Meeting Ed Miliband, Labour MP

On 19th November 2009, I had met Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change at the Special Ralph Miliband lecture. This was my chance to really learn what the UK government is doing to combat climate change and how they plan to lead the negotiations at COP15 this December.

Ed Miliband has been the first politician to admit that sealing a legally binding agreement to fight climate change will be postponed by at least six months despite COP15 but a global treaty will need to be signed as soon as possible.

[Below: Talyn Rahman with Ed Miliband]

The delay was said to be caused by a combination of time running out in the increasingly rancorous UN negotiations and the inability of the US – the world's biggest cumulative emitter – to commit to specific targets and timetables by passing a domestic law. The Obama administration made clear that a legal treaty was impossible in Copenhagen but pledges made at COP15 would be as difficult to escape as commitments would be made very public at the UN meeting as if it was legally binding.

Ed followed his speech by asking, “Can we do what the world has never done before by reversing the effects?” Yes – if contributions are made by all countries which will be a challenge at COP15. Gordon Brown has told 17 major economies responsible for at least 80% of global GHG, that success in Copenhagen is within reach if they themselves engage and attend COP15 to push an agenda for change. However, it is vital that agreements are implemented after COP15 in all countries despite its current political situation.

Climate change is a problem because it is an issue of “distance”, which Ed categorised as geographical distance (most vulnerable suffer the most), plausible distance (something like the movie 2012 which is the cost of inaction) and temporal distance (time lag between generations). Climate change requires long-term goals as the nature of climate change is a slow process but we urged that we must look at the positive aspects of switching to a low carbon society.

Here are key elements of the UK governments low carbon transition plan (July 2009) to be achieved by 2020.

• Cut emissions by $34 on 1990 levels by 2020
• Have more than 1.2 million people working in green jobs
• Overhaul 7 million homes and help 1.5 million households to produce their own clean energy
• Source around 40% of electricity from low-carbon sources, renewable, nuclear and clean coal
• Import half the amount of gas than the UK otherwise would
• Ensure that from 2020, the average new car emits 40% less carbon than now
  
  

There is a huge amount governments can do in order to facilitate the transition to a low carbon society, like kickstarting a national program to insulate all homes, boost public transport infrastructure and renewable energy implementation, massive educational programs, grants etc.

As Ed Miliband said, it is about finding the ‘politics of common good’ between all nations to combat this global problem.