Who’s serious about Copenhagen?

Date: 10 November 2009

We’ve had a twitter equivalent of STOP PRESS – apparently Ed Miliband definitely doesn’t think it’s serious to say ‘UK’s credibility at Copehnahgen will be shattered by his new coal plant plans. 

Ed Miliband is of course at pains to say that we have the world’s most environmentally stringent policy, so of course our credibility at Copenhagen will remain intact, pretty much what ever we do. But we, and many others, disagree strongly with that. We have got climate legislation, yes, but unfortunately within the Climate Act, there are loopholes the size of several coal power stations. And that’s where our credibility will fall.

The government’s own committee on climate change has said: “there can be no role for conventional coal generation in the UK beyond the early 2020s”. But Ed Miliband’s statement yesterday allows hundreds of megawatts of new conventional coal to be built, and does nothing to ensure old conventional coal plants shut down in the early 2020s.

In our view, and the view of campaigners across the globe, it’s just not serious enough to say we’ve got a tough climate law but we’re going to get around it through false solutions like carbon trading. Or we’re not going to commit to the finance needed to repay our climate debt.

We are serious. Serious about stopping new dirty coal power in the UK. Serious about stopping climate injustice. Serious about getting rich countries to repay their climate debt to the developing world. The only question that remains is whether Ed Miliband and the Prime Minister will be as serious as us in standing with the world’s poorest people at Copenhagen who are already suffering from the consequences of the climate change that we have caused.

Thanks to @oneclimate for bringing this to our attention.