LONDON – British prime minister Gordon Brown warned yesterday that the planet was facing “catastrophe” if action to stop rising greenhouse gas emissions was not agreed at forthcoming UN talks on climate change.
Mr Brown said letting the emissions which cause global warming run unchecked would have massive economic, human and environmental costs.
He warned that ignoring emissions would leave the UK facing a future of killer heatwaves, floods and droughts.
In a speech to 17 leading nations meeting in a bid to make progress towards agreeing a new treaty on climate change at UN talks in December, he warned of the “heavy price” of failure – with no Plan B for the planet if negotiations collapse.
Failing to tackle climate change would have an economic impact worse than that of the two world wars and the Great Depression, he said. But action could provide economic opportunities in green jobs and technology.
Mr Brown told the Major Economies Forum – gathered in London for talks which aim to narrow the gap between different countries on areas of dispute ahead of the climate summit in Copenhagen – that a deal was possible.
But with less than two months to go before the crunch UN conference, he warned countries were not making progress quickly enough to reach agreement and urged leaders to step in to break the impasse.
He said heads of state should work together directly to secure a deal with binding targets for rich countries to cut their emissions in the coming decades, action by developing nations and funding to help the poorest countries cope with the impact of climate change.
The prime minister’s warning over the consequences of failure were welcomed by environmental groups, who want rich countries primarily responsible for the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to take the lead in signing up to tougher emissions cuts.
But opposition MPs and some campaigners criticised the gap between Mr Brown’s rhetoric and the government’s policies on airport expansion and new polluting fossil fuel power plants.
Mr Brown said: “If we do not reach a deal at this time, let us be in no doubt: once the damage from unchecked emissions growth is done, no retrospective global agreement in some future period can undo that choice.
“By then it will be irretrievably too late. So we should never allow ourselves to lose sight of the catastrophe we face if present warming trends continue.”
He warned that the people least responsible for global warming – those in the world’s poorest countries – were being hit hardest and first, with the effects of climate-linked drought, floods and the spread of disease already killing 300,000 people a year.
He said President Mohammed Nasheed of the Maldives held a cabinet meeting underwater on Saturday to highlight the catastrophe facing his country, and the South Pacific nation of Kiribati was requesting international aid to evacuate the islands before they disappear.
But Britain too would be hit by the impact of climate change in the coming decades.
Mr Brown, who has pledged to attend the Copenhagen talks in person to secure a deal and has urged other leaders to follow suit, acknowledged the “formidable political constraints and challenges” in securing a deal but said momentum was building towards success at the negotiations.
The Copenhagen summit aims to secure a new deal to cut the global greenhouse gas emissions which are driving climate change.
Developing countries want richer nations, which they point out are responsible for the vast majority of harmful emissions historically, to commit to tougher targets for cuts in the next few decades.
They also want pledges of more cash to help them become greener themselves and to adapt to meet the challenges posed to them by the changing climate. – (PA)