Monday, December 14, 2009

An open letter to David Cameron

Dear Mr Cameron,
At the start of the Copenhagen process on global climate change, you reassured us that the Conservative party is serious about curbing man-made global warming.

You tell us that your "front bench" view on climate change is the view that counts. But in Europe, this official party line is looking rather wobbly.

One of the leading Conservative experts on the environment, former MEP Caroline Jackson was among the first to sound the warning. She was sceptical of the 'green rebranding' of the Conservative party, "I think from the point of view of the Conservative Party, pursuing the green line is all talk and no action at the moment…when push comes to shove in the next General Election I suspect we will roll back from some of this”.

Other Conservative MEPs are busily proving her right. Roger Helmer MEP, an outspoken climate sceptic who sat on the European Parliament's Climate Change committee, told the Parliament's plenary earlier this year: "There is said to be a consensus around catastrophic man-made global warming. It (too) is wrong. Nor is it a consensus. The myth of consensus is a propaganda triumph for the Warmists."

Roger Helmer last week organised yet another event on the 'global climate change sceptics circuit' - a pre-Copenhagen briefing in the European Parliament, where a Dutch economist and a Viscount announced: "We are told that temperatures and sea levels are rising and the polar caps are melting. That is the bad news. The good news is that none of it is true."

Two weeks ago, Tory MEP Daniel Hannan suggested that the aim of the UN-driven Copenhagen talks - to bring in an international solution to an international problem - is somehow a conspiracy: "(The President of the European Council) Mr Van Rompuy declared that the Copenhagen Process would be a step towards the global management of our planet. We cannot be alone in being alarmed at the way in which the environmental agenda is being piggybacked by those who have a different agenda about the shifting of power away from national democracies."

Both MEPs voted to reject the European Parliament's resolution on the Copenhagen negotiations along with almost half of your Conservative Party's new European group.

Mr Cameron, you have attached historical importance to the Copenhagen summit. We know this may be our last chance to protect the planet.

The UK is going to Copenhagen as part of the European Union, with a common EU mandate. The denialist attitudes that your MEPs are propagating at the heart of Europe are at best, unhelpful, and at worst, dangerous. You recently threw a Conservative MEP out of your party for making a stand against the Conservatives' new allies in the European Parliament. Is climate change such a low priority for your party that climate saboteurs are given a free rein?

Yours,
Glenis Willmott MEP
Linda McAvan MEP
and all other Labour MEPs

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