Liberal Democrats say, "Our Planet is Priceless, Carbon is Not!"
The climate crisis is an incoming storm. We must act now to undo the damage already done to our planet.
By Liberal Democrats, Sep 18, 2021
Soaring temperatures worldwide, flash flooding in central London and increasing numbers of wildfires. These are just a few ecological disasters we are seeing as a result of climate change. It is painfully obvious we must act.
We need to be ambitious. It is only by working with every single nation across the globe that we can hope to take on this challenge.
The UK can lead the world in climate policy. We are hosting the UN Climate Conference (COP 26) in November 2021. We must lead the world to do what is required: limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.
However, the Conservatives are delaying action on climate change.
They have failed to provide us with a plan to reach net zero emissions. We have watched as they have slashed incentives to switch to electric cars or upgrade homes for greater energy efficiency.
Climate inaction is simply unacceptable. As president of COP 26, we should lead by example.
Coming out of COP26, we want to see a major shift in energy consumption from fossil fuels to green alternatives.
At our conference today, our members came out overwhelmingly in favour of protecting our planet.
Here is what we want to do:
- Lead with ambition and help all countries aspire to the 1.5 degrees limit for global warming
- Keeping our 100bn a year pledge to low and middle-income countries to help with decarbonisation
- Increase taxes and VAT on carbon-based activities such as first and business class flights. This will act as an incentive to switch to cleaner alternatives.
- Introduce a protection and compensation package for those countries most likely to be worst affected by climate change.
- Call for international agreements to phase out coal and protect our forests and work with the EU Carbon Trading System