Norman Baker MP Member of Parliament for Lewes constituency
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Lewes MP leads commons condemnation of Blair's emissions hike
Lewes MP and Lib Dem Shadow Environment Secretary Norman Baker has led fellow MPs in condemning the Government for seeking to increase the permitted levels of carbon dioxide - the principle driver of climate change - that British industries can pour into the atmosphere. Norman has tabled a Commons motion criticising the Government’s decision this week to apply to the EU to increase the UK’s emissions levels of CO2 permitted under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. If granted, this emissions hike will see an extra 19.8 million tonnes – the equivalent levels of pollution of an extra seven million cars on the road – released into the atmosphere each year.
Commenting on his motion Norman says:
“Climate change is the most desperate issue facing the planet today and we are already witnessing its devastating effects, from hurricanes in Florida to floods in Lewes. If we are to avert precipitating an irreversible series of cataclysmic events, the world’s polluters, including the UK, must lead from the front.
“Sadly, by giving licence to industry to pollute even more the Prime Minister is failing to set this example. He has chosen to ignore the concerns of everyone from my flood-prone constituents to the Secretary of State for the Environment and bowed to the pressures of industry to seek to increase their permitted emissions levels.
“How on earth can Tony Blair expect to influence other countries to clean up their act, as he says he wants to do, when every time he is faced with a choice between the environment and polluters, he always sides with the polluters? He really is the polluters’ best friend.”
A full copy of the House of Commons Motion tabled by Norman is attached
EDM 1839 GOVERNMENT'S APPLICATION TO INCREASE CARBON EMISSIONS
Norman Baker 27.10.04
That this House condemns the decision of the Government, announced first to journalists and pressure groups and only subsequently to the House, and then in a written rather than oral statement to apply to the European Union to increase by almost three per cent. the UK's permitted carbon emissions under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme; sympathises with the Environment Secretary whose wishes to hold the line were overruled by the Prime Minister; notes that the only interventions by the Prime Minister on environmental matters, notwithstanding the promise held out by his speeches, are when he seeks to weaken environmental protection; and suggests that he will find it difficult to achieve his stated aim of persuading other countries in the EU and G8 to take the fight against climate change seriously if he fails to do so himself.