UN report shows we must take bold action on climate change

The Fifth Assessment report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) could not be clearer. Catastrophic climate change can be prevented if all countries, rich and poor, make the transition to a low carbon economy, and that this can be achieved without damaging economic growth.

The IPCC has provided overwhelming and compelling scientific evidence that climate change is real, that it is caused by human activity and that it will have disastrous consequences if urgent action is not taken to cut our carbon emissions and invest in mitigation. It underlines the importance of a global, legally binding treaty to reduce carbon emissions at the Paris Conference in 2015.

Climate change is a global issue that requires both international and domestic leadership. But Britain can only take on international leadership by taking bold action at home. We need to step up our commitment to a low carbon energy mix, which means we need nuclear power and carbon capture and storage, as well as solar, wind and tidal energy. It is for this reason that the next Labour government will set a 2030 power sector decarbonisation target, establish an Energy Security Board, and give the Green Investment Bank borrowing powers in order to reverse the damaging decline in investment in clean energy on David Cameron’s watch.

We also need to rebuild the low carbon consensus. In 2008, just 5 MPs voted against the Climate Change Act. Today, the Tory-led Government is pandering to its climate sceptic and little Englander wing, promising to cut the ‘green crap’ and threatening to impose a ludicrous cap on onshore wind. We must rebuild the low carbon consensus in Britain if we are to play a role in securing a global and legally binding agreement.

The transition to a low carbon economy is a real opportunity for Britain. It provides a chance to rebalance our economy and create jobs whilst producing the clean energy our country needs to succeed. The low carbon economy already supports 110,000 jobs, and across the supply chain could support 400,000 by 2020. There is a global market worth £3.2 trillion, and Britain has the skills, expertise and low carbon resources to become a world leader.

Ed Miliband has rightly stated that climate change is the greatest global threat facing our generation, requiring leadership and resolve. Yet David Cameron stays nearly silent, refusing to show leadership and place climate change at the core of our economy and the heart of our foreign policy.

The IPCC report, whilst posing many challenges, should not lead us to be fatalistic. Catastrophic climate change can be averted, and it can be done without jettisoning sustainable economic development across the world. But as a rich country and a significant emitter of carbon, the UK can only show global leadership abroad if we take bold action at home.

Julie Elliott MP is a Shadow Energy and Climate Change minister.