Morning:
14°c
Two great polluters take a step into the light today.
China, the world's fastest-growing source of emissions and until now intransigent over the need for restrictions, is expected to seize the initiative with a promise of decisive reductions.
Meanwhile, the air transport industry, on current trends set to become the biggest emitter in the developed world, will reveal an agreement between airlines, airports and aircraft manufacturers to cut net carbon emissions to 50 per cent below 2005 levels by 2050. This goes further than the British government's target of reduction to the 2005 levels themselves.
The air industry's announcement drew criticism from environmental campaigners for its reliance on the buying of carbon permits rather than commitments to reduce emissions directly. And it is high time the industry lived up to its responsibilities, after escaping carbon dioxide caps in the Kyoto protocols. The offer will need close scrutiny to determine its implications but it is certainly a welcome expression of intent to change.
As for China's plans, which are likely to be accompanied by a statement from India's environment minister on “aggressive cuts” in emissions, they will need to address a problem of credibility. China has long clung to the position that it needs to lift hundreds of millions more of its citizens out of poverty, and cannot therefore restrict economic development that relies heavily on coal-fired power stations.
However, the country will itself suffer significantly from the effects of global warming, and it appears to want to leapfrog the efforts of the US, currently responsible for the largest share of the world's emissions. Much depends on the detail of the proposals, as well as the form of the deals to be struck at the Copenhagen climate change summit in December. But for all those who know that global warming is the biggest challenge facing the planet, today is an important day.
If guilty, she must go
The Attorney General, Baroness Scotland, who is the Government's most senior law officer, faces a fine of up to £5,000 for employing an illegal immigrant as a housekeeper — along with a report from the UK Border Agency into the case.
It appears that an agency raid on the housekeeper's flat found discrepancies in Ms Loloahi Tapui's documents. The law requires employers to check passports and visas, and keep photocopies. Those Londoners who are a little vague about their obligations to check their cleaners' papers may feel sympathetic to Lady Scotland. But any lawyer, let alone one who sits in Cabinet, should be held to the highest standard. The fact that Lady Scotland helped push through some of the legislation of which she has now fallen foul is a further point against her.
Overstaying a visa, as Lady Scotland's housekeeper did for five years, is not a trivial offence. The UK's population has grown by two million since the millennium and the strain on housing and public services, particularly in London and the South-East, is immense. The Government cannot claim to be tightening border controls and at the same time tolerate a chief law officer who breaks immigration law, if that is what has happened. Ignorance is no defence.
And on a day when a poll shows that even among Labour supporters, trust in the Government is hitting new lows, it will do the Prime Minister no good to extend special treatment to one of his own. If the Border Agency report finds a breach of the law, Baroness Scotland must step down so that a line can be drawn under the affair.
The Barack Obama show
The President of the United States appeared on a late-night talk show yesterday. Barack Obama was the first sitting president to do so.Of course, he needs all the friends he can get at this point, given the difficulties he faces in forcing through health-care reform. But politics aside, it was an impressive display of wit, warmth and humanity.
Reader views (1)
China is a major innovator in solar energy and is developing electric cars. Still it builds new coal plants weekly. But their one child policy (resulting in a fertility rate of under 1.8 at this time) is its major contribution to reducing pollution. By its own figures 400 million fewer babies have been born since 1980. (400 million is the combined populations of the U.S. and Mexico.)
Overpopulation is the world's major environmental problem. (Science Daily, Apr. 20, 2009) Climate change is second.
- Drbob, Oslo Norway
