Climate crisis: “No more delayed plans, no more hypocrisy, and no more political manoeuvres”

Plaid Cymru urge governments to act with urgency in response to IPCC report

Plaid Cymru have today (9 August 2021) responded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s “damning” report on the state of the climate crisis.

Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader and spokesperson for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), Liz Saville Roberts MP said that the report is “the damning indictment that climate change is not an inconvenience but an existential danger to us all” and called for “no more delayed plans, no more hypocrisy, and no more political manoeuvres” from the UK Government.

Meanwhile the party’s Climate Change spokesperson, Delyth Jewell MS called on the Welsh Government to “Ban fracking. Increase investment in retrofitting housing. Disinvest in fossil fuels. Introduce a Clean Air Act.” She also called on the UK Government to give Wales the full fiscal powers necessary to play a full part in tackling the crisis.

The IPCC report warns that humans are having an “unequivocal” impact on the climate, that climate change is “widespread, rapid, and intensifying”, and that many of the changes observed in the climate are “unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years”.

The report provides new estimates of the chances of crossing the global warming level of 1.5°C in the next decades, and finds that unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5°C or even 2°C will be beyond reach.

Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader and spokesperson for the UN’s COP26 climate summit, Liz Saville Roberts MP said:

“Today’s report from the IPCC is the damning indictment that climate change is not an inconvenience but an existential danger to us all. The brutal truth is that we, both past and present generations, have willingly created the conditions for unprecedented environmental destruction, ecocide and indeed, the potential for mass loss of human life.

“The UN Secretary General described today’s report as a “code red for humanity”. No part of this globe will be left untouched, no nation unaffected, no life uninterrupted.

“The UK Government must take action before it’s too late. No more delayed plans, no more hypocrisy, and no more political manoeuvres on the actions needed to address this challenge. COP26 must succeed and I urge the Government to give the COP26 President every diplomatic lever at the UK’s disposal to achieve global action.”

Plaid Cymru’s Climate Change spokesperson, Delyth Jewell MS added:

“Governments shouldn't be postponing urgent and radical action until later years. We need radical action now.

“We all have a part to play: every action at every scale matters in our collective fight for our future. I don't want young people reading the news today to feel like we can't change things - because we can. And we must.

“Ban fracking. Increase investment in retrofitting housing. Disinvest in fossil fuels. Introduce a Clean Air Act. These are all things that the current Welsh Government can do to ensure Wales plays its part in the global fight against irreversible climate change.

“We have declared both a climate and a nature emergency to mobilise action, we are ready to help those affected as a nation of sanctuary and we have a legal responsibility to future generations and sustainable development. To the Westminster Government, I say this: Give Wales the fiscal powers to step up to this challenge and do our part in the collective effort of the UK to achieve change. This is not constitutional or political trickery – this is existential. This is our final chance - let's make the right and difficult and manageable choices now, let's be radical - before it really is too late. That is our only choice.”