UK climate plan: Boris Johnson’s ‘green industrial revolution’ labelled ‘inadequate’
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Boris Johnson’s new 10-point climate action plan, which he launched on Tuesday evening, has been labelled “inadequate”, with some critics suggesting responses to the emergency have been stronger in European countries such as France and Germany.
Green Party co-leader Sian Berry tweeted to say the strategy was “inadequate”, and shadow secretary of state for energy and climate change, Ed Miliband, said: “The funding in the government's long-awaited 10-point plan doesn't remotely meet the scale of what’s needed … it pales in comparison to the tens of billions committed by France and Germany”.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden is being called out for handing one of the Democratic Party’s top recipients of fossil fuel industry money a top White House position - focusing in part on climate issues.
Representative Cedric Richmond, a Democrat from Louisiana, has received about £256,500 from donors in the oil and gas industry in his time. He has also repeatedly broken with Democrats on major climate and environmental votes.
See below for how our live coverage unfolded.
Just what climate advisers called for 18 months ago
The government appears to be acting on the advice of its committee of climate change advisers.
The recommendations they made 18 months ago tally closely with Boris Johnson’s latest 10-point plan, including a ban on new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2030 and stepping up reliance on hydrogen power. Here’s our report at the time:
UK can cash in on revolution for heating and cars to halt greenhouse gas emissions, say climate advisers
Landmark experts’ report calls for ban on petrol and diesel cars to be brought forward and for large-scale hydrogen production
Scottish politicians reject ‘nature emergency’ motion
An attempt by the Scottish Greens to declare a "nature emergency" at Holyrood has failed after MSPs instead backed an amendment to deal with "climate change and biodiversity loss on a twin-crises basis".
The party's environment spokesman Mark Ruskell submitted a motion noting the "catastrophic collapse" in Scotland's natural environment, which MSPs debated.
As well as a "nature emergency", it called for 30 per cent of Scotland's land and sea space to be dedicated to natural recovery and pushed for an end to driven grouse-moor management practices, as well as large-scale peat extraction.
Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said the motion was "overburdened" and suggested it was "designed to fail".
MSPs instead supported by 85 to 35 Ms Cunningham's amendment which called for "the continued treatment of climate change and biodiversity loss on a twin-crises basis".
Speaking in the Scottish Parliament, Mr Ruskell said legislation was needed to prevent many of Scotland's native species from going extinct.
He said: "This is a crisis that demands the same level of attention and action as the climate emergency. And the first step is to declare it for what it truly is, the nature emergency."
He said he was disappointed that the government had chosen to delete the word "emergency" from his motion.
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