Local Greens' Verdict On Government's New Climate Change Bill: Could Do Much Better15th November - Very recent scientific data from studies monitoring changes already happening to the planet show that:
Meanwhile, the government has included a bill intended to address the problem, in the Queen's Speech, today. Councillor Rupert Read, Norfolk Green Party Press Officer, said on behalf of Norfolk Green Party, "This bill seems to be an excuse for inaction; it makes it look as though the government is doing something, but doesn't commit it to do anything at all, because the targets in it are all so long-term... This bill will not result in Britain playing its part in stopping dangerous climate change. We must have binding annual targets for climate-dangerous CO2 emissions-reductions. Climate experts at UEA and worldwide are saying that cuts of 60% in emissions levels by 2030 (see chart below - the orange line indicates the government's planned targets; the Green Party believes that one of the lines lower on this graph indicate what stabilising the climate will actually require) are needed globally; this corresponds to an 80-90% cut by the UK by 2030, and this is what we would recommend as an aspiration. At an absolute minimum, cuts of 80-90% in emissions levels by 2050 are what is needed; not cuts of only 60% by 2050, as the government's bill proposes... The government has got to do much better than this. If we in Britain are to make cuts of 80-90%, desperately needed in order to stabilise the climate, then that means cuts of at least 6% per annum, starting now. That's why Green Party policy is for binding targets of 6% cuts per annum. And maybe, if those targets weren't met, it would help if ministers' pay were to be cut, instead?... Norfolk Green Party Councillors urge the government to implement 'carbon rationing' and a huge investment programme in renewable energy now. You can't negotiate with nature. Britain has to make the serious cuts that the essential goal of stabilising the world's climate requires."
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