The Time to Act on Climate Change is Now
Posted by Karen Buck, MP for Regent's Park and Kensington North, at 15:14, Thu 26 October 2006:
A year or two ago, I wrote a piece about ‘The Day after Tomorrow’- that ‘B’ movie style Hollywood take on climate change, in which a single mega-storm ushered in a new ice age. Absurd though the science was (to say nothing of the acting) the film did at least attempt to put a serious issue into a popular entertainment form, which is not a bad thing. Two weeks ago, I took my twelve year old and his friends to see another film on the same theme, this time, starring the man who, in his own self-deprecating words, ‘used to be the next President of the United States’, but who is now touring the world with a compelling slide show about the true science and impact of global warming. Al Gore’s film, ‘ An inconvenient truth’, may lack the dramatic scenes of tidal waves sweeping through Manhattan, but if anything, it is even more sobering in its assessment of the problem, and what we need to do to respond to it.
Some key facts: deaths from global warming are set to double in just 25 years, to 300,000 people a year, as extreme weather events become more common. Global sea levels could rise by up to 20 feet with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica, devastating coastal areas worldwide, and triggering a refugee crisis of unprecedented proportions. More than a million species of plants and animals worldwide are facing extinction within a quarter of a century, threatening the biodiversity upon which food production relies. And this is, with no ifs, buts or prevarications, because human beings are changing the climate, with our factories, cars, planes, heating and air-conditioning.
It is, therefore, welcome news that the government has heeded the warning, and will be introducing a Climate Change Bill in the forthcoming Queen’s Speech, which sets out the legislation for the coming year. I am very strongly supportive of such a Bill, for, even whilst I anticipate some wrangling over the issue of annual targets (the principle is a sound one, the mechanisms can be debated), a legislative framework can only help us in a number of important respects. Firstly, it will raise the profile of climate change as a political issue within Parliament. The government may have been very active on the issue, internationally and domestically (and you can look up the details on the Department of the Environment and Rural Affairs website), but it is simply not good enough to have left such legislation as has been debated so far to private member’s Bills. Secondly, businesses and other agencies need to have the confidence to plan future investment, in the firm knowledge that this is the direction the government will be taking the country. For whilst we undoubtedly need to look at our behaviour and patterns of consumption- and there is much that we can do as individuals to reduce emissions arising from our energy use- we need also to develop the economic and scientific tools. From emissions trading schemes to carbon capture, from micro generation to the development of Clean Development Mechanisms in developing countries, planners and investors have to know that the long-term decisions they must make will not be undermined by fickle short-termism amongst governments.
Of course it remains true that whatever steps are taken by the British government. Our contribution to global warming will be dwarfed by those of the developing economies, like China, India and Brazil. No government can stop global warming alone (though the US government could make a pretty good start!), any more than one citizen can save the planet by buying low-energy light bulbs. However, developed countries like Britain, whose ‘environmental footprint’ far exceeds our size, thanks to our relative prosperity and high levels of consumption, have to lead the way, by example as well as by exhortation. The extent to which countries have effectively collaborated in the past, especially when trading short term for long term interests, does not inspire any of us with confidence. Yet that simply cannot be a counsel of despair. It needs to be a call to action, starting here and starting now.
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Posted by Dónal Traynor, 07:26, Fri 27 October 2006: (Is this post abusive?) #
The government may have been very active in the area of climate change since it came to power, it has also been amazingly ineffective in its failure to reach its own weak targets. It also failed to use its so called special relationship (poodleism) with Bush to push the environmental agenda. Marks out of 10? I say 1.