Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MEP today sharply criticised world leaders over the outcome of the Copenhagen climate summit.
Caroline Lucas said today: "World leaders have failed us, producing nothing but an empty accord which is not fair, not ambitious and not legally binding."
She warned: "Unless real action is urgently taken, we are on course for a global temperature rise well above 2 degrees, putting the future of millions at risk. So we need to keep up the pressure on politicians to agree a swift deadline for a further agreement, based on fairness and containing ambitious, binding targets alongside significant additional funding for poorer countries."
She explained: "The industrialised countries, as those most responsible for the climate crisis, need to do much more. The EU, for example, should show real leadership by offering the unconditional 40 per cent domestic emission cuts by 2020 which the science demands."
"We must change climate discourse to emphasise social benefits of cutting carbon"
Caroline Lucas concluded: "More than anything, we need to change the discourse around acting to prevent climate chaos, by highlighting the huge number of benefits which action will bring - the millions of new jobs in energy efficiency and renewables, the warmer homes and better public transport.
"Politicians shouldn't be afraid of this agenda - they should be actively promoting it."