transport

Early this morning 35 Greenpeace volunteers shut down the assembly line making gas-guzzling Range Rovers. Urban 4x4s made at this site are wrecking the climate.

Climate change is already killing 150,000 people a year. If the government takes climate change as seriously as it says it does, Gordon Brown will tax gas-guzzlers off our roads tomorrow when he presents the budget.

Earlier today the Chancellor made a keynote speech describing climate change as an issue of justice and recoginsed that the millennium development goals cannot be met without stabilising the climate. He also declared his ambition to make British business the world leaders in environmental productivity.

More than a hundred volunteers from Greenpeace and the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s took to the streets to poll Londoners about a proposal to increase the congestion charge to £20 for gas-guzzling vehicles like 4x4s. Of the more than 5000 people randomly polled throughout London, 85 percent agreed that the Congest Charge should be higher for gas-guzzlers.

Tony Blair

At regular intervals over the last few years, Tony Blair has given strong speeches on the importance and urgency of tackling climate change. He has told us that this is the single greatest challenge facing the international community, and that the scientific evidence is alarming. He is certainly right about that. He has also said that he is personally passionate about solving the problem.

Greenpeace has been sharply critical of Blair on other issues - on GM, nuclear power and, above all, Iraq. But on climate we have tried to believe in his sincerity. We need politicians to take the lead, and we need to support them when they do. It's not our style to ask automatically, as Jeremy Paxman does, "why is this bastard lying to me?"

airport expansion pledge logo