Owen Paterson ‘mistaken’ on Climate Change Act
Lord Turner and Emily Shuckburgh comment on former environment minister's speech
By George Smeeton
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Former environment minister Owen Paterson MP will tonight (15 Oct) give a speech to the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), on “Keeping the lights on”.
In it he is due to claim [please check against delivery] that climate change impacts have been "consistently and widely exaggerated" in scientific forecasts, and to call for the UK to scrap the Climate Change Act and pursue an alternative energy strategy.
Mr Paterson’s call contrasts with a recent speech by Prime Minister David Cameron at the UN Climate Summit on New York, at which he described climate change as “one of the most serious threats facing our world”, going on to say that, as a result of the UK Climate Change Act, the UK is “on track to cut emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.”
Responding, Lord Turner of Ecchinswell, former Chair of the Committee on Climate Change, the government’s statutory advisor, said: “Owen Paterson is mistaken in asserting that the Climate Change Act mandates the building of wind farms and other renewables.
“The Act, which was agreed by an overwhelming cross-party consensus, does not mention specific technologies. Companies are perfectly free to develop the other options that Mr Paterson advocates, and the Government is in fact supporting some of them.”
Dr Emily Shuckburgh, Head of Open Oceans at the British Antarctic Survey, said: "I fully support Owen Paterson's call to include the latest evidence when formulating policy.
“And the latest evidence tells us that even though surface temperature rise has temporarily slowed, the oceans continue to warm, sea level continues to rise, and many frozen parts of our planet continue to melt. There is no slowdown in climate change.
“If we delay cutting emissions until surface temperatures have started to accelerate again, it may be too late, because the climate system cannot simply be turned on and off like a switch."
Lord Turner of Ecchinswell was Chairman of the Committee on Climate Change from 2008 to 2012; Dr Emily Shuckburgh is a climate scientist who leads the Open Oceans research group at the British Antarctic Survey. Both are members of the Advisory Board of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit.