IPCC Report: We must go further, faster
02 February 2007
Green Party Female Principal Speaker Siân Berry today said that tomorrow's IPCC report underlines the need for immediate action to drastically reduce carbon emissions:
"This report is a call to arms - we must go further, faster.
"It confirms that the disastrous effects of climate change are already being observed, and that these effects will accelerate significantly without major changes in policy
"We must move rapidly to a Green economy based on need rather than greed.
"The report demonstrates that climate change could be far worse than previously thought, and suggests a mean temperature rise of about 3 degrees C by 2100. This would have devastating effects.
"Sustainability requires a serious commitment to tackling climate change; we must set targets nationally, and campaign globally, within the Contraction and Convergence framework, to limit the global mean temperature rise to 2 degrees C.
"Anything beyond this will challenge and change our civilization beyond recognition.
"The bottom line is that the amount of carbon going into the atmosphere is unsustainable and the rate of accumulation appears to be accelerating, not slowing, nor, as is needed, reversing.
"The government must bridge the gulf between their rhetoric and their actions. Will this report have any effect whilst Blair is busy trying to save his reputation and his environment minister is sponsoring a huge expansion in aviation?"
Derek Wall, Green Party Male Principal Speaker added that the Green Party had the policy answers to climate change:
"We need an end to road building and new airports; a moratorium on all new fossil fuels extraction; the rapid phase-out of coal for energy; cancellation of airport expansion plans, a tax on aviation fuel and plane tickets, and an end to short haul flights; abandonment of fossil fuel-intensive industrial agriculture in favour of decentralised, locally-grown, sustainable food sources; drastic increases in energy conservation; and the immediate transition to clean energy sources such as wind, solar and tidal power.
"Hair-shirtism is no option.We must make the move to an ecologically sustainable society as enjoyable as possible. Local production for local need, a huge expansion of public transport and renewables, zero waste and all the rest are possible. Ecologically sensitive and diverse forms of economics that meet the needs of those most in need must be preserved and extended.
"The most important part of change will be the demand that policy is governed not by the needs of more economic growth but on the basis of what is good for humanity and the rest of nature."
ENDS
