After having been introduced on Wednesday by Labour, MPs have passed a motion making the UK parliament the first in the world to delare an “environment and climate emergency”. This is a recognition of the urgency needed to combat the climate crisis, the urgency for which climate scientists have called for several decades, and the urgency that has been demanded by the wave of protests launched by the Extinction Rebellion strikers.
Not only being a symbolic move, the motion passed these actions for the government to increase the ambition of the UK’s climate targets under the climate change act, which had been passed eleven years ago. Furthermore, in a move that will see us following in the strides made by Sweden, Finland, and our neighbours in Scotland, the UK pledge to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 (where previously, they had only pledged to reduce carbon emissions by 80% of the 1990 levels in that time frame), making us the 19th country to join the Carbon Neutrality Coalition.
However, while this is still progress, it is still not enough. The 12 year time limit to prevent irreversible damage still stands. Discovered and brought to the table in the landmark report authored by the world’s leading climate scientists in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it gives us a bleak and urgent ultimatum. To make unprecedented social change and keep global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degress celsius or to continue at this slow rate of change. If we do that, we risk exceeding that half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat, and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.
To quote XR and its supporters, rather than being guided by what is deemed “politically possible”, policy must now be driven by what is scientifically necessary.
For this reason, one of their three fundamental demands was that we achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2025. As mentioned, yet still not even close to being stressed enough, the chaos caused by failing the tacke the crisis will dwarf any disruption and instability caused by acting now, and stands gargantuan when compared to the relatively microscopic issue of XR’s peaceful protests impeding some Londoners’ journey to work.
Returning to the motion, we will see an increased support and setting of ambitious short term targets for the roll-out of renewable and low-carbon energy in transport as well as a swift move to create economoic opportunities and green jobs in the low-carbon economy while managing the risks for workers in communities currently reliant on carbon intensive sectors, and – finally – the deliverance of a circular zero waste economy.
In terms of governmental action, this is admittedly a huge step forward compared to just this February when – although climate change was debated after the school strike – only a handful of MPs showed up. When compared to this, the power of just a few month’s protests can be seen by the support of a motion that hopes to, in the words of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, “set off a wave of action from parliaments and governments around the globe,” as well as “make clear to US president Donald Trump that he can not ignore the international agreements and action on the climate crisis.”
This being said, the job of holding the people in power to their word shouldn’t stop at parliament. It should continue in the form of peaceful protest, or at the very least with changes to your lifestyle (some of which are outlined in this very handy article.)
To those that doubt how effective small scale action is, social scientists have found that, if one person makes a sustainability-oriented change in their lifestyle, others are likely to follow in their footsteps. The article mentioned above, published by the BBC, gives four examples of this:
-Patrons at a US cafe who were told that 30% of Americans had started eating less meat were twice as likely to order a meatless lunch.
-An online survey showed that of the respondents who know someone who had given up flying because of climate change, half of them said they flew less as a result. -In California, households were more likely to install solar panels in neighbourhoods that already have them.
-Community organisers trying to get people to install solar panels were 62% more successful in their efforts if they had panels in their house too.
As has been said, and shouldn’t stop being repeated until the demands of climate activists are met, change of an unprecedented scale is required, on both a political and scientific level. While all of the changes made so far are a step in the right direction, it is only the first, and that we should really already be running.
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