Cameron, Clegg and Miliband Sign ‘Climate Change Pact’

Prime Minister David Cameron has signed a pact with Labour leader Ed Miliband and Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg pledging that all three of their parties will work together to tackled climate change.

The pledge, which has been brokered by a collection of green non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and lobby groups, such as Greenpeace, WWF and RSPB, commits the party leaders to agree “carbon budgets”, end the use of coal for power generation and “accelerate the transition to a competitive, energy efficient low carbon economy”.

The Press Association reports that statement reads: “Climate change is one of the most serious threats facing the world today.

“It is not just a threat to the environment, but also to our national and global security, to poverty eradication and economic prosperity.

“Acting on climate change is also an opportunity for the UK to grow a stronger economy, which is more efficient and more resilient to the risks ahead. It is in our national interest to act and ensure that others act with us.”

Former US Vice-President Al Gore welcomed the declaration, saying: “This agreement represents inspiring leadership and true statesmanship by all three men. The political courage it represents on all sides is exactly what our world most needs in order to solve the climate crisis.”

However, climate blogger Bishop Hill said that the declaration is a gift to UKIP: “A better way of making their parties look as if they are completely out of touch and/or working to NGOs’ agendas is hard to imagine,” he wrote.

He did note, however, that as one of the pledges is to do away with coal-fired electricity generation, this may yet be a signal to “frack, baby, frack”.