UK To Lead World In
Climate Change FightBy Joe Churcher
14 March, 2007
The IndependentBritain will lead the world towards combating climate change, Tony Blair vowed today. He unveiled a "revolutionary step" in the Government's blueprint for reducing harmful emissions, binding the UK to a 60-per-cent cut by 2050.
And Chancellor Gordon Brown urged the country to get behind the efforts in the same way it did with the Make Poverty History movement.
The Prime Minister spoke out as he unveiled the proposals to an audience of teenagers in Downing Street.
He told them: "Every generation of political leaders is confronted by a major and often different challenge.
"People that have been in Downing Street over the years have faced issues to do with the Cold War, the Depression and the rise of fascism.
"Climate change is a bit of a different type of challenge but a challenge I believe is the biggest long-term threat facing our world."
He said: "This is a revolutionary step in confronting the threat of climate change. It sets an example to the rest of the world but, as important as anything else, it listens and responds to the strong desire on the part of the British people to take the lead and to keep it."
The draft Climate Change Bill also sets an interim target of a 26-per-cent to 32-per-cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020.
Legally-binding carbon "budgets" will be set to ensure Britain remains on target to meet those figures, and progress will be reported to Parliament annually.
But opposition politicians, while welcoming the proposals, have called for them to be strengthened further - including making the binding targets annual.
Mr Brown - who went head to head with Tory leader David Cameron on the issue yesterday - said: "The lesson of climate change is that each of us can make a difference but all of us together can make an even bigger difference."
Future chancellors would "have to count the carbon just as they count the pennies and they will have to account for the use of the resources of our country just as they account for the use of public money", he said.
"The world is changing in the way in which we measure the impact on the quality of life of what we do, and the approach we are setting out today is not just about a better economics for today and tomorrow, it is about a better quality of life all round.
"And I believe that the movement that started with Make Poverty History to change the way we think about poverty in the world is a movement that can now begin again to make for a sustainable environment.
"And all of us can play our part in making history in the next few years."
He said he would be meeting World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz this evening to press the UK's proposals for "global action" to match domestic efforts.
The youngsters at the event included regional "climate change champions" as well as members of the UK Youth Parliament and pupils from several schools.
They grilled the two politicians - and Environment Secretary David Miliband - on the new policies, which Mr Miliband will present to MPs in a statement this afternoon.
Mr Brown joked: "This is a far better and more informed and better educated audience about the environment than we will find in the House of Commons this afternoon."
© 2007 Independent News and Media Limited
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