Video of Vince Cable on Green Issues
Vince Cable talks of his green awakening in the 70's and whilst writing the United Nations' Brundtland Report in the 1980's
(Vince will be speaking at the GreenLibDems conference in Nottingham on Saturday 19th May)
Filmed at the Green Lib Dems 30th Birthday Fringe at the Southport Libdem Conference , 10th March 2018.
"How do you reconcile economic growth with sustainability and the environment?"
"How do you move to a hydrogen based rather than a carbon based economy?"
In coalition "one of the most difficult issues on which we engaged with the Tories was about the greening of the economy. Cameron and Osborne had engaged with it in a rather superficial way ... but they weren't willing to take difficult decisions ... we did achieve setting up the Green Investment Bank ... Offshore Wind ... Zero Carbon Homes ... The consequence of which is we do have now the legacy of a very substantial wind sector ... we have now got wind coming in at the same price as gas ... we were blocked in attemtps to provide the same kind of support to solar power ...
All that is because the party was committed to green policies ... we are deeply indebted to the Green Lib Dems ... a lot of those battles are now having to be fought again, there is a danger with the Brexit preoccupation that green issues fall off the agenda ... European co-operation is partly about the environment .. I want to make sure that Green Issues are one of our USPs ... I would hope that when the next election comes we have 4 or 5 key trademark themes, I would want Environment to be up there.
"There is a lot of political upheaval coming up, one of the things I did in the general election - it was controversial in the party - not everyody in the party is happy with it - I did strike an agreement with Caroline Lucas that we would not contest her seat and she agreed in return not to contest mine and Richmond, something remarkable happened, friendships were established. I had the green candidate going round the doorsteps with me, campaigning jointly. I felt we'd entered into a kind of social contract with them. And in the local elections in a few weeks time we have agreed to let the green candidates have some of the slots on our list of candidates - we have multi member wards .. I know this is controversial, but i think it is important when we are essentialy fighting the same battle we should be pragmatic and work along people who share the same values."
Questions on Tidal Power at Swansea Bay, green campaigning, green jobs, plastic cups tax, links with the Green Party, VAT on take away food,
"Because both we and the Greens are both bottom up parties, its difficult and probably wrong to try and impose these things from the top. There are parts of the country where relationships between the two parties aren't particulary good, (Bristol) , but there are parts like mine where there is a real eagerness to work together because essentially we have the same views ... I want to see us make some progress ... there is this thing called "The narcissism of small differences".
https://events.libdems.org.uk/
Vince will be speaking at the GreenLibDems conference in Nottingham on Saturday 19th May)