MPs have shown their commitment to tackle climate change by voting for a strong Climate Change Bill.
The Bill now includes all three campaign asks that Tearfund, as part of the Stop Climate Chaos coalition, has been calling for over the past two years.
This is a victory for thousands of supporters who’ve campaigned for a strong Bill through signing postcards, meeting MPs and attending events.
Your campaigning and praying as part of the global church has worked. Many MPs have acted to bring forward a strong Climate Change Bill because of this campaign.
Climate change hits the poorest and most vulnerable communities hardest. The Climate Change Bill demonstrates to the rest of the world that the UK is taking its commitment to tackling climate change seriously.
Tearfund’s Head of Policy, Laura Webster, said, `The Climate Change Bill now has bite. It sets a great framework for the UK effort to tackle climate change and lead the way internationally.
`The inclusion of aviation and shipping emissions along with an 80 per cent emissions cut target for 2050 shows the UK is not going to shy away from taking decisive action.
'However, we must ensure that emission cuts are made at home, and not rely on buying in cheap carbon credits from overseas. Investment is needed in energy efficiency and renewable energy now. As well as tackling climate change, this will be beneficial for UK economy.’
The 80 per cent emissions cuts target for 2050 shows the UK has acted on scientific recommendations for developed countries to cut emissions by 80-95 per cent by 2050 to keep global temperature rises below two degrees.
This will give the UK a strong position in international climate negotiations. These will increase in pace next year as decisions are made on a new framework to cut global emissions by the Copenhagen meeting in December 2009.
When the Bill becomes law in the next few weeks, the UK will be the first country in the world to establish legally binding national greenhouse gas emissions cuts.
The climate law will set a framework for the UK’s efforts to reduce emissions. Similar to the financial budget set by the government each year, the law sets carbon budgets for five-year periods to limit the amount of greenhouse gases the UK can emit for each period.
Read more about the Climate Change Bill and climate change campaigning here.
Read our full analysis on the Bill here.