Last night David Miliband the former environment secretary, and current foreign secretary spoke along with Emily Thornberry MP and Andrew Pakes, chair of SERA, in a joint Progress-SERA event chaired by Rachel Reeves on the Progressive road to Copenhagen.
David Miliband started by saying that the proposed deal at Copenhagen needed to be ambitious, fair and most importantly effective. He claimed this deal could only be made by progressives. He admitted that a deal at Copenhagen would be difficult to achieve but he was in high hopes that a deal would be struck.
The foreign secretary said that although the Conservatives now appear to accept the issue of climate change and that extreme action is needed to avert disaster, it was the progressive left who were best equipped to deal with the issue.
The ex environment secretary stated that he believed that there were five reasons why the issue of climate change was a progressive issue rather than a Conservative issue:
1. Climate change requires a radical progressive solution
2. There needs to be a radical progressive shift from high carbon to low carbon.
3. In order to stop climate change we need to control the markets, something which Conservatives are ideologically opposed to.
4. Climate change is not only an environmental issue it impacts over a wide range of areas, financial, institutional and most importantly on social justice. As climate change occurs the worst hit are the poorest nations and to help combat this we need a community approach not individualist approaches as conservative ideology implies.
5. It is an international and European issue not a domestic issue.
He also stated that the Labour party and Britain should defend its record on climate change with zeal. Britain is one of the only countries to exceed our Kyoto targets, and one of the only countries to promise to reduce our CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050. He claimed that Britain had led the way on issues of climate change, through the backing of the European emissions trading scheme, and tprogrammes like warmer homes.
The foreign secretary ended by saying that the west must take the majority of the burden as we are in the position to do so, and that, in order to combat climate change, business, the public and government must work together.
When asked about the likelihood of a deal being reached, he said he and the rest of the cabinet were hopeful that a political agreement would be reached that could later be transposed into a treaty that all parties can sign up to.
One of the key areas of David Miliband's speech was that in order to effectively combat the effects of climate change there is a need for public cooperation. In the question and answer session the foreign secretary stated that he did not believe there was enough public urgency on this matter, but that it was the governments role to show leadership on this issue and provide the public with a sense of agency. Finally he said that it was vital that this issue had public staying power.
David Miliband started by saying that the proposed deal at Copenhagen needed to be ambitious, fair and most importantly effective. He claimed this deal could only be made by progressives. He admitted that a deal at Copenhagen would be difficult to achieve but he was in high hopes that a deal would be struck.
The foreign secretary said that although the Conservatives now appear to accept the issue of climate change and that extreme action is needed to avert disaster, it was the progressive left who were best equipped to deal with the issue.
The ex environment secretary stated that he believed that there were five reasons why the issue of climate change was a progressive issue rather than a Conservative issue:
1. Climate change requires a radical progressive solution
2. There needs to be a radical progressive shift from high carbon to low carbon.
3. In order to stop climate change we need to control the markets, something which Conservatives are ideologically opposed to.
4. Climate change is not only an environmental issue it impacts over a wide range of areas, financial, institutional and most importantly on social justice. As climate change occurs the worst hit are the poorest nations and to help combat this we need a community approach not individualist approaches as conservative ideology implies.
5. It is an international and European issue not a domestic issue.
He also stated that the Labour party and Britain should defend its record on climate change with zeal. Britain is one of the only countries to exceed our Kyoto targets, and one of the only countries to promise to reduce our CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050. He claimed that Britain had led the way on issues of climate change, through the backing of the European emissions trading scheme, and tprogrammes like warmer homes.
The foreign secretary ended by saying that the west must take the majority of the burden as we are in the position to do so, and that, in order to combat climate change, business, the public and government must work together.
When asked about the likelihood of a deal being reached, he said he and the rest of the cabinet were hopeful that a political agreement would be reached that could later be transposed into a treaty that all parties can sign up to.
One of the key areas of David Miliband's speech was that in order to effectively combat the effects of climate change there is a need for public cooperation. In the question and answer session the foreign secretary stated that he did not believe there was enough public urgency on this matter, but that it was the governments role to show leadership on this issue and provide the public with a sense of agency. Finally he said that it was vital that this issue had public staying power.
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