Environmental committee urges body to tackle emission and warns on new housing 鈥榗limate slums鈥�

Gordon Brown should create a new body to tackle climate change, a parliamentary group urged today.

A report by the Environmental Audit Committee said that the Cabinet Office body was sorely needed to 鈥渄rive forward policy and to diminish the potential for a conflict of objectives between the departments鈥�.

Speaking on the Today programme this morning Tim Yeo, the chairman of the group said that the body would need to act similarly to the Treasury to insist on departments acting in the interest of the environment. 鈥淓very department must not bend to their own needs but to the need of reducing carbon emissions.鈥�

And Yeo called for leadership to be taken by prime minister Gordon Brown on the issue. The report, called The structure and operation of Government and the challenge of Climate Change, says that the Government has failed to rise to the challenge of reducing emissions and that the current structure 鈥渉as led to a confusing framework that cannot be said to promote effective action on reducing emissions鈥�.

Adaptation crucial

The report adds that Whitehall needs to create an impact policy framework 鈥渢o help the UK to adapt to the future impacts of climate change鈥�.

鈥淭his is particularly important given the Government鈥檚 plans dramatically to increase house building. It would be disastrous if, as a result of inappropriate planning today, new developments become the 鈥榗limate slums鈥� of tomorrow.

Project management problems

The civil service鈥檚 project management skills were also criticised by the report, which were crucial to changing policy. Failure to address these skill shortages in the civil service will undermine attempts to move the UK to a low carbon economy. The civil service must ensure that climate change is addressed effectively across Whitehall.

The report also recommends that performance-related pay for civil servants is linked to delivering climate change policy.

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