Christian Aid hopes the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, to be released on Monday (30 October) will focus world leaders' attention on the need for urgent action to tackle climate change.
'Initial comments on the report, such as those from Sir David King, the government's chief scientific adviser, are encouraging,' said Andrew Pendleton, Christian Aid's senior climate change analyst. 'The government has seen the light and is now saying we can no longer afford to sit back and do nothing.'
'But this is an issue far more important than mere economics. People's lives are already being ruined by climate change and millions more are facing cataclysmic change for the worse.
'It's poor people, who have done virtually nothing to contribute to this problem, who will be hardest hit. Surely the British government and other leading polluters can now see that they have a moral, as well financial, duty to combat climate change.
'We must start off in our own back yard. Tony Blair must make immediate and dramatic cuts to Britain's damaging carbon dioxide emissions.'
Christian Aid is backing calls for the introduction of a climate change bill with year-on-year emissions reduction targets.
Mr Pendleton said it was imperative the Stern Review recognises poor countries' right to develop.
'The latest scientific reports tell us that poor countries cannot afford to develop using fossil fuels because we - the industrialised countries - have already spent the world's entire carbon budget,' said Mr Pendleton.
'Poor people have the same rights as we do in the west -- to develop and live long, dignified, productive lives.
'Industrialised countries have created this crisis.. Now we have to face up to our responsibility to help poor countries grow cleanly using low carbon technologies. Otherwise we will all be pushed over the edge into climate change of catastrophic proportions,' Mr Pendleton warned.
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
Christian Aid is calling for:
- an annual carbon budget to limit the amount of greenhouse gases Britain produces each year. This budget should contract by three per cent year-on-year in order to reduce emissions by more than 60 per cent by 2050
- incentives and penalties to significant industries, including transport and energy, to encourage emissions reductions
- an annual report on whether or not emissions are kept within the carbon budget.
- an independent audit commission to check emissions are being reduced in line with the carbon budget
- tax incentives to drive innovation in renewable energy and other clean technology
- public subsidies to support research and development.
For more information, contact Andrew Pendleton on 07789 997376 or John McGhie on 07812 352130.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
