WWF's Get on Board campaign, which helped to deliver a stronger Climate Change Act, has now finished. Please feel free to look around the site and see what it was all about or find out about our current campaigns.
WWF has welcomed news that the scientific committee, set up to advise the government on climate change, is recommending at least an 80% reduction in UK carbon emissions by 2050. The Climate Change Committee also calls for the inclusion of emissions from international aviation and shipping within this target, although it will stop short of showing how this could be done.
Parliament has now returned from holiday and MPs will soon have their final opportunity to vote for a Climate Change Bill that works!
WWF is pleased the Climate Change Committee has reported early and has advised the government to raise the emissions reduction target in the Bill to at least 80%, including emissions from international aviation and shipping. However, without a strong interim target for 2020, and an amendment to make sure that the majority of the cuts are achieved within the UK, the Bill remains in danger of not delivering the UK’s fair share of the solution to climate change.
How you can help
We need you to write to your MP! This really is the last chance to influence the final vote.
MPs do listen to their constituents so we need to increase pressure to ensure MPs support the most ambitious reduction targets, and that the reductions are delivered in the UK.
The next few weeks are crucial. Please write to your MP today!
What next?
WWF will be closely monitoring the Bill’s progress in its final stages, so visit our parliamentary blog to find out the latest information.
For more images from the campaign see our flickr set
This morning, two of WWF’s Young Ambassadors, Emma Biermann and Casper ter Kuile delivered WWF’s Get on Board petition to Prime Minister Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street.
The petition, which contains more than 8,300 signatures, calls on the government to strengthen the Climate Change Bill by setting a target for the UK to reduce carbon emissions by at least 80% by 2050. It also calls for the Bill to include emissions from international aviation and shipping from the outset.
Emma and Casper recently returned from a 10-day WWF voyage to the Arctic, where they witnessed the impact of climate change in the region.
Take a look at this short animation on Climate Change from WWF Brazil
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At the end, it says:
Think New. Think again.
Conserve your planet. Its the only one you’ve got.
Take a look at this offering from icount:
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Lets make a final push to ensure the Climate Change Bill has balls…
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You may have seen a report in today’s newspaper that a leaked UN report suggests carbon emissions from international shipping are around three times greater than previously thought.
These are the apparent findings of scientists working for the International Maritime Organisation, the UN agency that regulates the shipping industry.
The data appears to come from a more sophisticated measure of true emissions from shipping than has been used in the past.
Now that we know the true extent of international shipping emissions, it is even more important that the government includes them in the climate change legislation currently before Parliament.
Read the full story about the true cost of shipping to the climate.
Britain’s top environmental scientists have called on the government to set tougher targets for cuts in UK carbon emissions in the Climate Change Bill.
The current target in the Bill – to reduce UK CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050 – is based on a report by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) from 2000.
But in an open letter to the leaders of the main political parties – published in today’s Times, Guardian, Telegraph and Independent – the current Chair of the RCEP, together with his two predecessors and Professor Norman Myers, have stated, in their personal capacity, that the government’s CO2 reduction target needs to reflect the most up-to-date science.
The scientists state that the UK should opt for a carbon reduction target of at least 80%. They recognise that the RCEP’s 2000 report has been superseded by new evidence, including the latest Scientific Assessment Report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, published in February 2007.
With such a categorical call coming from such respected scientists, it’s difficult to see how the government can continue to stand by its inadequate 60% target.
After hours of protracted and at times emotional discussions, a deal was finally agreed at the UN’s Climate Change Summit in Bali.
The agreement launches formal negotiations for countries to reach further agreement in 2009 on how to reduce climate-changing gases - but lacked ambition by relegating the important issue of the reduction targets to a footnote.
In short, we’re a step closer to tackling global climate change, but will have to do much more before 2009 if we want a robust regime to replace the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.
Read more about the outcome in our Bali blog.
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