One could not help but be underwhelmed by Ed Milliband’s lacklustre performance last night on Newsnight where he gave a very poor explanation as to why the UK should be so much more proud of its climate change performance than the US. John Podesta – Obama’s joint head of Transition – made the valid point that the US are coming from a standing start and a very low level of engagement after ten years of Bush.
The UK has no such excuse. We have had almost as many years of Blair’s rhetoric and – Climate Act aside – are not looking so rosy ourselves. Joss Garman of Greenpeace gave a Texan Republican Congressman a good talking to on Newsnight about morals – I don’t think the Congressman gave a hoot. He was proud to say he drove Prius not for green reason but because it made him feel superior. Unfortunately there are a few of his type lurking in the bowels of Westminster as well.
This week the US’s top climate scientist, James Hansen of NASA, has been arrested for CC direct action along with actress Daryl Hannah, and 94 year-old former West Virginia Congressman Ken Hechler. As he was arrested Hansen told onlookers “I am not a politician; I am a scientist and a citizen.” Hansen’s arrest came in spite of the fact that Obama had promised to act on CC through a lens of science not politics. And this week in the UK one of our top climate scientists, Professor Kevin Anderson, has told Parliament that the UK Government’s CC policies are “dangerously optimistic” and would have a “50-50 chance” of keeping us below the magic 2 degrees celcius beyond which CC is most certain to plunge us into unstoppable runaway climate-chaos.
Anderson and many others are calling for an end to political posturing AND a fessing-up to the reality of the science which tells us that we need to enter Copenhagen’s negotiations with far more ambitious targets in place. Only then can we hope to get rapidly developing countries like China to talk seriously about their own cuts. With the US targets so battered by corporate lobbying and Congress still dragging its feet so badly it will take all the rest of the developed world to show real leadership if Copenhagen is to work.
Anderson says “No one I talk to thinks there is going to be anything significant to come out of Copenhagen.” This will embarrass Ed Milliband as he prepares to launch his Road to Copenhagen paper this week. He’ll also be embarrassed that Anderson has said Milliband’s Department is like “a yapping dog” at the heels of Lord Mandelson’s Department.
Ed, just a quick reminder, there is no road to Copenhagen, you’ll need to go by boat… but I am sure you and all your minions will fly…
