Miliband upbeat about Copenhagen deal

The secretary of state for energy and climate change has told MPs he his hopeful of an international deal on climate change. Skip related content

Ed Miliband was speaking during a debate today on the UN's climate change conference in Copenhagen in December.

He said that a full legal treaty is "unlikely" to emerge from the international meeting.

"We would have preferred that," Miliband said.

"While it may be a political agreement, it must lead to a legally-binding treaty.

"An agreement without numbers is wholly inadequate it must contain numbers."

Miliband said he hoped there would be meaningful reduction commitments from developed countries and pledges of action to contribute to the peaking of global emissions from developing nations.

He pointed out that we are "utterly interdependent" with regard to climate change and none of us can insulate ourselves from the consequences.

The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is "the highest for 650,000 years" and in 2007 the Arctic's North West Passage was free of ice for the first time in recorded history, he said.

"Remaking the case for the science is important," he told the House.

Despite "siren voices" who say the science is not real, Miliband pointed out that nine of the ten warmest years on record were in the last 15 years.

"All of us in this House have a responsibility," he said.

Miliband said that scientists "are as certain about this as they are about anything" and climate change "deniers" want to bet our future on the "slim possibility" those scientists are wrong.

He admitted the politics is "behind" the science, while just 18 per cent of adults in the UK think that climate change will affect their children.

"Children really understand this issue," he added.

Miliband rejected a comment from Peter Lilley (Con, Hitchin and Harpenden) that children are being indoctrinated.

"It is about information," he said.

Lib Dem spokesman Simon Hughes said there is evidence already, with 20 million people displaced by climate change last year

"Politicians in these debates have not done enough to make the positive case for making the transition to low carbon," Miliband said.

He said jobs, energy security and quality of life would all be improved.

"The UN negotiations are moving too slowly and not going well," he admitted.

"It is partly there is a history of mistrust in these negotiations."

Miliband said he is hopeful about new governments in the US and Japan and praised the Chinese president for going to the UN earlier this year and announcing measures to cut carbon.

Shadow energy and climate change secretary Greg Clark praised Miliband's speech and welcomed "the tone he brought to his remarks".

"It is vital that a clear message of unity of purpose on all sides of the House," is sent out, he said.

"There has long been agreement that it poses a real risk."

Clark noted that twenty years ago, on November 8 1989, prime minister Margaret Thatcher addressed the UN general assembly and raised the issue of climate change.

"Her words are as relevant in Copenhagen as they were in NewYork 20 years ago," he said.

Clark predicted that a deal in Copenhagen "may be as pivotal as the Bretton Woods agreements" were for the 20th century.

"What came out of that was a new world order and it has guided the way we interact globally," he told MPs.

"The Copenhagen agreement must be no less ambitious in its scope."

Clark said climate change challenges "our future national and international security and our economic competitiveness".

"Many of our everyday actions have actively contributed to this grave situation," he said.

Clark dismissed claims from Karen Buck (Lab, Regents Park and Kensington North) that the Tories' new European Parliament colleagues are climate change "deniers".

He said the party is totally committed to action on climate change.

Hughes told the House that we are "a long way from getting the deal yet".

"Targets for 2050 are fine and important ... but the real job we have to do is agree something for now," he said.

Hughes told MPs he is keen that the UK signs up to ambitious plans.

He said Copenhagen agreement could be a significant for a generation or more and is "the last opportunity to make decisions that reverse the pattern of behaviour".