Tuesday 20 October 2009

10:10 Opposition Day debate in Parliament on Wednesday

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/speakout/1010parliament have a campaign to reduce emissions, so contact your MP. I have put my letter below.

If you don't know your MP, they have a handy postcode finder which ill tell you who it is. Now get clicking.


Dear MP,

I hear that there's going to be a debate this Wednesday about the 10:10 campaign. It will propose signing Parliament up to the 10:10 campaign and call on the government to achieve 10% reduction in public sector emissions by the end of 2010. I have signed up for this, and am cutting my emissions.

Please vote for the motion this Wednesday. It will send a powerful signal to the government to take action to cut emissions. It will also send helpful ripples internationally in the build-up Copenhagen climate summit in December.

Please confirm that you'll attend the debate and vote for the motion, or if not please explain to me why not.

Thank you.

Yours Sincerely

13 comments:

howard thomas said...

10% reduction by the end of 2010 from what level----now, 5 years ago, any other?

Seems an obvious question to me !

Adrian Windisch said...

See also http://greenreading.blogspot.com/2009/09/cut-carbon-emissions-by-10-in-2010.html
and
http://www.1010uk.org

Cut Britains carbon emissions by 10% in 2010!

howard thomas said...

Possibly you didn't understand what I meant.
If you are talking about a 10% cut in/by 2010, do you mean a 10 cut from where we are now , or is there a different starting point like 5 years ago?
It makes a lot of difference

Adrian Windisch said...

Howard, over 14,000 individuals, 550 companies, 150 schools and 250 other organisations such as hospitals and councils have signed up for this. If they understand, why dont you?

The point is to get on with reducing emissions, enough talking about reasons why not to do it.

I think your confusing this with Kyoto, which used a baseline from 1990.

howard thomas said...

Adrian I'm not confusing anything ----it is a simple enough question ,to which I thought there must be a simple answer!

To state that Britain's carbon emission is to be cut by 10% in 2010 begs the obvious question as to where you are comparing the level to.
Is it the level in 2009, or 2005 ,or 2000,or 1990 or when----it makes all the difference as to whether such an aim makes any sense.
A further question might now be , do you know?

Adrian Windisch said...

I had assumed it was on the previous year. I dont know where your getting '2009, or 2005 ,or 2000,or 1990'. I think you are trying to make this more complicated than it is.

Just get on with reducing your emissions, not discussing exactly what year it should be.

howard thomas said...

Adrian---its not a complicated or even a catch question!
If you are saying that the plan is to get emissions to fall 10% in 12 months then that is clearly unrealistic-----if however there is a longer timeframe that ends in 2010 then maybe not so.
Surely you can see the need for a time period to be mentioned.

Adrian Windisch said...

It is indeed possible for emissions to fall 10% in 12 months, and thats what 1010 is all about.

Im unsure what it is you dont understand about that, there have been many many blogs about how to do this.it isn't rocket science.

I have written a posts about this before.
http://greenreading.blogspot.com/2007/11/ways-to-reduce-your-emissions.html

howard thomas said...

Right Adrian----having failed to get an answer to my question that I could make any sense of I have had a look around at the info that is available , and it makes quite interesting reading!
All the figures quoted below are taken from the International Energy Agency and cover the years from 1990 to 2007 giving millions of tons of CO2 per country and the percentage increase or decrease.
(you need a start point and a finish point for figures to make any sense!

Country Tons(millions) UP/Down

UK 523 - 5.4%
EU 3926 -3.3%
US 5769 +18.6
Germany -16%
Former soviet
union 2411 -34%
Brazil 347 +79.8%
India 1324 +124%
Asia 2898 +126%
China 6071 +172%
World 28,962 +38%

Using 1990 as a starting point and looking at the changes in these figures it is obvious that India/China /Asia/US are those countries that are causing the biggest increases in emissions worldwide and that this is truely a global subject.
As to whether UK emissions could fall by 10% IN 12 months , it must be completely obvious, even to the optimist that you are, that any figure even remotely near to that is completely unobtainable----unless,of course, we are prepared to sit in the dark

Adrian Windisch said...

Basically the answer is 'yes we can', but only if we work together. Thats the essence of the 1010 campaign, you seem to have missed.
Germany has done some good on your figures, why not follow there lead.

I gave a link to ways to reduce emissions, the first 10% is easy, the next step will be harder.

You have before based your decision on what has gone before, as though nothing can change; your wrong.

Looking to blame other countries is one of a list of excuses sometimes used to do nothing. Other excuses are to deny that there is a problem, or to say its too late. But there is no need to give up, its something we can do if we work together.

howard thomas said...

Adrian----I am just trying to be a bit of a realist here .
If its taken the UK 17 years to reduce emissions by 5.4% how can anyone suppose that this figure could reach 10% over the following 3 years.
The UK as a whole produces 1.8% of the whole world's emissions.The world increase in emissions next year(based on current trends) is going to be about 580 million tons of carbon, more as you can see than the entire UK for 1 year.Much as I wish you well in your desire to save the planet, I think you will find that Canute had more chance with the sea!
This is truly a global problem and unless there is a proper and binding agreement by all countries, there will be no solution.
As an example , how are you going to stop Brazil and Indonesia from cutting down masses of rain forest to grow crops, oddly enough crops that are often used in biofuels?How are you going to get China and India to stop increasing their emissions at such a massive rate?
These are the issues that need to be solved before there is a pressing case not to leave your television in standby mode!

Adrian Windisch said...

For decades the government did little to encourage us to reduce emissions, it has been all talk and no action. You have said as much yourself.

If there is a reason to, change can happen. Think of just the changes of the last ten years, emails, mobiles, whole industries have grown up. Read about when people changed from using wood as fuel to coal. If we have changed before, why cant we do it again?

We can only hope to change other countries if we change ourselves. Lead by example.

And your wrong about Canute; thats a false myth, see http://www.viking.no/e/people/e-knud.htm

howard thomas said...

Adrian ----Canute may or may not be a myth ,but you know what my point is I'm sure.