Former Labour leader Ed Milliband has gathered together groups of campaigners and MPs to lobby Parliament for a law to make the UK’s carbon emissions target legally binding.
The target, agreed at the recent Paris climate talks, wishes for the UK to cut CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050.
Milliband, alongside Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, Green MP Caroline Lucas and a number of Conservative MPs are now calling for ‘essential’ legislation to be enforced.
The intervention follows December’s Paris summit, where global leaders agreed that the world must achieve ‘net zero emissions’ in the second half of the century, as recommended by leading climate change experts.
Miliband has called for the British government to take the lead by drawing up plans for a new law, with an implementation date set by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), an independent body which advises the UK Government under the Climate Change Act 2008.
Tory MPs Dan Poulter and Graham Stuart, as well as the NGOs Christian Aid, ClientEarth, Sandbag, ShareAction and WWF are all in support of Milliband’s proposed legislation.
The former Labour party leader said: “The UK government deserves significant credit for having helped deliver the Paris agreement. Now we urge it to follow up its high ambition internationally, with high ambition here at home.
“Specifically, it can build on the momentum from Paris by supporting the idea of enshrining net zero emissions in UK domestic law, with the date to be advised by the independent Committee on Climate Change.”
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