30 October 2006 - Green Party Euro-MP Caroline Lucas has accused Tony Blair of double-standards over the UK ’s poor record in implementing EU measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the wake of the Stern report into the economic of climate change.

Dr Lucas, MEP for South-East England and a member of the European Parliament’s influential Environment Committee, said the long-awaited report – which warns that failure to act on climate change could cost £3.6 trillion pounds and create hundreds of millions of environmental refugees – contained precious little of which the Government wasn’t already aware.

“Blair has been telling us for years that he takes climate change seriously,” she said. “But there has been a yawning gulf between his rhetoric and his lack of real action.

“Nowhere is this more apparent than in his cavalier attitude to EU directives aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A report I commissioned from the Association for the Conservation of Energy, for example, shows that his government has been sidelining precisely those EU directives and initiatives aimed at tackling climate change - delaying implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, and failing to set binding targets for energy demand reduction under the Energy Services Directive, to name just a few.

“In other words, Tony Blair has been resisting EU attempts to cut emissions, even when calling for more EU co-operation on the problem when addressing domestic audiences.”

he Euro-MP added: “Tony Blair talks about the need for global co-operation on climate change, yet he has the gall to call on fellow EU premiers to improve their performance, whilst he is sidelining and undermining the very initiatives designed to reduce the emissions which are fuelling the problem.”

ENDS

So much hot air