| |
No time for posturing• 10:10 is a simple and effective campaign, which I support. It encourages individuals to reduce their carbon emissions by 10 per cent by 2010 (Who has whip hand? October 30).
On October 21, the House of Commons debated a motion that called for the public sector to sign up to 10:10. I voted for an amendment that supported local councils signing up, but that viewed government departments in the light of the Climate Change Act instead.
This position relies on a subtlety that does not come across easily in headlines. It would have been easy to vote for government departments to be subject to 10:10, but I do not think it would have been the right thing to do and I would like to explain why. It is worthwhile encouraging public sector bodies like local authorities to sign up to 10:10 as most do not yet have their own carbon budgets.
Government departments, on the other hand, are already signed up to bigger long-term goals through the Climate Change Act – targets that are ambitious, well-planned, and have cross-party support. If the sustained actions already underway to meet these targets were made secondary to a different target, they would be less effective. No one wants this.
I have made it my aim in Parliament to speak about and vote for considered positions. Headlines are often easier to win by abandoning nuance. But I did not come into politics to posture from the sidelines. I believe that making a real difference and having influence on important decisions are what politics should be about.
As with 10:10, it would have been easy to vote against the so-called “Heathrow motion” on January 28. But this vote, far from offering an environmental choice, had been hijacked by west London Tories and Liberals for cynical electoral considerations in the airport’s hinterland. The Conservatives opposing Heathrow expansion were advocating the expansion of all other airports instead. “Voting against Heathrow” would have been easy, but I do not believe in any expansion of aviation at all, so I could not support the Conservatives’ alternative and I abstained.
As a parliamentary aide at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, I am working with Ed Miliband’s team ahead of the Copenhagen Summit in December. At this summit, it is vitally important we get a deal that is ambitious, effective and fair.
The details of what the government wants can be found at www.actoncopenhagen.decc.gov.uk. It should be noted that our position and international leadership role have been welcomed by development and environmental NGOs across the world.
Although we want an agreement as profound as Bretton-Woods in 1944, we go to Copenhagen mindful that we may not bring the US and China as far in our direction as we would like. However, there will be no room for empty posturing; we must strike a deal. There simply is no Plan B.
Emily Thornberry
Labour MP, Islington South and Finsbury |
 |
|
|
|
| |
| |
