Brighton MP claims residents face crisis on par with world war (From The Argus)

Brighton MP claims residents face crisis on par with world war

5:00pm Tuesday 10th November 2009

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The threat to humans from climate change is on a par with a world war, a Sussex MP has said.

Des Turner, Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown, made the comparison during a Parliamentary debate on global warming, and on the political negotiations to secure a successor to the Kyoto agreement at the Copenhagen summit next month.

Dr Turner said the achievement of a legally binding agreement from Copenhagen would be a "tremendous first for the planet".

But the MP warned that such an agreement - which would penalise countries that failed to cut their carbon emissions - was "unlikely" because of the lack of enthusiasm from the United States.

Describing the US as "the stumbling block of climate change negotiations for the past 10 years", the MP said: "Although the Bush Administration have moved on and been replaced by an enlightened administration under Obama, he is leading a country in which the debate on climate change is 10 or 20 years behind that of the rest of the world."

Calling for the UK to consider unilateral action - or action with the EU - to reduce emissions further in the event of failure in Copenhagen, Dr Turner said the country could not afford to wait.

He said: "In climate change, we are faced with something just as threatening as world war. It might take longer than a world war, but the effects and resulting casualties will be just as calamitous.

"We have to go for it at Copenhagen, and if we do not get everything that we want there, we must be prepared to start leading action on our own."

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