|
|
|
MIPIGGS Newsletter UK Opposition Call For Ban on HFCs The Rt. Hon. Michael Howard QC MP, Leader of the Conservative Opposition party in the UK and a past Environment Minister, has called for a phase out of HFCs and said "climate change is one of mankind's greatest challenges". Speaking on Monday 13 Sept, to a large audience of environmentalists, politicians, industrialists and the media, at an Environment Forum organised by Green Alliance/ERM he announced that "the Conservatives are committed to phasing out the use of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, between 2008 and 2014". He continued, saying that "HFCs have solved one problem - they do not damage the ozone layer. But they have caused another they contribute significantly to global warming. Their impact is some thousands of times greater than CO2. HFCs currently account for two per cent of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions and that will have doubled by the end of the first decade of the twenty first century". Howard also cited companies who were already tackling this problem like "Coca Cola - which owns around nine million refrigerators worldwide - is to phase out the use of HFCs in its refrigerators. Unilever has taken a similar stance, and Toyota is introducing non-HFC air-conditioning in their cars. These companies recognise that HFCs are not the way of the future". Howard finished by saying that "These are welcome, but isolated, examples. Unless this issue is addressed as a matter of some urgency, and government gives a clear lead, then the situation will only worsen. That is why a future Conservative Government will work with our European partners to phase out the use of HFCs over the next decade". Speaking the next day, at the 10th anniversary of the Prince of Wales's Business and the Environment programme, the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon Tony Blair MP called climate change the world's greatest environmental challenge. He said that "our effect on the environment, and in particular on climate change, is large and growing". He said "that there is no doubt that the time to act is now. It is now that timely action can avert disaster". He spoke of the potential for innovation but said nothing about control of HFCs. The next General Election in the UK is widely predicted to be in the spring of next year. Blair said the challenge to tackle climate change was "complicated politically" as "there is a mismatch in timing between the environmental and electoral impact". Michael Howard's speech can be found at http://www.greenalliance.org.uk/ and Tony Blair's at http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page6333.asp For any enquires contact: secretary@mipiggs.org |
 |