UK Parliament Becomes the First in the World to Declare ‘Climate Emergency’

This week, the opposition Labour Party has called for some “real action” in the Parliament and when the majority of the MP’s have approved a motion to declare an environment and climate emergency, it becomes the first Parliament in the world to vote in order to declare a ‘climate emergency’.

The move in the Parliament will now increase the pressure on the government to take some concrete steps to help avoid more than 1.5 degrees centigrade of warming, thereby cutting the global emissions by almost half of 2010 levels by 2030.

Leader of Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn says he is hopeful that the vote “can set off a wave of action from parliaments and governments around the globe. We can pledge to work as closely as possible with countries that are serious about ending the climate catastrophe and make clear to US President Donald Trump that he cannot ignore international agreements and action on the climate crisis”.

After the vote, the Labour Party’s Twitter Page posted this message, “Thanks to pressure from the Labour Party, the UK just became the first country to declare an environment and #climateemergency. Now it is the time for real action to tackle climate change”.

The decision to vote in the Parliament was taken following 11 days of protests by a group of climate activists popularly known as Extinction Rebellion, which has brought London to a standstill.

Extinction Rebellion has called the vote “first step in the government telling the truth about the climate and ecological emergency. Pressure on our politicians will now increase as nothing but decisive action will suffice”.

The declaration of an emergency was one of the key demands of the environmental activist, which they put before the government, during their protests over recent weeks. 

Some towns and cities across the United Kingdom have already declared “a climate emergency”. Though there is no single definition of what a climate emergency means but most of the people say they want to be carbon-neutral by 2030.

Some organisations have also come forward with the promise to introduce electric car hubs or build sustainable homes to try to achieve that goal. Now, it is for us to see how the government of the UK reduces carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, which can set an example for other countries to follow and declare ‘climate emergencies’.