from Sunday Herald, 03 June 2007
Scotland's top water watchdog has been branded a "climate denier" and is facing demands that he be sacked because of his anti-environmental views.
Sir Ian Byatt, the chairman of the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, believes there are "great uncertainties" about the causes and consequences of climate change, and "no solid grounds" for immediate action. He has attacked the prime minister, Tony Blair, for being "alarmist" and "mishandling" the issue.
Byatt, a former economic adviser to the Treasury, has also criticised the Stern report, commissioned by the chancellor, Gordon Brown, as "deeply flawed". The report, billed when it was published last year as the most authoritative to date on the economic implications of global warming, was "ill-informed" and "a vehicle for speculative alarmism", Byatt said.
His maverick views have infuriated environmental groups. "Ian Byatt has consistently shown himself to be no friend of the environment," said Dr Richard Dixon, the director of WWF Scotland.
"But actually joining the ranks of the climate deniers takes his disregard for anything green to new levels. Look at any climate denier in detail and you will find they are either pushing a fossil- fuel agenda or simply more interested in their own voice than the facts."
The Water Industry Commission is due to publish its annual report this week, with Byatt predicted to announce "significant benefits" for customers of Scottish Water.
But Dixon pointed out that the publicly-owned water company had a huge role to play in protecting the freshwater and coastal environment.
"Putting Ian Byatt in a position to control its programme is utterly unacceptable and the new government should ditch him as soon as they can," he said.
Byatt, who formerly headed the English water regulator, Ofwat, also came under fire from Duncan McLaren, the chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland. Coping with the floods and shortages caused by the changing climate should be top of the water industry's agenda, he argued.
"Sir Ian Byatt should be ensuring the industry is properly prepared, not adding his voice to an ill-informed chorus of self-interested climate sceptics," McLaren said. "It's the sad truth that lobbying by such sceptics and deniers has prevented timely action to avoid dangerous climate change for far too long already."
Byatt chose to respond by highlighting his record on investment in the water industry. When he was director-general of Ofwat £50 billion was invested in water and sewerage infrastructure in England and Wales, much of it to meet environmental directives, he said.
"As chairman of the commission, we have financed a record investment programme in the water industry in Scotland meeting all the essential and desirable environmental improvements required by ministers," Byatt told the Sunday Herald.
"As regulator, it is our statutory duty to promote the interests of customers. I believe it is important for customers that there is a balance between speed of investment and affordability."
His role was also defended by the Scottish Executive and Scottish Water. "Under Sir Ian Byatt's chairmanship, the Water Industry Commission has played an essential role in enabling Scottish Water to deliver improved performance," said an Executive spokeswoman.
Scottish Water made a similar point, while insisting that it took the threat of climate change seriously. "In recent years we have had to deal with a rise in the number of extreme weather incidents including heavy rainfall and flooding," said the company's head of corporate affairs, Helen Lennox.
The Green Party, however, backed criticisms of Byatt's role, pointing out that he had been behaving "like a water privatisation campaigner". Said the Green MSP Patrick Harvie: "For someone in his position to have a climate sceptic agenda as well is deeply worrying."
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