London
Major speeches by Prime Minister Tony Blair and
Conservative Leader Michael Howard on the subject of climate change action last
week have been slammed by the Green Party as ‘greenwashing’ and a
‘smokescreen’ which allows them to continue developments in aviation and
road building.
Green Party spokesperson Dr Spencer Fitzgibbon outlined a ’12 Point Climate
Challenge’, which the organisation believes the Government and Conservatives
need to stick to if global warming is to be successfully combated. These points
include scrapping the controversial road building programme which threatens to
increase transport emissions; establish two million solar roof systems across
the country by 2010; and immediately set a target of 90% reductions in CO2
output (compared with 1990 levels) by 2050 at the latest.
"Tony Blair has a history of saying the right things about climate change,
then utterly failing to match his words with action,” said Dr Fitz-Gibbon.
“And the Tories have simply never had a clue. If they can't make this
twelve-point commitment, it'll confirm they're just trying to pull the wool over
the voters' eyes.”
The Green Party sees the growing political importance of climate change as a
quick-win by the two major parties to pacify voters in the lead up to elections.
"In the general election we can expect climate change to be a bigger issue
than ever before - and the Green Party will once again set the standard the
other parties must reach. Except it's gradually getting harder for them to
conduct business-as-usual behind a smokescreen of concerned statements,"
added Dr Fitzgibbon.