Archived press release

Climate change report confirms the need for a tough climate change law

4 May 2007

The world's leading scientists say governments can tackle climate change and the solutions are affordable and available, according toa key United Nations (UN) report published in Bangkok today. They also state that governments will need to be much more active in making sure the solutions are delivered.

Friends of the Earth's Head of Campaigns Mike Childs today said:"We welcome this report - it shows that if governments have the will to act, both the technologies and the policies to tackle climate change are available at a cost we can afford. Previous IPCC reports have firmly established the need for action on climate change and failure to do so would cause massive damage to our planet and societies.

"This report confirms the need for a strong Climate Change Bill in the UK that will drive successive governments to put in place the many cost effective and sustainable solutions to climate change that are out there."

"This report recognises the need for action at the international level, with all countries playing their part. Governments must use the UN talks in Bali this December to begin negotiations on a more effective and stronger second round of Kyoto commitments and have a timetable for completion by the end of 2009."

Far from singling out one technology or another as a magic bullet, the report sets out a wide range of technologies such as renewable energy, hybrid vehicles and more efficient electrical equipment which could be used to cut carbon emissions.

Governments agreed that the cost of tackling climate change is much lower than the cost of doing nothing, and that many of the measures to tackle climate change bring positive economic and social benefits such as creating employment, and have other knock-on environmental benefits such as tackling toxic air pollution. It warns that some solutions such as bio-fuels could have negative side effects too.

The report sets out the wide range of policy instruments (including environmental taxes, carbon trading, and energy using product standards and regulation) that can be used to promote the solutions to climate change, and made it clear that governments must be prepared to intervene in their economies and regulate markets to cut carbon emissions.

Notes

This report is the third of a series produced by the United Nations IPCC's Fourth Assessment report. It has taken six years to compile, draws on research by 2,500 scientists from over 130 countries and should shock the world into taking urgent action to reduce global emissions.

This third report is based on new literature on the scientific, technological, environmental, economic aspects of mitigation of climate change. It was released today, after a week of governments discussing the text of the summary line by line.

The first part, which focused on science, was published on 2 February 2007 in Paris. The second part, published on 6 April in Brussels, focused on impacts and showed that the world's poorest people will be hit hardest by the effects of climate change.

The Big Ask is Friends of the Earth's climate campaign. Since it's launch in 2005 by Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, over 130,000 people have taken action prompting over 450 MPs (that's almost two thirds of MPs overall and a majority from each political party) to support a Climate Change Bill. As a result a climate change bill was announced in the Queen's speech last November. Now the Big Ask is calling for the new law to be a strong one and include year-on-year 3% cuts in carbon dioxide.

If you're a journalist looking for press information please contact the Friends of the Earth media team on 020 7566 1649.

Published by Friends of the Earth Trust