Responding to the government's pledge to cut at least 68% of emissions by 2030, Caroline Lucas MP said:
“This is a welcome improvement on the UK’s previous commitment but climate action needs to be judged by what it delivers and what is scientifically necessary, not by what politicians deem is politically palatable. And the science says we need to go further and faster in the face of an accelerating crisis. The UK also has a particular responsibility to do so, given its historic emissions as the first country to industrialise.
“The Prime Minister’s 10-point plan takes us only half-way to meeting interim climate targets, while government support for new roads, airport expansion and fossil fuel infrastructure undermines progress.
“There are immediate steps this Government should be taking to show this commitment is more than just another hollow promise. It should cancel the £27 billion roadbuilding programme; rule out any airport expansion; end subsidies to the fossil fuel sector and put in place plans for a just transition so that workers are part of a green, sustainable future and not abandoned as so many communities were in the 1980s.
“Most important of all, tackling the climate emergency needs a fundamental reset. We must abandon the fixation on endless GDP growth which is driving our planet beyond its natural limits, and put people’s wellbeing and the health of the environment at the heart of all government policy-making.
“Ministers appear to be waking up to the climate emergency – but they have not yet grasped the scale of it. This new emissions target must be only the starting point of even greater ambition.”