THE 300-350 SHOW: Climate Change Bill Update
First Broadcast: 27 August 2008
Featuring:
A Bill Without Balls?
"If the rest of the developed world followed the pathway envisaged in the United Kingdom's Climate Change Bill, dangerous climate change would be inevitable"
- United Nations Development Programme
In June 2008 a press release by UK development charity Christian Aid announced that the government had "eviscerated" the Climate Change Bill - a potentially groundbreaking piece of legislation which will put greenhouse gas reduction targets into UK law. The UK government had announced its intention to remove key ammendments that have been made by the House of Lords.
We speak to Eliot Whittington, Christian Aid's senior advisor on Climate Change and Sustainable Development, about their concerns and how they might be addressed. They include:
- an outdated target of 60% reduction in CO2 by 2050
- removal of a reference to the 2C global threshold
- shipping and aviation still not included
- no limit on the amount of carbon credits that can be bought to meet targets
- removal of an obligation on UK companies to disclose their carbon footrpint
Links/references
Government 'Eviscerates' Climate Change Bill - Christian Aid, 9 June 2008
http://www.christianaid.org.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/june2008/climate_bill_eviscerated.aspx
Mind The Gap - Why the UK Government's CC Bill will not reduce emissions (WDM, May 2008)
http://www.wdm.org.uk/resources/reports/climate/mindthegap01032008.pdf
Why the Government's Carbon Diet must include Chocolate (Friends of the Earth, May 2008)
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/why_the_governments_carbon.pdf
George Monbiot - Traded Away (The Guardian, 24 July 2008)
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/07/24/traded-away/
Reframing Climate Change: From Long-term targets to Emission Pathways -
Professor Kevin Anderson, Tyndall Centre (17 June 2008)
http://www.tenalpsevents.com/ContentFiles/1315%20KEVIN%20ANDERSON.ppt
DEFRA Climate Change Bill page
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/uk/legislation/
UK Parliament Climate Change Bill page
http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2007-08/climatechangehl.html
Actions
Email your MP about getting the Carbon Disclosure Clause back into the Climate Change Bill
http://www.christianaid.org.uk/ActNow/dosomething/emailmp.aspx
Get your MP to support the following Early Day Motions on the Climate Change Bill
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=34898
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=35896&SESSION=891
Contact your MP via: http://www.writetothem.com
Available Audio
Climate Change Bill Update – Listen Online | Download .mp3 (27.21 MB)