The Contributions of Chris Huhne
If you type the name of Britain’s former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne, into Google, you will have to trawl through several pages before finding any result which is unrelated to the penalty points scandal he has been embroiled in for more than two years.
15th March 2013 | Peter Rolton: Chairman, Rolton Group
After learning that Huhne would be ending their 26 year marriage to move in with another woman in 2010, Vicky Pryce chose to break her seven year silence on the offence, claiming to have been under duress when she accepted three driving license penalty points for which her husband was responsible.
What stands to be lost from this hugely public trial, aside from Huhne’s personal reputation, is the credibility associated with his work in the sustainable energy sector. Already it is difficult to wade through the debris of the battle far enough to find mention of the progress he has instigated and galvanized, acting as the driving force behind the development of his party’s ‘green’ focus since becoming a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament in 2005.
In fact, were it not for the votes lost in the Christmas 2007 post, Huhne would have made it all the way to the top, taking the title leader of the Lib Dems instead of Nick Clegg; it doesn't take much to imagine the added frenzy that would surround the case had the post come on time... He is recognized for strong leadership qualities, demonstrated by the part he played in crucial negotiations at the 2010 climate change talks in Cancun. With fuel poverty an important consideration for the MP, Huhne also acted as pioneer of the Green Deal in 2011, at a time when concerns over renewable technologies pervaded the media. The nascent success of the scheme appears to be mounting, with reports yesterday claiming that over 1800 Green Deal accredited assessments took place between the end of January and the end of February, far beyond what had been predicted by its many vocal critics.
Huhne’s most recent contribution to the green agenda appears in The Green Book, which was launched two weeks ago. In his chapters, he shows no sign of relenting in his call for a bi-partisan effort to confront the UK’s energy future, for the sake of both investor and end-user security. He writes, ‘When green growth is so crucial, and is responsible for so much of the increased activity in the UK economy, ministers need to show a united front. The future is green….Either we will grow in a green way, or we will not grow at all.’
The fall of Chris Huhne as a person has been well-documented, and arguably well-deserved. Regardless of his personal character, however, Huhne has been and continues to be an active proponent of the movement to a low carbon economy, and it is important that this fact not be lost in the haze which now surrounds his name.
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