A Guardian newspaper survey of British MPs concerning climate change was met by “Stunning apathy, mainly,” says the newspaper today.
Only 11 per cent of the 650 MPs replied to a Guardian survey asking three short "yes or no" questions.
The paper, which wanted to test whether “the UK's new parliament think global warming is happening and manmade” said the survey results showed “worrying apathy,” especially as some 232 of the members elected in May – over one-third – are new to parliament. Only 70 MPs replied to the questions, which asked MPs whether they agreed with these statements:
1. Scientific evidence strongly suggests the world has been warming since the Industrial Revolution and will continue to do so?
2. Scientific evidence strongly suggests that most of this warming is caused by emissions from human activities?
3. The UK government should take urgent action to cut the nation's greenhouse gas emissions, in order to meet a target at least 20% lower by 2020?
Caroline Lucas, Green Party leader and the UK’s first Green MP, answered as follows:
1. Yes of course it does, and has done for many years.
2. Ditto.
3. Yes, but we must emphasise “at least”, because 20% by 2020 would be hopelessly inadequate.
Caroline Lucas today commented on parliament's "lack of wholehearted commitment" to tackling climate change:
“There clearly has been movement in the right direction over the years, but the bottom line is that there still isn't enough urgency or ambition behind action on climate change.
"And most politicians are still far too ready to talk about the difficulties of cutting emissions, when they could be focusing on the benefits – like warmer homes, much better public transport, huge numbers of sustainable jobs, a more stable economy, an end to fuel poverty.
"Radical CO2 reductions brought about by conservation and renewables would also give us energy security and would stabilise energy prices in a way that fossil fuels and nuclear power can’t hope to.
“In the end government doesn’t have the right targets – even 40% global cuts by 2020 would give us only a 50:50 chance of avoiding dangerous climate change.
"The Green Party can show how to deliver 90% cuts by 2030, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process.”
What did the survey demonstrate?
The Guardian acknowledged that it “would be wrong to draw many conclusions from this small and self-selecting sample but perhaps considering the response rate is the safest: 28% of the parliamentary Lib Dem party replied, 19% of Labour and just 2% of Tories. That would fit with many observers' ideas of the importance of the climate change issue to MPs in those parties,” said The Guardian, adding that of the mere seven Tory MPs who responded, one was a moderate climate sceptic and one more a “hard-core” sceptic. The Labour contingent also included “1 hard-core and 1 moderate sceptic,” said the paper.
The climate change and energy secretary, Chris Huhne, climate change minister Greg Barker and energy minister Charles Hendry all supplied three yeses, said The Guardian – adding that none of the three Defra ministers in the Commons bothered to reply.
A Green Party spokesperson commented today:
"It is slightly worrying that only 11 per cent of MPs, including less than a fifth of Labour and much less than one-third of the Lib Dems, could be bothered to take the opportunity to side with climate science.
"Of course MPs are not obliged to answer questions from newspapers – but they were simple enough questions. And with the evidence of the consequences of climate change mounting all the time, I would have thought any MP who was remotely concerned would have been glad of the opportunity to stand up and be counted."
The Green Party says it continues to be "the only party with the science-based targets, the right policies and the political will to tackle climate change."