I want to thank Terry Leahy and Tesco for holding this event. What the massive success of Tesco shows is that you understand consumers - how they think and what they want.
And as I want to argue today, that understanding of consumer behaviour is crucial to the fight against climate change.
If you don't believe me, consider this: if we all turned down the thermostat in our house by just one degree, we would save over £650 million worth of energy and nearly nine million tonnes of carbon emissions every year. That would be the equivalent of taking three million cars off our roads. That's the collective power of individual action, and I want to explain how by harnessing that, we can bring about a Green Consumer Revolution in this country to improve our lives, enrich our economy and protect our environment.
THE THREAT
But first, I want to get a few things straight. There is now widespread agreement about the nature and scale of the threat posed by climate change.
Let me give you just one fact. If the Himalayan glaciers melt, three-quarters of a billion people will be without sufficient water. We cannot pretend that this would not have serious consequences for all of us - in terms of global conflict, the mass movements of people and our national security. Of course, there will always be some who deny the science and the scope of the threat posed.
They say ninety percent certainty is not good enough. But that is not a justification for inaction. I say to them, would you ask your children to live in a house which ninety percent of the experts told you was going to burn down?
INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION
There is also widespread agreement that to tackle climate change, we need international co-operation. Carbon emissions cross countries and continents, so collective action is crucial. We should applaud China's attempts to remake itself into a green energy superpower by doubling its wind power capacity in each of the past four years. But when it is still building one coal-fired power station a week, the need for global collaboration remains stark.
That's why the forthcoming summit in Copenhagen is so important. What we need to see emerge from those discussions is an effective, binding and fair deal to cut carbon emissions that includes all major economies.
GOVERNMENT ACTION
And there is also widespread agreement about the importance of individual governments showing leadership in their own countries. Part of that leadership comes from making clear your commitment to the cause. That's why the Conservatives proposed and then backed a Climate Change Bill with binding targets for reductions in carbon emissions.
But government leadership also means making sure you deliver on that commitment by setting the right frameworks. In some cases, that means imposing tough regulation so certain standards are set. This is what the Conservatives are proposing.
For example, our Emissions Performance Standard will impose new standards on energy production. We have said that any new power plant built in this country must generate energy that is at least as clean as that produced by a modern gas power station - the cleanest and most efficient of the hydro-carbon technologies. It sends a clear signal that dirty energy has no future in the market and that long-term investment decisions must take this into account.
Of course, regulation is not always the most effective tool at the disposal of governments. I believe that co-operation with business is always preferable to coercion. History shows the benefits such an approach can bring. In the 1990s, the Conservative Government set to work with car manufacturers to reduce car crime. Business responded by creating the detachable radio.
And it is in that same spirit that I want to ask you to do something similar today. This country emits an astonishing 800,000 tonnes of carbon a year through leaving electrical appliances ticking over, or on standby, when they're not being used. That's completely unsustainable - as well as a colossal waste of money.
I believe it's time industry manufactured products that automatically economise on their energy use. Televisions should no longer have stand-by modes and washing machines should have the 'low energy' mode as standard. This will not require a giant leap in innovation. It's just the responsible thing to do.
That's why I can announce today the Conservative Party will launch a working group, led by our Shadow Minister for Climate Change Greg Barker, to work with industry to ensure all new appliances and electronic devices sold in the UK have their 'economy' modes as the default setting. We're not doing this to boss business around - we're doing this because we don't want to resort to regulation.
Of course regulation is necessary sometimes, but it should not be the default setting of government. We want to call time on the big government approach. Instead, we want to build a strong co-operative relationship between business and the next Conservative Government: sharing responsibility to bring about a sustainable future.
GREEN CONSUMER REVOLUTION
I believe that idea, sharing responsibility, holds the key to fighting climate change. Yes, international co-operation and government action have vital roles to play. But I think often the most powerful solutions to the problems we face will come from you:
Businesses. Families. Consumers.
Through the products you create and the choices you make, you will be the driving forces behind the sustainable consumption we all want to see. Of course, this requires us to rethink the way we consume the resources around us.
We're not going to get people to cut every aspect of their consumption. But I believe it is realistic to change the culture of consumption, so we live in a country where it's not just about the quantity of money, but the quality of life, where we get more value despite using less resources, and where we continue to generate wealth for our economy while also protecting our environment.
Now, there are some sceptics. They say more meaningful consumption is either disastrous or impossible. They say it is disastrous because it could stifle business and damage our economy by limiting our choice. But do they know what goes on in business day in, day out?
Creative people cut costs without cutting corners or cutting quality. Through innovation they get more for less. That's the same principle we've got to apply to sustainable consumption - getting more value from less resources. And the people who say meaningful consumption is disastrous also say it is impossible, because consumers won't be willing to change. I believe they don't realise just how far ahead the public are on this.
People recognise that the mindless consumption and materialism of the past decade has neither left them more fulfilled nor served our planet. So they want to enter an age of more mindful consumption - where they think more about the consequences of their consumer behaviour.
I think the role of government must be to empower these people - and encourage others to do the same. The question is: how?
I don't think we should resort to the failed methods of the past - simply pulling bureaucratic levers from above and imposing a centralised view of the world through rules, laws and punitive stealth taxation, that just puts people off.
It's not big government we need. It's imaginative government.
For a Green Consumer Revolution to happen, we need government to work with business and consumers. We should use the mechanisms of what we describe as the post-bureaucratic age, creating frameworks rather than rules; influencing behaviour rather than issuing diktats; understanding human behaviour rather than ignoring it.
And I believe there are five particular post-bureaucratic approaches we need to draw on to create a Green Consumer Revolution. First, to give consumers the information to make more responsible choices, we need transparency. Second, to work with the choices people want to make and not against them, we need to go with the grain of human nature. Third, to nudge people towards sustainable consumption, we need to design the right incentives. Fourth, to give businesses the confidence to invest in innovation and create the sustainable products of the future, we need accurate pricing of pollution and waste. And fifth, to encourage people to take action they feel is too expensive, we need to use the power of the profit motive.
Let me take each in turn and give examples of what a Conservative Government would do.
TRANSPARENCY
First, transparency. One of the insights of our times is that information can be used as an extraordinary tool for change.
The simple act of publishing MPs' expenses online has resulted in the biggest shake-up in our democracy for years. It has transformed the culture of MPs' spending at a stroke - and strengthened the lines of accountability between politicians and those who elect them.
In terms of sustainable consumption, I believe transparency can have a similar effect in both the private and public sectors. In the public sector, Conservative-controlled Windsor and Maidenhead Council are showing the way. They are publishing online, in real time, the energy consumption of each of their main council buildings - and setting that against their targets for energy usage. That way, local taxpayers can hold the council to account for failing to meet its own targets. This innovation has already led to a fifteen per cent reduction in energy consumption. That's what is happening in Windsor - imagine if we extended it to every public building in the country?
And when it comes to the private sector, releasing information can have a similarly radical effect. Take, for example, our plans for people's energy bills. At the moment, when your bill comes through the letterbox, you open it to find a lot of small print and just one big thing to catch your eye: the amount you have to pay. We're going to change that. We will require every gas and electricity company to make sure a customer's bill tells them what they would have paid under the lowest tariff available to them - and what they need to do to move on to that tariff.
HUMAN NATURE
There is another change we will bring to people's energy bills, and it links to the second thing that is required for a Green Consumer Revolution: going with the grain of human nature.
In Sacramento, America, a company called Positive Energy started publishing information on energy bills that allowed households to compare their energy consumption with the consumption of other people in their area. And they found something remarkable happened. When people found out their neighbours, or households similar to theirs, were using less energy than they were, they began to bring their consumption down into line.
This understanding of human nature, that one of the most powerful influences on our behaviour is what other people are doing, is why we are going to bring that experiment in Sacramento over to Britain. We will ensure every energy bill publishes information which allows households to compare their consumption to the average consumption of other households. I believe this simple act will transform people's relationship to the energy they use - helping them save money as well as protecting the environment.
INCENTIVES
The next part of the Green Consumer Revolution is designing the right incentives. Too often when government wants to influence people's behaviour, it carries a big stick rather than a carrot. By that I mean it tries to stop something bad from happening by punishing it, rather than encourage something good to happen by rewarding it. If we're going to encourage a Green Consumer Revolution, I believe we need to turn that thinking on its head.
Take the issue of recycling. We have all seen the reaction in this country to the big stick approach of bin charges and snooping. In America, they've taken a different approach - carrots not sticks. There, 500 towns and communities have started paying the public to recycle. It's simple: if you do the right thing, you get vouchers to spend in local shops or to donate to a charity. And it's resulted in a two hundred percent increase in recycling in some areas.
We have now brought this policy to the UK. Conservative councils are piloting similar proposals and recycling rates here have gone up too - by up to thirty percent. That's what I mean by creating the right incentives. And that is how we will stimulate a Green Consumer Revolution.
ACCURATE PRICING
There's a fourth thing a Green Consumer Revolution needs: accurate pricing for waste and pollution. Let me explain why this is so important.
Too often the drive for sustainable consumption focuses on what you can't do: 'you can't fly, you can't drive, you can't buy a new TV'. This doesn't inspire people to change their behaviour - it just annoys them. Instead, we need to focus on what can be achieved - the clean cars, the clean energy technologies, the products and services that will transform our environment and our economy.
But these won't be created by magic - they take time and money to research, develop and invest in. And businesses will only put in that time and money if they are confident that there will always be a place for these products in the market. There is no absolute way governments can create that certainty.
But if government put a realistic cost on pollution and waste, it can help. This act would force whole industries to change in order to survive. Car manufacturers would have to make cars that are more fuel efficient. Electrical goods companies would have to create products that are durable. Supermarkets would have to reduce packaging. That's why a future Conservative Government will put a real price on pollution and waste in our economy - and one that is here to stay.
So we will replace the Climate Change Levy, which is a tax on energy, with a proper carbon tax that targets the most polluting sources of energy. This means clean companies will have the edge and the most polluting ones will be left behind. And we will also put a floor under the 2013 level of landfill tax at £72 per tonne until 2020. In other words, the tax is here to stay and it will continue to rise. This will send the clearest signal out to businesses: you must take the cost of waste into account, so you must take steps to design it out of the products you develop.
PROFIT MOTIVE
The fifth way we can encourage a Green Consumer Revolution is to use the power of profit to encourage sustainable consumption. In key areas of sustainable consumption, Britain lags behind its European counterparts.
Last year alone, Germany installed 250 times as many solar panels as in the UK. And houses in Britain are amongst the least energy efficient in the EU.
There's something that connects both these shortcomings: people find taking the right action, be it installing a solar panel or insulating your own home, is prohibitively expensive. We can get round these problems - it just takes a bit of imagination.
Take the issue of people generating their own energy. The reason why Germany is so far ahead of us is because they have a system of what they call feed-in tariffs. That means people who generate their own energy sell it back into the national grid. That way, they can earn money as well as reducing their bills.
We should be equally bold here. Two years ago we announced that a future Conservative Government would introduce a similar system of feed-in tariffs to Britain. And to make sure the system works, we will also give every house a smart meter so the amount of energy they are selling back to the grid can be calculated and they know how much electricity they are generating themselves.
We need to use the same imagination when it comes to making home improvements for energy efficiency. That's where our Green Deal comes in.
It works like this. People will have an independent assessment of what improvements could be made to their homes to save energy and money. They would then get an entitlement worth up to £6,500 to have those improvements carried out at no upfront cost to themselves. Financed by banks, a number of retailers, energy providers, social enterprises and local authorities will carry out the work. And the banks will then get their money back by taking a slice of the savings made in the homeowner's electricity bills. The rest of the saving goes straight into the homeowner's pocket.
It's a triple win. It will create a new competitive market in energy efficiency worth at least £2.5 billion a year. It will create over 70,000 skilled jobs. And it will save an estimated 9.4 million tonnes of carbon. Already some of this country's leading retailers are keen to be involved - and I'm delighted to announce that includes Tesco too, building on their existing Home Insulation Service.
CONCLUSION
My message to you today is one of optimism tinged with urgency. Yes, our resources are low. Yes, our planet is in peril. And yes, the alternative to action doesn't bear thinking about.
But look at what's on our side. Businesses who can make a difference. Consumers who want to make a difference. And a Conservative Party who wants to help both make that difference.
Through transparency, the right incentives, going with the grain of human nature, accurate pricing of pollution and the profit motive, the Green Consumer Revolution is possible.