CLIMATE CHANGE BILL ‘BETTER FOR ENVIRONMENT IF NEVER PRINTED’ – Fiona Hall

Liberal Democrat Energy Spokesperson in the European Parliament, Fiona Hall, has denounced the Climate Change Bill outlined in the Queen’s Speech as a ‘waste of paper’. The Bill proposes to cut UK carbon emissions by 60% by 2050, but has been branded by many different groups, including the Government funded Environment Agency, as setting targets far too low to have any impact on climate change.

The UK’s largest climate change coalition, I Count, protested outside Downing Street and its Director said that a 60% target ‘will not cut carbon’. By globally accepted methodology, a minimum of 80% is required to limit the effects of climate change to an estimated 2^oC rise in global temperatures.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for a 100% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 – making Britain Carbon Neutral.

Commenting on the Bill laid out in the Queen’s Speech, Fiona Hall MEP said:

“The Government is failing us all. This week we heard Barbara Young, Head of the Government funded Environment Agency, say that climate change should be fought like ‘World War Three’ and that current measures are too little, too late.

“The Government needs to be leading on this issue and it is failing in its responsibility to us and future generations if it does not set meaningful targets for carbon emissions.

“Only the Lib Dems are providing answers to the major threat posed by climate change. We do not need more nuclear power stations to hit stringent green targets and, as we have seen this autumn, they are an unreliable source of energy.

"What we need is a major push on energy efficiency and renewables. Yet the Government is doing the bare minimum on energy efficiency and dragging its feet on renewables. Indeed the UK government's intransigency on renewables has been a major factor in delaying new Europe-wide proposals. The Government is blocking the whole of the EU on this.

“Energy efficiency and renewables are the only two routes to achieving dramatic reductions in carbon emissions within the timeframe required to have a positive effect on climate change. The Government’s Climate Change Bill would be better for the environment if it was never printed.”