The Prime Minister has warned world leaders the planet faces a "catastrophic" future of heatwaves, floods and droughts if a new deal on climate change is not struck.
PM Warns 'There Is No Plan B' For The Planet
12:33pm UK, Monday October 19, 2009
Alison Chung, Sky News Online
The Prime Minister has warned world leaders the planet faces a "catastrophic" future of heatwaves, floods and droughts if a new deal on climate change is not struck.
Gordon Brown delivered the bleak message during urgent talks in London ahead of December's UN-sponsored summit in Copenhagen.
With less than 50 days to go until the crucial meeting, Mr Brown revealed his fears that international disagreement over emission cuts could result in deadlock.
The PM warned world leaders they could not compromise with the planet so "must compromise with each other" and reach a deal "to make the world safe for human survival".
"In every era there are only one or two moments when nations come together and reach agreements that make history - because they change the course of history," Mr Brown told the Major Economies Forum.
"Copenhagen must be such a time.
"If we do not reach a deal at this time, let us be in no doubt: once the damage from unchecked emissions growth is done, no retrospective global agreement, in some future period, can undo that choice.
"This is the moment. Now is the time. For the planet there is no plan B."
Mr Brown said the costs of failing to address global warming would be greater than the impact of the two world wars and the Great Depression.
By 2080 an extra 1.8 billion people - a quarter of the world's current population - could lack sufficient water, he added.
But it is not just poor countries that could be severely affected by climate change.
"On current trends, such an event could become quite routine in Britain in just a few decades' time," the PM said.
Quote:
This is the moment. Now is the time. For the planet there is no plan B.
- Prime Minister Gordon Brown
"And within the lifetime of our children and grandchildren the intense temperatures of 2003 could become the average temperature experienced throughout much of Europe."
The
Copenhagen summit is aimed at securing global agreement on climate change through the existing international treaty, known as the Kyoto Protocol.
Developing countries want richer nations to commit to tougher targets, as they are responsible for the vast majority of harmful emissions.
Many will also look to President
Barack Obama at Copenhagen for a change of policy on climate change.
The United States is both the world's largest polluter and the only major developed nation not to have signed up to the Kyoto Protocol.
We have around 50 days to save our planet, otherwise it will be too late.
