The Rt Hon David Cameron MP
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London SW1A 2AA

2^nd November 2012

Dear Prime Minister,

Following correspondence with my constituents, I am writing to ask you to clarify your full support for the Climate Change Act, by ensuring that the Energy Bill includes a clear objective to decarbonise electricity by 2030, and by insisting that emissions from aviation and shipping are included in the Climate Act targets by the end of this year.

Failure to include an unambiguous, ambitious decarbonisation target on the face of the Energy Bill would create uncertainty for industry and put at risk the economic benefits that the UK could secure by leading the transition to a low carbon future. 

It would also harm our ability to meet the targets set in the Climate Change Act.

I do not want to see the UK miss out on the huge number of jobs and wider economic opportunities of a rapid transition to a low carbon economy, and of an energy system that maximizes the potential of renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency. 

With regard to the recommendations of the Committee on Climate Change to include aviation and shipping in the UK’s carbon budgets, I urge you to accept this advice as soon as possible.

You will know that these two sectors are the fastest growing sources of CO2. Failure to include them in the Climate Change Act would undermine the UK’s world leading legislation and international influence on climate change at a time when our efforts should be increasing.

In your reply to my previous letter in May, for which I am grateful, you stated that it is vital that we take action now to transform the UK permanently into a low carbon economy and meet our carbon reduction targets. 

Over recent weeks and months there have been worrying signals that this ambition is not shared across Government.

I urge you to step in to address these concerns by driving much more ambitious action on climate change and renewable energy – for the sake of our own economy as much as our environment, and in the interests of the security and prosperity of Britain’s 60m citizens, as well as vulnerable people in the global south who are already suffering from the impacts of climate change in terms of food crises, water insecurity, and increased natural disasters and disease.

Many of my constituents have written to me about these two crucial decisions recently, and on wider climate change issues.

I hope that I will be able to write back in the near future to inform them that you have acted decisively and shown real leadership to deliver an ambitious decarbonisation target in the Energy Bill and the inclusion of aviation and shipping in carbon budgets, and that your Government remains fully committed to tackling climate change. 

I look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,

Caroline Lucas MP, Brighton Pavilion