David Miliband and global warming

The Foreign Secretary accused the public yesterday of lacking a sense of urgency in the face of the potentially devastating consequences of climate change. David Miliband said that people had grown apathetic about the issue when they needed to be galvanised into action before the Copenhagen climate change summit in December.

“For a lot of people the penny hasn’t dropped that this climate change challenge is real and is happening now,” he said.

This is a bit rich coming from a prominent member of a government which has done nothing whatever to promote cycling and walking, has subsidised the purchase of new cars, has wasted billions on ‘road improvements’, and is strongly committed to expanding airports and air travel. The Government is equally keen to fiddle its environmental target figures through creative accounting.

So feeble is Labour in government that it hasn’t even managed to bring in national legislation banning pavement parking. A government committed to the great car economy is in no position to give anyone a lecture on what needs to be done to save the planet.