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The Jewish Chronicle

Fight against climate change is uphill ride

February 2, 2012 11:59

By

Luciana Berger,

Luciana Berger

1 min read

Many communities, commentators and politicians agree that climate change is the single greatest challenge facing humanity. To combat it requires people, business, government and international bodies to work together to make changes that will safeguard our planet's resources and enable our economies to produce sustainable growth and new green jobs.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Earth Summit in Rio, the United Nations summit which put man-made climate change on the global political agenda for the first time.

The summit led to the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, which was proudly signed by the then labour government.

In government, Labour led the way on the international stage. We were the first nation to call for a UN Security Council meeting on climate change. We passed the Climate Change Act - a world first, legally binding the UK government to reduce carbon emissions by a third by 2020.