Chuka Umanna introduces David Miliband at Lambeth Town Hall. 30 November 2009

"The Road to Copenhagen" Q&A session with the Climate Change Secretary, Ed Miliband MP, on Monday 30 November 2009.

Several hundred people attended a Q&A session last night hosted by Labour's Parliamentary Candidate's Chuka Umunna. If elected, Chuka will be the first MP for Streatham to be who grew up in the area. TTB is thrilled that he clearly aspires to work towards helping us solve our deepening environmental crises. Lambeth Town Hall was filled to capacity with local residents and several groups of second form students who participated in a Q&A session on one of the last days before Ed Miliband's departure for Copenhagen. Both Chuka Umunna and Ed Miliband made a case to move swiftly towards a strong deal in Copenhagen. Unfortunately, Ed Miliband failed to answer the questions that desperately needed addressing. Global networks of environmental grassroots activists are organizing in preparation for the fact that we have very little faith in an upcoming deal in Copenhagen.

The Copenhagen agreement will not solve our problems because:
1. The climate crisis shows that its impossible to have infinite growth on a finite planet. The Sustainable Development Commission's report 'Prosperity without Growth' describes how 'perpetual economic growth is totally at odds with our scientific knowledge about the finite resource base and the fragile ecology on which we depend for survival'. The negotiations at Copenhagen do not address this dilemma.

2. The climate talks are put corporate profits before the needs of people and the atmosphere. We need a deeper analysis of the problem and more support for communities developing solutions.

3. The market based solutions being pushed in the UN Climate talks lead to land grabbing and more inequity. False solutions like carbon trading will not solve the climate crisis.

4. We need a just transition and systems change not climate change! Transition Towns is one example of a grassroots movement working for a world which is both just and sustainable.


We recommend:

1. Government policy must start to reflect the recommendations of the Sustainable Development Commission's report Prosperity without Growth.

2. Progressive policy measures such as Contraction and Convergence or those described in Kyoto2 must become part of a new framework.

3. Whatever happens in Copenhagen, local communities in transition are in need a much greater level of support and cooperation. £10m has been found for 20 communities in the UK. Lets put this in context; the refurbishment of Brixton Central Square costs £9.5m. Is £10m, the amount it cost to give Brixton a new square, an adequate amount to help one community stop catastrophic climate change?


The deal on the table in Copenhagen suffers from the same problems that made the Kyoto agreement a failure. We are no closer to reducing greenhouse gas emissions than we were when negotiations began fifteen years ago. Emissions continue to rise at ever faster rates - including emissions in this country if the embedded emissions in the products we buy from abroad is included in calculations. Solutions on the table are unjust and will also do practically nothing to reduce net emissions. The deal at Copenhagen looks like business as usual and it looks very unlikely that it will be effective or fair.

www.climateradio.org
www.pirc.info
www.thecornerhouse.org.uk
www.climatecamp.org.uk
www.transitiontownbrixton.org

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• climate change
• copenhagen
• activism
• carbon trading