CLIMATE CHANGE - URGENT ACTION NEEDED!
International Petition to Governments of Industrialised Countries
Climate change is a serious threat to the well-being of God's creation. There is now widespread international consensus that the atmosphere is warming as a result of human activity, and that this is likely to have far reaching environmental, social and economic consequences.
If the rate of burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) continues to grow as currently planned, the climate next century is likely to change at a rate greater than that experienced on Earth at any time during the last 10,000 years. Many ecosystems will probably be unable to adapt to such a rate of change. Many human communities will experience growing extremes of weather and climate, especially more floods and droughts, and a threat to low lying regions because of a rise in sea level. To keep climate change within bearable limits, the emission of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, must be significantly reduced.
Industrialised countries are the main source of these emissions, but the people most seriously affected will be those in developing countries, for instance those in low lying areas (such as in Bangladesh and small island states in the Pacific and Indian oceans) and in sub tropical regions particularly vulnerable to floods and droughts. Nearly all governments have signed the Convention on Climate Change agreed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, which stated the need for urgent action to mitigate climate change by all countries, beginning with the industrialised ones.
Despite this situation, the UK government has shown reluctance to act for the long term, in failing to set emission targets for carbon dioxide after the year 2000, by its continued opposition to the European Union's proposed carbon/energy tax, and by its weakness in applying the "polluter pays" principle to environmental and other damage from carbon dioxide emissions.
The signatories of this petition call on HM Government to establish firm long term national policy measures and to adopt binding international agreements from the year 2000 onwards, to achieve substantially greater reductions in the emissions of carbon dioxide than those agreed to date. These policy measures should include programmed commitments:
- to set specific targets for reducing CO2 levels in the UK beyond 2000
- to implement appropriate measures to incorporate the environmental costs of burning fossil fuel in the price of coal, oil, gas and their products
- to increase energy efficiency by providing greater incentives and assistance to domestic and commercial users
- to pursue a rigorous policy of replacing fossil fuels by renewable energy, making full use of Scotland's abundant renewable potential
- to provide assistance in environmentally-friendly technologies to developing countries as they industrialise and to countries of Eastern Europe
For our part:
- we declare our readiness to accept the consequences of such reductions on our society, economy and personal lives
- we are prepared to take steps in our way of life to reduce our energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions
- we believe such changes would improve the long-term quality of life for all.
CLIMATE CHANGE - URGENT ACTION NEEDED!
International Petition to Governments of Industrialised Countries
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Please note that the Petition has now closed, but we enclose the form for information.
See Results of the Climate Change Petition for information about the results
See Climate Change Home Page and Petition Background for some information about climate change which explains our concerns, and who organised the petition and why.
For further information contact :
Society, Religion and Technology Project
John Knox House, 45 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1SR
Scotland. Tel. +44 (0)131-240 2250, fax +44 (0)131-240 2239, email srtp@srtp.org.uk