How green is Brown?

Zac Goldsmith and John Gummer's Quality of Life Commission will publish its recommendations this week. I understand that among the proposals will be a call for a moratorium on airport expansion – certainly in the South-east – and a re-evaluation of the roads enlargement programme.

Given that road transport already accounts for about a quarter of Britain's carbon footprint and that aviation is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions, these are sensible ideas. But while all the talk will be about whether or not David Cameron will take their thorough work on board, the real question is – will Brown?

With a panel of UN appointed climate scientists suggesting we have as little as eight years to stop the build-up of climate-changing emissions from reaching a tipping point, it's what our Government does now that counts. And that's what's so worrying. Last week, in a clunkingly symbolic gesture, he poached the former Tory donor and green enthusiast Johan Eliasch to boost his eco-cred. Every indication, though, suggests that Gordon Brown lacks a serious and coherent approach to cutting carbon. He remains wedded to the old-fashioned economic orthodoxies of continuous growth that could be fatal for the future of the earth.

Take aviation. The Government is committed to a near tripling of air passengers by 2030 – in flat contradiction to the scientists' explicit warnings. The Tyndall Centre – the country's most credible climate research station – reports that at current rates of growth aviation could account for 100 per cent of the UK's carbon "budget" by 2050. And yet there are those who say aviation is getting too much attention.

The main source of transport emissions isn't runways but roads, so shouldn't we be panicking about those? Yes, we should. Labour is committed to a £13bn roads programme – even bigger than the Tories' controversial plan that Labour inherited in 1997. The M1 alone is expected to generate 186,000 tons a year of extra CO2. The author Mark Lynas has calculated that 1,500 times more is being spent on widening the M1 than is spent on domestic renewable energy generation through the low-carbon buildings programme.

With roads and runways alike, Brown seems intent on tarmacking over mounting opposition, demonstrated most colourfully at last month's climate camp. Documents obtained last week by the MP Justine Greening show the extent to which the Government is colluding with BAA. Our Government and this wretched airport company are attempting to ensure that the forthcoming "consultation" on a third runway and sixth terminal at Heathrow is engineered to minimise resistance. This is in spite of ministers' admission that the aviation industry alone is responsible for at least 13 per cent of the UK's climate impact.

In other words, Brown's team is going out of its way to allow that figure to increase dramatically. They've even gone so far as to provide BAA access to highly confidential environmental test result data – information that is still denied to opposition MPs, green groups and, most importantly, the public.

A pattern is emerging with these so-called "public consultations". Apart from a few crony appointments, they provide the only tangible evidence of Brown's promised "new type of politics". The PM recently said: "The big challenges we face as a country – security, global competition, climate change – can no longer be solved by the old politics. I believe that Britain needs a new type of politics. A politics built on engaging with people, not excluding them."

He may say he doesn't want to exclude them, but that isn't the reality. On Friday, six leading environment groups, including my organisation – Greenpeace – as well as WWF and Friends of the Earth, pulled out of the energy consultation, calling it a "sham". Little has changed since the High Court in February called the previous energy consultation "seriously flawed" and "manifestly inadequate and unfair". The new consultation claims nuclear generation is cheaper than wind, although government figures say the opposite. It takes some gall to mislead the public so brazenly and defy the High Court.

It's no wonder Brown doesn't want to hear any dissenting voices. Nuclear new build would reduce the UK's carbon footprint by just 4 per cent, but at a cost of tens of billions that could take Britain into a low-carbon, clean energy future if spent elsewhere. Even ignoring the fact that new nuclear power stations cannot come online until 2017 at the earliest, the 6.7 million tons of carbon the Government wants to save through a nuclear programme will be more than wiped out if ministers approve the new generation of coal-fired power stations now under consideration. If Brown wants to be taken remotely seriously on the environment, he should make sure short shrift is given to an application in Kent to build the first new coal-fired plant in more than 30 years. If not, more applications will follow, guaranteeing Britain misses its climate obligations.

If Gordon Brown was really listening, he'd understand the potential for what is called Combined Heat and Power (CHP) on industrial sites and in communities. At present our centralised power stations waste two-thirds of the energy they generate in the form of waste heat – that's the steam you see floating from cooling towers. According to the Government's own figures, by capturing that heat and using it with CHP technology, the nuclear programme could be shelved, giving us cheaper and cleaner fuel. Current policy means that the market is stacked against low-carbon forms of power and requires major reform if it is to reward generation more suited to climate and energy security.

The Stern Review made it clear: the cost of implementing these types of measures are a tiny fraction of the cost of failing to do so, but Brown seems not to have listened. Like it or not, he is likely to be remembered, more than for anything else, for what he did to halt the climate crisis. Almost by accident, the man who hates taking risks has become our leader at a time when seriously bold action is required. So far, he has shown little sign of changing.

This article was first published in 'The Independent on Sunday' on 9th September 2007.