It's not too late!

Posted by bex — 30 January 2007 at 2:58pm - Comments

It's not too late!

As the world's top climate scientists gather in France to finalise their landmark climate report due out on Friday, we've taken our message to Paris to urge the world's governments to act.

Forty-four volunteers have scaled the Eiffel Tower and dropped banners reminding the world that we still have time to avert climate catastrophe - just. The banners include a giant thermometer representing global warming, and a sign saying "it's not too l late".

The report is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s fourth assessment report on climate change, and it's likely to have enormous repercussions for governments around the world.

It will probably include the findings that climate change is happening faster than we previously thought, and that temperature rises of between two degrees and 4.5 degrees are almost inevitable over the next 100 years. A draft copy of the report adds that higher increases of six degrees or more can't be ruled out.

And these rising temperatures will erode the planet's natural ability to absorb man-made carbon dioxide, which could lead to still higher concentrations of the gas in the atmosphere.

"The more we know, the worse it is," says Greenpeace climate campaigner Stephanie Tunmoore.

We're in Paris to urge the governments of the world to act, while there's still time. To date, the world's governments have done far too little to face up to the reality of climate change and to combat it. Here in the UK, emissions have risen under New Labour, who have spectacularly failed to underline their rhetoric with meaningful action.

In fact, the UK government has failed to deliver on their own 2003 commitments to renewable energy. It has cut financial support for micro-renewables and is winding down its support programme for solar energy six years early. And it has failed to address the regulatory policies that prevent the UK from adopting a clean, efficient and decentralised energy system.

We have the means and, if we act now, we just about have the time to keep the global temperature increase below that critical two degree threshold.

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