IPCC report - latest climate warnings "like Groundhog Day"

Reacting to a new report published today by the International Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which concludes that the window of opportunity to prevent the worst of climate breakdown is rapidly diminishing, Mike Childs, head of science, policy and research at Friends of the Earth, said:

“Once again, with this hard-hitting global climate report, the world’s scientists are sounding a clarion call for urgent, rapid and ambitious action to prevent runaway climate breakdown. While in response, politicians make half-hearted, feeble promises to do more. It’s like Groundhog Day.

“In the UK, the government must deliver on legally-binding carbon reduction targets, thanks to our world-leading Climate Change Act. But last week we heard the government is still way off meeting its own goals over the crucial next decade.

“Legal action brought by Friends of the Earth and others last year also found the UK’s climate plans are wholly inadequate – the government is due to publish a revised Net Zero Strategy by the end of this month. Strengthening this will be the government’s best opportunity to show that it is listening to the science and put the UK on course to become a thriving green economy.

“For this to happen, we need to see a huge drive to insulate the UK’s heat-leaking homes, faster development of cheap, clean renewable energy, fewer roads being built and an end to new fossil fuel infrastructure.”

Notes

1. The government has been ordered to publish a revised Net Zero Strategy  by the end of March after the High Court found the current one to be unlawful following a successful legal challenge by Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and Good Law Project last year.