MERSEY MPs are threatening to throw Gordon Brown’s flagship Bill to tackle climate change into confusion, in the latest Labour backbench revolt.
Joe Benton (Bootle), Claire Curtis-Thomas (Crosby) and Bob Wareing (West Derby) are among 56 Labour MPs demanding the Prime Minister beef up his much-hyped legislation to slash carbon emissions by 80%.
The rebels want the rising emissions from both aviation and shipping included in the UK’s greenhouse gas targets – something ministers have refused to do.
They are backing a Friends of the Earth protest that a climate change law leaving out emissions from planes and ships is like “a drink-driving law that doesn't count whisky”.
Crucially, the 56 rebels are enough to defeat the Prime Minister when the Climate Change Bill goes to a Commons vote tomorrow.
A Parliamentary motion calling for the inclusion of international aviation and shipping in the 80% target has been signed by 74 Labour MPs – suggesting the number of rebels could rise further.
Ms Curtis-Thomas said: “Excluding these industries from the Bill will not give them the impetus they need to develop new technologies to tackle their carbon emissions, as always happens with engineering.
“I don’t accept the argument that it would mean the death-knell of these two forms of transport. I think they need to be incentivised to find better solutions.”
Friends of the Earth’s “Big Ask” campaign for a tougher climate change law is also backed by Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, who said: “MPs have a chance to fix this when they vote on the law.
“We are on the verge of getting the world’s first climate change law. This is an amazing achievement, but there is one very large elephant in the room – it doesn't cover pollution from ships or planes.”
The Government’s position, backed by the Climate Change Committee it set up, is that it is near-impossible for countries to share out responsibility for the gases produced from international flights and shipping.
But the rebel amendment states that, if emissions from aviation and shipping continue to grow, the Government must compensate with extra carbon dioxide cuts elsewhere.
New Climate Change and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has already bowed to pressure by hiking – from 50% to 80% – the Bill’s commitment for carbon emission cuts by 2050.
The rebellion looms just days after 16 Labour MPs – including Mr Benton and Frank Field (Birkenhead) – defied a three-line whip to try to defeat the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. Ms Curtis-Thomas abstained.
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