Global warming

Philip Bagwell argues that the renationalisation of the rail network must be a priority in tackling global warming A CCORDING to Sir John Houghton, a leading authority on climate change and for many years Chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, global warming occurs when the heat radiated from the sun is out of balance with the thermal heat emitted from the earth. The greater volume of carbon dioxide CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gasses from the eight leading industrial nations is causing the average global temperature to increase, significantly affecting the climate. Many people may consider that somewhat warmer 0.9 centigrade is a blessing. Although this seems a small rise it is having devastating effects on some parts of the globe. Glaciers in the Himalayas and the Andes are rapidly melting and large areas of the Bengal plain and Venezuela and Peru will suffer drought. Both the food imports and the manufactured goods exports of the UK will be seriously depleted. Millions of pounds worth of damage has also been caused to houses in the Humber estuary and the Wash. Meeting in Kyoto in 1997, the represen- tatives of 122 nations agreed to cut their CO2 emissions by an average of five per cent by 2000. The United States was the most important exception, claiming that its trade balance would be adversely affected if it signed up. On the other hand Britain had been too optimistic, promising at times that it would reduce emissions by 20 per cent by 2004, and it was falling far behind that target. Recently the media were stressing how wind power and solar power could be harnessed for reducing dependence on carbon fuel, mostly oil and kerosene. In June Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for the Environment, told The Guardian that Tony Blair is a world leader and everyone is looking for a lead on this to be given by him in the 2005 General Election. A few days later the same paper showed a photograph of him looking at some solar silicon panels and saying that, indeed, it would be a priority for the next Labour government. But the scale of the thinking that was needed on this proposal was revealed a few days later when a telephoto lens photograph taken in Germany, showed what was claimed to be the largest solar energy assembly panel in Europe; but it only generated energy for 2,000 households, or approximately 1/1,550 of the amount required. Wind turbines have also been erected in large numbers in areas such as the Humber estuary and the Wash, but environmentalists say that the number of wild birds killed by the turbines each year is too high a price to pay for that installation. What is amazing in RMT news – Global warming Tackling global warming TRAFFIC: Britain is failing to meet the Kyoto target of CO2 and other poisonous emissions Photo: Paul Mattsson/reportdigital.co.uk 26 27 all this upsurge of interest in this subject is the complete absence of any suggestions for reforms to the transport industry, whether privately or publicly owned. Privatisation of transport The impact of legislation passed by the conservative government of Margaret Thatcher and John Major is part of the explanation as to why Britain is failing to meet the Kyoto target of CO2 and other poisonous emissions in the last quarter century. The Bus Act of 1985 introduced a large element of laissez-faire policy into the provision of the bus services. As one example, before 1985 buses in Doncaster were owned and run by the municipality. After 1985 a private company succeeded in driving the municipal fleet off the road by charging (for a time) lower fares and making timetable adjustments. When the municipal service was bankrupted and withdrawn from service, the newcomer company greatly reduced the services it delivered ‘off peak’. In the Aberystwyth area, north west Wales, similarly, there was a virtual absence of ‘off peak’ services. These were circum- stances that persuaded many inhabitants of surrounding villages that the case for purchasing a second hand car looked more attractive than it had been. ROSCO rip-off The Tory government’s Railways Act of 1993 included provisions for the creation of three Rolling Stock companies, or ROSCOs, which were sold to BR at a low price and then resold to Angel Trains, Eversholt and HSBC, at very handsome profits. The three, all owned by banks, have been accused of running a cartel. They were virtually given British Rail’s entire fleet of trains when the railway was privatised, and they’ve been charging the earth for them ever since. The price paid by TOCs to the ROSCO; for hiring rolling stock is not generally available, for commercial reasons. However, the train company that runs rail services on the Isle of Wight has paid out a staggering £1.2 million over the last eight years to lease 66-year old trains that don’t even have scrap value. Island Line, one of 26 passenger franchises created by rail privatisation, receives just over £2 million a year in public subsidy. It runs the tiny rail franchise that operates an eight and a half mile service between Ryde and Shanklin, pays £140,000 a year to rolling stock leasing company HSBC Rail (part of the HSBC banking group) for six pre-Second World War ex-London Underground trains. When I travelled on them last month I had one of the bumpiest and most wobbly journeys I had ever experienced. If the other ROSCOs are like this one then it is high time they were transferred to the public sector. The establishment of 25 Train Operating Companies TOCs was also a recipe for delayed services at the interchange points on the network. The rail network, stations and signalling was entrusted to the non-elected Board of Directors the executive members of which had experience in financial management, but knew very little about railway engineering. Cheap flights In the decade from 1992 to 2002 domestic and internalised flights from UK airports rose by more than a third from 794,000 to 1,114,000. This impressive increase was primarily due to British citizens flying abroad for their holidays rather than by using ferry or Eurostar. The Observer’s transport correspondent, Joanne Walters, braving the air lobby’s criticism, headed her article in May 12 2002, Save the Planet: Stay on the ground. Through government policies of not charging VAT or aircraft fuel and giving grants to air travel firms starting businesses, air fares had fallen by forty per cent in the previous quarter century and Friends of the Earth reported that, over short distances of less than 350 miles, air travel produces around three times more carbon dioxide per passenger kilometre than does rail. These statements support the findings of the Commission for Integrated Transport which reported that ‘domestic aircraft have CO2 emissions per passenger kilometre many times higher than that of high speed rail’. Renationalise The three rail unions have been on record as advocating renationalisation. They should now have a united, patriotic, campaign to ensure that the resolution for such a move, overwhelmingly carried at Labour Party Conference, becomes the law when the new government is formed after next year’s election. RMT news – Global warming ANTARCTICA BREAKING APART: Satellite images reveal the break up of 1,300 square miles of the Larsen B ice shelf, a large floating ice mass on the eastern side of the Antarctic, which has separated from the continent over a 35-day period. It has been described as the biggest event of its kind in 30 years in a new alarm over global warming.