Over 400 experts urge UK leaders to commit to 'ambitious' climate action before election

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - More than 400 experts have called on leaders of political parties in the UK to pledge "ambitious" action on climate change ahead of upcoming general election next month.

In a letter published Monday, 408 members of the climate change research community asked UK political party leaders to take more concrete steps towards climate efforts, outlining five specific actions required in a program of climate action.

The general election is set for July 4.

These include a strategy for meeting the UK’s Carbon Budgets and net zero targets, action to help the UK adapt and become more resilient to climate impacts, international leadership on climate change and support for mitigation and adaptation in developing countries.

The joint letter was organized by Emily Shuckburgh, director of Cambridge Zero at the University of Cambridge, and Bob Ward, Policy and Communications Director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

"We call on you to pledge to an ambitious programme of climate policies that accelerate action, in the UK and across the world, both to cut greenhouse gas emissions and to increase resilience to those impacts of climate change that cannot now be avoided," read the letter.

The academics said without such a programme, the UK will be "shirking" its international responsibilities and will be losing the opportunity to promote prosperity and peace in the UK and around the globe.

"It is very clear that a failure to tackle climate change with sufficient urgency and scale is making the UK and the rest of the world more dangerous and insecure," it added.

- Transitioning away from fossil fuels

The letter also noted that the UK needs a government which it said learned from the energy crisis triggered by Russia's war on Ukraine, which forced up the price of energy, damaging the economy, and driving inflation.

"Any Party Leader who does not make stronger climate action a priority for the next five years and beyond will place the prosperity and well-being of the British people at severe risk," they opined.

The letter called on the leaders to pledge to publish and implement a credible and legal strategy for ending the UK’s contribution to climate change, to accelerate action across all sectors and all parts of the UK to adapt and become more resilient to those impacts of climate change, to respect and act on all the advice of the expert independent Climate Change Committee.

They also asked party leaders to lead by example internationally on climate change, including through the implementation of the decision at COP28 in Dubai in December 2023, and the commitment to "transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science."

The letter also called on leaders to increase public and private funding and support for climate change mitigation and adaptation in developing countries.

"Without such a pledge, we do not believe that your Party deserves support in the forthcoming General Election," the letter added.