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The Two Degrees show opens a window on the UN climate change talks as they kick off in Nairobi. The current Kyoto Protocol is “a drop in the bucket” and inadequate to achieve the UN objective of avoiding dangerous climate change. Are industrialised countries willing to take much deeper cuts in emissions? Are these countries making big enough efforts to help rapidly developing countries such as India and China develop cleanly? What prospect is there of the US engaging constructively when their delegation last year was led by Harlan Watson at the recommendation of Exxon Mobil? We speak to MJ Mace of Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD) who is a legal advisor to the Association of Small Island States at the talks and to Jan Kowalzig, climate change and energy campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe.
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Climate Change Bill Update & International Demos for Action on Climate Change
This week we bring you an update on the massive civil society campaign for legislation that would bind future governments in the UK to annual emissions cuts. We speak to Martyn Williams, Senior Parliamentary Campaigner of Friends of the Earth who has been intimately involved with the development of the campaign.
We also speak to Phil Thornhill, founder and national co-ordinator of the Campaign Against Climate Change, about the international demonstrations that will take place in some 50 countries around the world this Saturday, 4th November – the eve of the United Nations climate change talks in Nairobi, Kenya.
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Award-winning journalist George Monbiot explains why we need to cut carbon emissions in the UK by 90% by 2030. In his major new book “Heat – How to Stop the Planet Burnging” (Penguin Allen Lane) he sifts through all the policy options on the table (as well as coming up with some of his own) and looks at what might work and what won’t. “Heat” is no less than a survival manual for the biosphere. If we are to escape the worst impacts of climate change we need to start putting its recommendations into practice now. At present politicians seem incapable of doing this, so we need to do what ever it takes to force them to act.
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The UK’s only weekly climate change radio programme features an interview with low-carbon pioneer Donnachadh McCarthy. Donnachadh’s carbon footprint is one seventeenth of the average European household’s. The trick, he explains, is 40% lifestyle, 40% small investments (in low energy lightbulbs, 250mm loft insulation, etc), and 20% renewable energy. He takes us on a tour around his terraced house in South London and talks us through the pros and cons of his renewable energy installations. Apologies for the sound quality towards the end of this programme.
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The new series kicks off with a refresher on the science from a leading authority and a look at the scale and urgency of the challenge now facing us. David Griggs is the Director of the Hadley Centre (the Meteorological Office’s Centre for Climate Prediction and Research). He talks us through the basic science of climate change – what we know and what we don’t know. Dr Alice Bows of the Tyndall Centre is co-author of the “Living Within A Carbon Budget” report which was commissioned by Friends of the Earth and Co-operative Bank and published in July 2006.
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In a specially extended programme we put the Labour government and the Conservative party on the spot. We speak to Elliot Morley MP who is the Minister of State in charge of the UK’s Climate Change Programme; and to John Gummer MP, Environment Secretary under Margaret Thatcher (1993-1997) who now heads the Conservative Party’s Quality of Life Policiy Review Team (which includes climate change).
We end the second series with unsigned band Pollination X‘s climate change rap “So People.” Contact info@pollinationx.com for further info.
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At a time when emissions are rising under Labour, and the government have been unable to finalise their new Climate Change Programme due to interdepartmental disagreement, the Labour Party’s environmental record is tatters. The other parties have been stealing a march in this increasingly voter-conscious area.
We speak to the main opposition parties about what they would do if in power and, critically, why we should believe them. Unless there is a legal obligation on government to make annual cuts in emissions, won’t they just make the same mistakes?
We speak with Katie Elliott from Friends of the Earth about the progress of the Climate Change Bill which aims to bring in just such a legal obligation; and to Norman Baker MP, Liberal Democrats, Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment – who has been working to forge a cross-party consensus on climate change.
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Climate Confidential has the very latest on the UN Climate Talks from our contacts in Canada:
- Simon Retallack from International Climate Change Task Force/IPPR
- Catherine Pearce from Friends of the Earth International
- Matthew Carroll, co-ordinator, Youth Caucus, UN Commission on Sustainable Development; and Elissa Smith, president of the Canadian Youth Environmental Network, which represents over 300 environmental youth organizations in Canada.
- plus! an exciting written statement from DEFRA!
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As the first ‘Meeting of the Parties’ since Kyoto came into force gets underway Montreal, we talk to Mark Lynas, author of “High Tide: News From A Warming World.” Mark is a veteran of the UN talks and has written an open letter to the delegates which was published in The Independent on the day the talks opened.
We end today’s programme a climate change rap entitled “So People” kindly donated by unsigned band Pollination X. Contact info {at} pollinationx.com
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“The Montreal talks will be the key to determining the future for all life on earth.” – Tony Juniper, Director, Friends of the Earth in The Guardian, 23/11/05
“It’s very important that pressure is maintained in the next few months so that the United States and all parties go to Montreal and are prepared to talk about long-term targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.” – Bob Ward, Royal Society spokesperson on Climate Confidential, 13/7/05
- What will the European Union’s negotiating position be in Montreal?
- Will Margaret Beckett be arguing for adequate and binding targets?
- How do we get the US back on board?
Catherine Pearce from Friends of the Earth International guides us through the fog.
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