Two years left to curb climate change, UK government warned

Chris Kelsey in WalesOnline: The Government has been accused of being "reckless and short-sighted" over green policies, as it was warned there were just 50 months to take action to prevent catastrophic climate change. The heads of organisations from Greenpeace to the Women’s Institute, business leaders and experts called on politicians to grab the opportunity to deal with climate change, which they said was one of the greatest threats to human progress.

They warned that despite record ice-loss in the Arctic, and drought and soaring temperatures in the US, the issue had slipped down the political agenda, but tackling it could be a huge economic opportunity. In a letter to the Guardian, they said that on current trends there were just 50 months before the world crossed a critical threshold, beyond which it would be unlikely to limit temperature rises to no more than 2 degrees C.

The 2 degrees C mark has been set by the UK and the European Union among others as a line which the world should not cross to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Signatories to the letter include Barbara Stocking, chief executive of Oxfam, designer Dame Vivienne Westwood, Bianca Jagger, Green MP Caroline Lucas and Ed Mayo, chief executive of Co-operatives UK.

They wrote: "There is so much to gain from investing with speed and scale in a modern, low-carbon economy, that the failure to do so appears both reckless and short-sighted. Some recent policies seem even to take us backwards....

The Flying Wallendas do their 7-person pyramid, shot by Porterlu, Wikimedia Commons, public domain