Stephen's views on climate change

The reality of climate change is becoming clearer, both at home and abroad. Recent heavy flooding in Cumbria fits strongly with climate scientists warnings that weather patterns will become more extreme. What has to be done is clear, our current way of living is not tenable and there is a global imperative to act without delay with meaningful changes if we are to succeed in combating climate change. This urgency was highlighted in the recent statement from the Met Office, Natural Environment Research Council and the Royal Society, which said that in the absence of action to mitigate climate change, we can expect much larger changes in the coming decades than have been seen so far.

I congratulate the many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that have been so proactive in lobbying parliaments and governments across the globe on this issue. For example Greenpeace produced a set of twelve policies to save our climate and planet. These include curbing aviation, reforming taxation and funding R&D and developing training programmes to help Britain compete in the global low carbon economy. I was happy to pledge my support for these proposals and you can view the full list at the following link: tinyurl.com/yeaxqer (a reduced address for your convenience).

Friends of the Earth have also run an excellent campaign called 'Fix the Food Chain'. This campaign seeks to reduce the harmful aspects of meat and diary farming, such as when huge areas of rainforest are cleared to grow soy for animal feed. The campaign seeks to revolutionise the way we produce meat and diary by moving away from big business-led factory farms and instead support homegrown animal feeds and low-impact meat and dairy production. As requested, I wrote to the Liberal Democrat manifesto writer to raise the policy aspects of this campaign. I have also repeatedly referred to the disastrous consequences of further deforestation, in particular, in central Africa.

On a local level, I have continued to oppose the expansion of Bristol International Airport, and have supported local campaigners in this regard. I have also voted against government plans for a third runway at Heathrow. I believe that improved public transport links should facilitate growing travel demands, and regularly press for greater rail and bus services for Bristol, including during Prime Minister's Question Time. Last year I submitted a petition of approximately 1,200 Bristol West signatures calling for an 80 per cent emissions reduction in the Climate Change Bill. I was delighted when the Government later conceded to this target; your pressure helped.

The passing in to law of the Climate Change Act is one of the most important pieces of legislation that the Houses of Parliament have enacted in recent times. I am pleased at the tenacity of my Liberal Democrat colleagues who worked on the Bill in Committee. They put down a number of amendments to the Bill to strengthen it, including the 80 per cent cut in emissions target by 2050, strengthening of the interim target for 2020 and the inclusion of shipping and aviation emissions in calculations within three years.

There are various initiatives surrounding carbon emissions that I have taken an interest in. These are the creation of an Emissions Performance Standard, a Carbon Reduction Fund and Mandatory Carbon Reporting. An Emissions Performance Standard would set down, in law, an emissions ceiling, preventing the construction of new, unabated coal-fired power stations. Proposed new constructions, such as the coal plant at Kingsnorth would make an emissions reduction target of 80 per cent by 2050 impossible. Tighter requirements on the implementation of Carbon Capture and Storage, which remains at best nascent, are also vital to the deployment of any new coal power plants. Personally I see this as a short term measure while we switch to renewables. I have written to Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change to make these points.

I have also written to Lord Adonis, Secretary of State for Transport, regarding the setting up of a Carbon Reduction Fund that would reallocate £5 billion over the next decade from the Transport Innovation Fund. It would support measures to give people better travel choices and information. The Fund could support a wide range of schemes, both through capital and revenue funding, especially those aimed at changing travel behaviour.

Lastly, on the carbon front, I have supported calls for 'Mandatory Carbon Reporting', whereby large UK companies, would be required to report their carbon emissions beginning 2012. This year's Carbon Disclosure Project showed that only just over half of the FTSE 350 disclosed their carbon emissions. The urgency of climate change demands much more rapid progress to be made. By making this mandatory for all large UK organisations we would ensure greater accountability and transparency. This will help companies identify cost savings through greater resource efficiency and more effectively address material climate risks and opportunities. It would also create a level playing field, allowing investors and consumers to make meaningful comparisons, thus driving further emission reductions. I have written to Secretary of State for Business, Lord Mandelson, about this and also signed a supporting Early Day Motion in Parliament.

To conclude I would like to focus on the 15th Conference of Parties, to be held in Copenhagen from 7th - 18th December. This event has been much anticipated as the successor to Kyoto Protocol agreed in 1997. There have been concerning predictions made that the best we can hope for is a political agreement, not a ratifiable treaty from Copenhagen. This would be a missed opportunity and one from which we may not recover.

In July this year leaders of those countries most responsible for most of the world's current emissions, including the US, China and India, accepted the advice from climate scientists that governments should aim to keep the eventual rise in global temperature below 2°C. A recent quote I read from environmental campaigner, Tom Burke, neatly sums up the situation:

"We now have a clear destination for the climate regime to be agreed in Copenhagen. In effect, 2°C has been established as the threshold of dangerous climate change. If Copenhagen sets the world on course to stay below this level it will have succeeded. If not, it will have failed."

President Obama's commitment on 25th November 2009 to attend the Copenhagen summit is welcome, as is his commitment to reduce American green house gas emissions 83 per cent below 2005 levels by 2050. His interim target of only 17 per cent of cuts by 2020 is however unambitious and may make the 2050 pledge meaningless as the build up of carbon in the atmosphere is cumulative and we therefore cannot leave getting there to the last minute. On 26th November, however, I was pleased to hear that Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, announced that China would cut its 'carbon intensity' between 40 - 45 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020. These are helpful contributions and I hope that they will lead to a successful outcome at Copenhagen.

Another key element of agreement that needs to be reached in Copenhagen is financial support for developing nations in combating climate change. This finance would be available in part to support the action programmes to reduce emissions and in part to pay for adaptation in climate vulnerable countries. Some 30 per cent of these capital flows would be from public sources but the majority would be in the form of private capital flows - largely financed by the purchase of carbon off-sets needed to meet industrialised nations' emissions reduction commitments.

Please be assured that my Liberal Democrat colleagues and I will continue to make these points in Parliament to the relevant government ministers. We will continue to press for urgency and ambitious targets to ensure that the UK, at least, cannot be held liable for failing to play its part in reducing the contribution of mankind to climate change. I know that the challenge of climate change requires a range of responses from governments, businesses and all of us as individuals. I have been delighted to work with long established campaign groups in Bristol such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the Civic Society. But I have also been pleased to see the launch of new community groups such as Sustainable Redland, which gives a local focus to what we can achieve, or the two Gloucester Road sustainable shopping bags, which target a narrow but important aspect of modern consumerism.

I know that climate change is the big issue of our time and it is important that the current generation of politicians do not squander the opportunity to make a positive difference. I will continue to press for action and am open to all suggestions from Bristol West constituents as to what can be achieved.