Based on a NEWS RELEASE from the office of the South-East England’s Green MEP Caroline Lucas:

The office of the South-East England’s Green Member of the European Parliament, Dr. Caroline Lucas, informs us that GREENS from across Europe have launched on the first anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol coming into force, an EU-wide Climate Change Campaign.

Euro-MPs gathered outside the European Parliament building in Strasbourg to kick-start the campaign, which aims to put pressure on the European Commission and EU national governments to cut greenhouse gas emissions at least in line with their Kyoto commitments - and work towards a replacement when the treaty expires in its current form in 2012.

Dr Caroline Lucas, is a member of the European Parliament’s influential Environment Committee, and its spokesperson on the impact of aviation on climate change, said that the gap between rhetoric and action on climate change was yawning ever wider across the EU.

“We are launching this campaign to keep the pressure on the EU and national governments to meet their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol - and go much further. We need to cut global CO2 emissions by at least 80 per cent by 2050 if we are to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, far in excess of the 60 per cent envisaged in the Kyoto treaty. But whilst the Protocol is imperfect - it doesn’t go far enough to prevent climate change, and it has failed to attract universal support - it is ‘the only game in town’ and it is vital that the EU remains engaged with it.”

“Yet while the UK Government talks the talk, and pledges to cut emissions faster than required under the terms of Kyoto, it is doing no such thing. CO2 emissions are rising, not falling, and the Blair administration remains committed to concreting over our countryside with new airports, roads and unsustainable housing developments.”

The South-East England MEP added: “We must raise our game if we are to prevent devastating climate terror: cutting our own emissions - by investing massively in energy efficiency and conservation as well as renewable energy sources - and working closely with China, India, and Brazil, to enable them to do the same.

“Globally, we must adopt the Contraction and Convergence model of emissions reduction, which places the greatest burden on the most developed nations, who are both responsible for most emissions and most able to reduce them.”

The campaign launch was marked with the opening of a new website www.stopclimatechange.net and events in 18 EU nations.

Participating EU countries include: Austria, Belgium, Czech, Germany, Greece, Finland, France, Italy, Spain - Catalonia, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK and Ukraine.

Photos of the Green MEPs launching the campaign are available at www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk or on request from Ben

For more information please contact:
Ben Duncan on 01273 671946 (office), 07973 823358 (mobile), or ben@greenmeps.org.uk and www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk