In the lead-up to Valentine's Day, The Climate Coalition, of which UNA-UK is a member, ran a campaign encouraging people to speak out about the things they love and want to protect from climate change. The initiative was part of the "For the love of ... 2015" campaign, calling for leadership and ambition ahead of the UN climate change conference in December.
On 14 February, Party leaders David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband signed a joint pledge, stating that action on climate change was in the "national interest", and committed to:
- Seek a fair, strong, legally binding, global climate deal, which limits temperature rises to below 2 °C;
- Work together, across party lines, to agree carbon budgets in accordance with the Climate Change Act;
- Accelerate the transition to a competitive, energy-efficient, low carbon economy and to end the use of unabated coal for power generation.
The UK is now the first major economy to pledge the phasing out of unabated coal. This comes despite the fact that the UK remains the third largest user of coal in the EU and the 14th largest in the world, with coal currently providing one third of the UK’s electricity.
The cross-party nature of the pledge was also a major step forward in the UK’s commitment to combating climate change - a rare display of unity in the lead-up to the May general election. It was hailed as an example of “true statesmanship” by former US Vice-President Al Gore, who said “the political courage it represents on all sides is exactly what our world most needs”.
This consensus provides a promising foundation for UK leadership as the world works towards the December deadline for adopting a new global climate deal.
Click here to read more about The Climate Coalition’s campaign.
Click here to read UNA-UK's stance on securing an effective climate deal.
