Meeting with the deputy prime minister : vehicle emissions : government response / Select Committee on Science and Technology.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords. Science and Technology Committee.
Date:
1997
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Meeting with the deputy prime minister : vehicle emissions : government response / Select Committee on Science and Technology. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Lord Flowers contd. ] much in touch with them to try and learn from them the results of their work and we will certainly incorporate that. But in the absence of a final and settled and agreed answer to the second question, what I am really saying is that for the moment nuclear power has something less than a third of electricity generation in this country. That is not asa result of government’s intervention, certainly not the present government, that is the situation we have inherited. It is a situation which will not last, I accept, for very much longer because particularly the magnox reactors do have a limited life and whatever that may be, perhaps another five or ten years, it is difficult really to see beyond that. Then, of course, the energy mix will change in the absence of intervention. In the short-term I do not really see any other option than the answer I gave that nuclear power has a significant role to play and I believe it will have a part in the energy mix for many years to come. 23. Given all that and given that all countries are facing exactly the same problems, nobody is ahead of the United Kingdom or significantly behind it amongst the nuclear powers, some countries are pressing ahead with nuclear power at a great rate, France for instance, and some countries have opted out altogether faced with the same problems. It is the attitude of the government, aided and abetted by Parliament and public opinion of course, which has led to these differences. Again, I say the government cannot just stand back and say “this is nothing to do with us”, it is everything to do with the government’s attitude towards this problem. (Mr Meacher) 1 accept that. I think if one is looking for a long-term energy policy, and any responsible government does need a long-term energy policy, one has to take a view of the proportionate shares of the various energy sources, that is undoubtedly so. I think a decision, as you yourself were saying, with regard to nuclear power must depend on a_ knowledge about decommissioning costs and practicalities and also the management of radioactive waste. There is a great deal of research activity continuing of course at Sellafield with regard to reprocessing, with regard to the development of MOX fuels, all of which are designed to find alternative answers to this question of what to do with spent nuclear fuel. I do not think conclusive answers on any of these questions can be reached. What I think the government should do is, as I say, to identify the process by which a government can responsibly come to the best answer available and that is what we are trying to do. Lord Dixon-Smith 24. Deputy Prime Minister, I am sure all members of our Committee will both understand and appreciate your wish to maximise both the opportunity for and the use of public transport through an integrated transport system. That said, we would be interested to hear your views on the incentives for people to use more fuel efficient and less polluting cars and to encourage manufacturers to move their manufacturing stream in this general direction. (Mr Prescott) Yes, thank you, my Lord. I think your report “Towards Zero Emissions for Road Transport” was a very good and excellent report in the sense that we were able to act on a number of its main recommendations and certainly take it into account in our White Paper. It is one area, an important area, not only in reducing the emissions but at the same time an essential part of any integrated transport policy. We are doing a number of things. We are considering research into the cleaner, more efficient vehicles that we are concerned with through the DTI’s Foresight Vehicle Initiative and the Cleaner Vehicles Task Force in which we are co-operating with industry to see how we might get more efficient vehicles in that sense. Of course, as we have mentioned, we are currently undertaking a fundamental review of transport policy in this sense, that is we have a situation in this country where we have less cars per head than the average developed European economies and yet we use them much more here. I think that is probably one reflection of the type of public transport system we have got here. It may well be to do with the fiscal arrangements concerning cars which you have to look at. Certainly we do tend to use our cars much more even though we have fewer cars per head. That is something that is an important aspect of our review of the transport policy, seeking to use public transport more effectively at present than the singular use of the private car. Indeed, I think I have got myself into controversy on occasions by suggesting that perhaps you could not use the second car and we could encourage you to stay with one car instead of two cars. In fact, in some cases I think in households it might be getting rid of the third or fourth car. I think these are judgments people could make. I cannot really believe that they all have the money simply to have three or four cars in the family, I think it is do with the fact that our public transport system is not integrated sufficiently, is not reliable and we need to do a lot more about that. It is a chicken and egg argument really but I think what we have got to do is to make sure the public transport system is more effective and indeed that is what our White Paper is about. The emphasis is really on integration. How can we get more out of our transport system which will make it more efficient, encourage less use of the motorcar and more efficient use of the transport system? Of course, within that framework we have to look at the fiscal framework. This year the Chancellor has made clear that he will increase road fuel duty by on average at least six per cent a year in real terms. The previous administration had started along this road as well. To that extent we think there is arole for that to play, although the Chancellor has more statements to make about measures that might reduce the fuel consumption by encouraging the purchase and use of more fuel efficient cars. That is certainly one way in which the fiscal framework can play its part. Indeed, there have been major reductions in pollution from new vehicles, largely from tighter emission standards that have been brought about within the European Community itself. My friend, the Minister for the Environment, is very much involved with a lot of the negotiations that have been going on in the Community to get more efficiency, as you suggested in your report. The
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