed The Times’ Quentin
Letts in his sketch on the Tory Manifest launch in Telford.
