Politicians must get involved in the fight against climate change

To coincide with the climate summit in Lima, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) held a conference in the Peruvian parliament. Attended by 250 MPs from almost 100 countries, the conference adopted a powerful ly worded resolution about the threat posed by climate change to life on Earth and to the survival of humankind. Climate change is a reality and the World Meteorological Organization announced at the conference that science is unequivocal about the fact that the world will face a very difficult future if we fail to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

“Greater awareness is needed of how important a role parliaments have to play in efforts to halt climate change. If a globally binding climate agreement is reached in Paris next year, national parliaments will then have to play their part – i.e. ratifying the agreement and passing legislation to implement it,” says Christina Gestrin, member of the Nordic Council and chair of the Council’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee, which took part in the conference.

Gestrin believes that MPs who accompany climate negotiations play a very important role.

“Firstly ,we need to make sure that governments are held to account. Experience shows that ministers don’t always follow up on key international agreements. Secondly, we have to explain to voters how serious the consequences of climate change could be, and why it may be necessary to implement measures that may be unpopular in the short term. Without the population on board, we won’t achieve our targets,” she explains.

The IPU conference focused on fairness in the fight against climate change. Experience shows that the poorest people in the world are the most vulnerable, while having made only a limited contribution to the climate crisis to start with.

“Climate policy has two important elements. One is to make our societies more robust and better able to cope with extreme weather events, especially the most vulnerable parts of the population. The second element is to cut greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the most extreme effects of global warming. This will cost more in the short term but save money in the long term by avoiding the most serious problems. We have to ensure that it is the wealthy who foot the majority of the bill, not the poor. And I’m not talking about rich and poor countries, but rich and poor population groups,” Christina Gestrin concludes.

Read the IPU resolution here: http://www.ipu.org/splz-e/cop20.htm