In a historic move, the UK Parliament has declared “an environment and climate emergency,” making it the first country to do so.
The national declaration of an Environment and Climate Emergency closely follows protests by the environmental group, Extinction Rebellion protests that paralysed parts of London.
Extinction Rebellion called this the “first step in the government telling the truth about the climate and ecological emergency.”
“Pressure on our politicians will now increase as nothing but decisive action will suffice,” they added.
The climate activists had three demands: that the UK government “tell the truth” about climate change by “declaring climate and ecological emergency”, that it should “act now” to put a stop to the biodiversity loss and achieve carbon neutrality by 2025 and to create and be led by a citizens’ assembly in this process of tackling climate change.
The emergency declaration which was proposed by Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has fulfilled the first demand.”By becoming the first parliament in the world to declare a climate emergency, we could, and I hope we do, set off a wave of action from parliaments and governments all around the world,” Corbyn said.
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