Greens warn governments must go further, faster to limit temperature rises
1 December 2020
- Jonathan Bartley: “Kicking the can down the road means leaving the problem to our children and destroying their life chances. What responsible parent or politician would do that?”
Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley has welcomed new analysis suggesting the world is making serious progress to limit temperatures rising from CO2 emissions, but warned governments must act now to protect future generations. [1]
Responding to the report from Climate Action Tracker, Bartley said:
“In the past few months we have seen really significant progress with a range of countries committing to removing fossil fuels from their economies. This is a vital step towards addressing the climate emergency and the commitments from Biden’s US and from China are particularly welcome.
“But long-range optimism is no substitute for urgent action today. This generation of politicians appear to be leaving the difficult political decisions, on issues like constraining aviation, electrifying our heating and transport systems, and moving to plant-based diets, to their successors.”
In another report published today, Cambridge Econometrics criticised the Prime Minister’s 10-point climate plan, claiming it will reduce emissions by only 59% by 2030, when they need to fall by 70% by that date. [2]
Bartley said:
“We know that reductions today save money and achieve much stronger protection for our climate than equivalent reductions next year or the year after. Kicking the can down the road means leaving the problem to our children and destroying their life chances. What responsible parent or politician would do that?”
ENDS
Notes
1
Climate Action Tracker calculate that revised commitments from USA, China, Japan and South Korea mean that the rise in world temperatures could be held to 2.1C by the end of this century:
https://climateactiontracker.org/publications/global-update-paris-agreement-turning-point/
2