Climate Change
Climate change is one of the most severe problems that we face. We need to take drastic action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions because it is now widely accepted that changes in the Earth’s temperatures are harming the environment and increasing the frequency of natural disasters. The devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, for example, may only be a sign of things to come.
There are many steps that we can all take in our daily lives to reduce our own carbon emissions but individual action needs to be advanced by a robust policy at both the national and international level.
Internationally, the Government must meet its own obligations under the Kyoto Protocol while using diplomatic means to encourage the largest greenhouse gas emitters, the United States and China, to join the Protocol and reduce global emissions. In December, an agreement was reached at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Montreal, to extend the Kyoto protocol's emissions reduction targets beyond the current date of 2012. The USA has also agreed to enter into non-binding talks on emission reductions. This obviously does not go far enough but it is a step in the right direction.
Domestically, I support any law that would make it legally binding to reduce Carbon Emissions. I am in fact a sponsor of Michael Meacher’s Climate Change Bill that is due to be heard on 10th March 2006. If the bill is turned into law, it would ensure that Government Departments would have to work together to create cross-departmental strategies to reverse the devastating consequences of Climate change. Proposed penalties would mean that Ministers and indeed the Prime Minister would have a personal financial interest in enacting strategies to reduce climate change to specific levels.
The Government does have to deepen the scope of its cross-departmental strategy to reduce carbon emissions. It is important, for example, that more is invested into public transport so as to encourage people to leave their cars at home and make the scheme practical. It is for this reason that I have worked with other MPs from across Greater Manchester to put pressure on the Government to get the Metrolink extension built, and I will continue to do this and support other public transport initiatives in this Parliament.
I have raised the issue of climate change in Parliament on a number of occasions; I am also a co-sponsor of a number of Parliamentary Motions.