29 March 2007 - The UK ‘S greenhouse gas emissions are continuing to rise, according to figures released by the Government today.

Preliminary figures for 2006 show that CO2 emissions rose by 1.2 per cent last year alone – meaning CO2 emissions from the UK now stand at their highest level since Labour came to power in 1997.

Green Party Euro-MP Caroline Lucas said the rise was a shocking indictment of the Government’s failure to take tackling climate change seriously.

She said: “The figures released today put the public debate about climate change into stark relief: while New Labour continually talks about cutting emissions and setting legally-binding targets they continue, inexorably, to rise.

“It isn’t setting the right targets alone that matters, it is also enacting the policies to meet them – and the Government has so consistently failed on this front that its gets harder with each passing day to believe a word it utters on the subject.”

She added: “The Government’s stated commitment to tackling climate change sounds more like Newspeak with the release of every set of figures.

“David Miliband says the figures ‘support the need for more action’: of course they do, but they also reveal how ineffective the Government has been at cutting emissions over the last decade.”

ENDS