Environment
Climate change
The canary in the mine.
Miners used to take canaries down mines with them to check for poisonous gases. They were an advance warning of impending problems. That’s what climate change is today – a threat in itself to our survival as a species and a warning of more general ecological collapse.
The evidence from Copenhagen and Cancun suggests that mainstream governments just haven’t grasped the nature and scale of the changes that need to be made, from massive investments in energy saving, to green technologies and infrastructure, to transfers of funds to developing countries. Here in Wales, the Assembly Government has said we can generate all of our electricity from renewable sources, yet recently we failed to meet our targets for renewable generation.
Human-made climate change is an unprecedented threat to our welfare. But only the Green Party understands that this is just one sign of the stress our economies and lifestyles put on the environment.
With this in mind, we would set the Assembly the target of cutting CO2 emissions by 10% per annum on 1990 levels, with the long term of aim of cutting emissions by 65% by 2020 and 90% by 2030. The current 3% target within devolved areas is nowhere near sufficient. Other political parties will have you believe that it’s just an isolated problem. But it’s not. It’s a sign of what’s to come unless we get our planetary home in order. Our manifesto therefore tackles climate change and environmental degradation throughout, as a part of a greater systemic problem.
In the current economic climate it is easy for the main parties to appear green as environmentally destructive projects are postponed by financial reasons. We are concerned that when finances improve projects such as the M4 relief road and the International Business Park at Junction 33 could be revived. Greens in the Assembly will continue to provide principled opposition to such projects.
