Tories launch green initiatives

LONDON (Reuters) – The Conservative Party have promised to cut the carbon emissions of government departments by 10 percent within 12 months if elected, saving some 300 million pounds a year.

The Conservatives are currently well ahead in opinion polls and widely expected to win an election against the Labour Party, that must take place by June 2010.

In a major speech on Tuesday, shadow chancellor George Osborne, who is expected to take the post of chancellor, will also promise to create new green tax-free savings accounts, party officials said.

“I want a Conservative treasury to be in the lead of developing the low-carbon economy and financing a green recovery,” Osborne will say, according to extracts from his speech.

“For I see in this green recovery, not just a fight against climate change, but the fight for jobs, the fight for new industry, the fight for lower family energy bills and the fight for less wasteful government.”

The Conservatives will also promise to create a new green investment bank, following consultation, which will draw together money divided across existing government initiatives, and leverage private capital to finance new start-ups.

They also plan to make energy consumption more transparent by publishing online the energy consumption of every government department.

Osborne will also pledge that the first Conservative budget would set out minimum rates for landfill tax until 2020, in a bid to provide companies and councils with certainty and reward households for recycling.

(Reporting by Sumeet Desai; writing by Michael Taylor; editing by Andrew Roche)