-
Podcast: Download
Subscribe: RSS
The UK government is planning to provide for a tripling of aviation movements – a move that the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, The Tyndall Centre and the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee say is incompatible with our commitment to play a fair role in avoiding dangerous climate change. Not content with a weighted planning system, the government is proposing to speed up the implementation of major infrastructure projects which will lock us into high carbon pathways in the future.We speak to Brian Ross, economics advisor to Stop Stansted Expansion to find out how their campaign is going and if the government’s arguments about the economic benefits of aviation have any basis in reality. And we hear from Paul de Zylva, England Campaigns Co-ordinator at Friends of the Earth about the unprecedented new “Planning Disaster” coalition that has come together to oppose the proposals in the government’s Planning White Paper.
Finally we have an extract from an interview with Alan Simpson MP about why he will be standing down at the next election and why he thinks that leadership on climate change can now only be found outside Parliament.
-
Podcast: Download
Subscribe: RSS
The UK is writing carbon dioxide targets into law. But is the draft Climate Change Bill strong enough to ensure the UK plays a fair role in avoiding dangerous climate change?We interview Environment Secretary, David Miliband, and get informed comment from Dr Alice Bows (Tyndall Centre) and Martyn Williams (senior parliamentary campaigner, Friends of the Earth).
- Why is the government using a target that is based on outdated science?
- Why does the Bill allow the UK to meet 50% of its targets by buying up emissions credits from abroad?
- Why aren’t emissions from aviation and shipping included in the Bill?
-
Podcast: Download
Subscribe: RSS
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.
-
Podcast: Download
Subscribe: RSS
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.
-
Podcast: Download
Subscribe: RSS
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.
-
Podcast: Download
Subscribe: RSS
90 minutes
- What are the latest scientific developments?
- Is there a level of climate change that we should aim not to exceed in order to avoid the worst impacts?
- What should the government be doing at the national and international level during this critical year to help achieve this?
We ask:
- David Griggs – Director, Hadley Centre, The Meteorological Office’s Centre for Climate Prediction and Research
- Peter Ainsworth MP – Chair, Environmental Audit Committee
- Tony Grayling – Associate Director, Institute of Public Policy Research
-
Podcast: Download
Subscribe: RSS
How is the UK government responding to climate change? Does it have an effective programme for reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Is it doing enough to avert disaster? We ask Professor Paul Ekins, Head of the Environment Group at the Policy Studies Institute, adviser to parliament’s Energy Audit Select Committee, and Member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution.
BBC2’s Newsnight reported in July last year that for every tonne of carbon the UK had saved at home, 3 tonnes of carbon had been produced abroad. We ask Anita Goldsmith of Greenpeace about the government’s funding of coal-fired power stations overseas.
We also speak to Steve Waller who ran a pilot programme for local councils developing strategies to deal with climate change.
