Action not talk required on climate change

1.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Sat 10th Sep 2005

The possibility of environmental disaster in Europe as a result of climate change has been presented at a meeting of Europe's agriculture and environment ministers. Speaking ahead of the meetings between the Agriculture and Environment Councils on the impact of climate change upon agriculture, Liberal Democrat Shadow Environment Secretary, Norman Baker MP said "Climate change is clearly already upon us and we need to take action that will enable farmers to successfully adapt to the changes it will bring."

Mr. Baker further said "The Government's action clearly smacks of throwing in the towel on climate change. Their attempts to reduce carbon emissions are going backwards. They have abandoned their own domestic target of a 20% cut in carbon emissions by 2010 and seem increasingly likely to miss even their own less ambitious Kyoto target. No amount of meetings will resolve this without the action to back up their words."

According to the Government's own figures carbon emissions (1997 to 2002) have risen 23%. The 2003 Aviation White Paper indicates that emissions are due to rise to 33% on 2002 levels by 2010 and by 83% on 2002 levels by 2020. Road traffic has gone up nearly 8%, and is forecast to grow by between 20-25% in England between 2000 and 2010. Overall consumption of energy in Britain has gone up nearly 7%.