A group of Cambridge university students descended on the capital last Saturday (October 27th) to encourage people to lobby for stronger legislation to save the planet. The Cambridge Zero Carbon Society (www.zerocarbonnow.org) wants Parliament to toughen up its planned legislation on greenhouse gases.
The Parliament Square protest was organised to increase the targets set out in the forthcoming Climate Change Bill, due to be discussed by MPs in the next parliamentary session. The legislation will make Britain the first country in the world to pass laws to restrict greenhouse gas emissions.
“This Bill gives us the opportunity to lead the way in setting meaningful targets,” says organiser Stephen Stretton. “If we get this right we can set an example for other countries to follow and create a real possibility of creating a sustainable future”.
Current calculations suggest that a sustainable level of carbon dioxide emissions would be about one tonne CO2 per person per year, averaged across the total world population. The current global average is about 4 tonnes per person and growing, while in Britain each person is already responsible for ten.
This means Britain needs to reduce emissions by 90% to reach the sustainable target. In addition, it is important that these reductions are achieved in the next twenty years. This way we could limit any global temperature increase to no more than two degrees celsius above the pre-industrial, which is the point at which dangerous feedback mechanisms could cause more serious damage to the climate.
The students, who were dressed in their academic gowns, want the Climate Change Bill strengthened to increase the proposed target of 60% reduction by 2050 to 90% by 2030.
Note for Editors:
The protest happened from 11am-1pm in Parliament Square, Westminster. The protest was organised by the Cambridge Zero Carbon Society and supported by the Cambridge Climate Change Coalition.
Find our response to the UK Climate bill here: www.zerocarbonnow.org/?p=394
Full document (pdf) here: http://www.zerocarbonnow.org/wordpress/uploads/full-response-climate-bill.pdf
For further information please contact:
Marc Kaufmann: 0789 184 9630