The Chancellor, who is speaking later today in London, will use his speech to warn that the Conservative's continuing Euro-scepticism disqualifies them as an effective force when it comes to dealing with global warming. He will argue that real progress can only be achieved by working through bodies such as the European Union to reach international agreements on curbing damaging greenhouse gas emissions. Mr Brown will call for a “new world order” to combat climate change while dismissing the Tories’ proposals as “ill-conceived, short-termist, unworkable and unfair”. 
“Euro-scepticism and Continent-wide environmental action are at odds with each other,” he will say. “A Government ambivalent about the UK’s future in Europe and allied to the most reactionary forces in the European Parliament would have no credibility, no influence and no achievements.” | Mr Cameron, who is addressing a Conservative Party environmental summit this morning, will challenge the Government to set annual targets for cutting emissions when it publishes its Climate Change Bill tomorrow - something ministers have so far resisted. “We must make sure that the measures announced by the Government have real bite - that they’re not just greenwash,” he will say. “Without annual rate-of-change targets, it’s too easy for the timetable to slip. And once it has slipped, it’s much harder to make up the difference later.” The Conservative leader will also say that to be credible and effective, targets must be independently set and monitored. “The long-term nature of the climate change challenge demands a framework and disciplines that no Government, of any political colour, will ever be able to fudge. The Climate Change Bill needs teeth and we will do all we can to improve the Bill as it goes through Parliament.” |
