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Greens condemn Lords Economic Affairs Committee report

6th Jul 2005

Report is "scientifically flawed"

Caroline Lucas MEP has today responded to the House of lords Economics Affairs Committee report with a scathing attack on the 'unhelpful' nature of the report.

"This report is an extraordinarily unhelpful contribution to the debate, and a kick in the teeth for climate campaigners. As the G8 Summit in Gleneagles gets underway, we need to be building political momentum for urgent action on greenhouse gas emissions reductions, not presenting bogus arguments to and the contrary. To intervene at this moment with such a flawed report is the height of irresponsibility.

"The Committee report says that focussing on emissions reductions is likely to fail - yet it is widely accepted that unless we dramatically reduce emissions, we will not be able to seriously address climate change. The Government's own Sustainable Development Commission has said that resource efficiency alone will not be enough to achieve the changes we urgently need.

At the Climate Conference convened by the Government in Exeter in February, it was made clear that we have just ten short years in order to take action - if we follow the advice of this report, it makes it even less likely that we will act in time.

The report would be laughable were the issue not so serious. It says that the "positive aspects of global warming appear to have been downplayed" in the IPCC reports. I wonder which aspects those are - the widespread hunger, the total flooding of islands like Tuvalu, the spread of diseases like Malaria, or the mass migration which will come in their wake?

After two leaked communiques from the G8 summit, which were weak and disappointing enough, we didn't expect things could get any worse. Yet this report takes us ten steps backwards in terms of trying to deal with the climate crisis. It is scientifically flawed, economically illiterate, and environmentally irresponsible, and should be treated with the contempt it deserves."