MPs debated amendments to the Bill long into the night
by Michael Smith
The United Kingdom will become the first country in the world to make emissions reduction targets legally binding after MPs recently voted in favour of passing the Climate Change Bill.
Britain will now be committed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050 and the Bill will also include targets for aviation and shipping, following the recommendations of the Climate Change Committee.
Many hours of intense debate concerning the amendments to this Bill took place in the House of Commons before it was finally approved. The Bill is now set to become law in late November, when it has received Royal Assent.
Ed Miliband, the new Energy and Climate Change Secretary, told the Commons: "These key features of the Bill – the ambitions, the mechanisms and the need for a shift in all parts of society – have commanded near-universal consensus in this House."
He added: "We know that the hard work to achieve our climate change objectives has, in a way, only just begun."
He went on to praise scientists, green campaigners and members of the public who had written to MPs supporting Friends of the Earth's The Big Ask campaign for urging ministers to draw up a Climate Change Bill.
Shadow Climate Change Secretary, Greg Clark, said that the Conservatives "robustly" supported the Bill, but that they also still had many concerns about it.
But he added: "We need serious long-term policies, not the short-termism of the past ten years. This Bill helps to secure that."
Friends of the Earth Europe climate campaigner Sonja Meister said the Bill now set a challenge to the rest of the EU.
"The UK should follow the ambitious lead it has taken at home at the European Council, and push others to follow," she said.
The group also raised concerns that the Bill does not limit the amount the UK can off-set by purchasing carbon credits from outside Europe.
Peter Young, chairman of the Aldersgate Group - a coalition of companies and environment groups - said: "This will give certainty to the business community and attract the significant wealth creation and jobs that London's role as the carbon finance capital of the world would deliver."
When it comes to “purchasing” carbon credits from abroad this must be one of the most stupid ideas that have ever been talked about. Either we eliminate the greenhouse gas emissions or we do not. And I mean e-l-i-m-i-n-a-t-e in all honesty and not doing so in a pretense form by buying “carbon credits”. This is a ridiculous affair and notion that must be stopped entirely the world over.
© M Smith (Veshengro), November 2008
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Climate Change Bill gets seal of approval
