Jeremy Corbyn to warn MPs they must accept 'historic duty' and declare climate emergency
3 min read
Jeremy Corbyn will today call on MPs to do their "historic duty" and make the UK Parliament the first in the world to declare a climate emergency.
The Labour leader will use a Commons debate to insist that there is “no time to waste” to prevent irreversible damage being done to the planet.
MPs will be asked to vote on Labour calls for the Government to "increase the ambition" of its environmental targets in order to reduce the UK's net carbon emissions to zero by 2050.
Mr Corbyn will also praise the Extinction Rebellion activists who brought parts of London to a standstill in protest at the lack of political action on climate change.
He will say: “We are living in a climate crisis that will spiral dangerously out of control unless we take rapid and dramatic action now.”
“Young people know this. I was deeply moved a few weeks ago to see the streets outside this parliament filled with colour and noise by children on strike from school chanting ‘our planet, our future’.
“For someone of my generation, it was inspiring but also humbling that children felt they had to leave school to teach the adults a lesson. The truth is they are ahead of the politicians on this, the most important issue of our times.
“We are witnessing an unprecedented upsurge of climate activism with groups like Extinction Rebellion forcing the politicians in this building to listen.
“For all the dismissive and defensive column inches the protests have provoked, they are a massive and necessary wake up call.
"Today, we have the opportunity to say, ‘We hear you’."
Mr Corbyn will add that by declaring a climate emergency, the UK "could set off a wave of action from parliaments and governments around the world".
“It’s a chance that won’t be available to succeeding generations. It is our historic duty to take it,” he will say.
He will also ramp up calls for a “green industrial revolution”, that could bring new manufacturing and engineering jobs to places where traditional industries have been decimated.
“An emergency of this magnitude requires large-scale government intervention to kickstart industries, to direct investment and to boost research and development in the green technologies of the future,” he will continue.
“The solution to the crisis is reprogramming our whole economy so that it works in the interests of both people and the planet. This is not a time for despair. It is a time for action.”
Mr Corbyn’s move has the backing of 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg, who has shot to prominence after sparking a wave of youth climate protests around the world.
The Swede said: “It is very hopeful that a major European political party has woken up to propose a declaration of a national climate emergency.
“It is a great first step because it sends a clear signal that we are in a crisis and that the ongoing climate and ecological crises must be our first priority.
“We cannot solve an emergency without treating it like an emergency.”
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