mr president first of all i would like to say that i welcome the new appointment of mr van rompuy and i am particularly proud that we have an extremely able and talented british woman in cathy ashton as the first high representative
regarding the council meeting in december we have seen the impact of adverse weather this week in cumbria in the north-west of england which has experienced severe flooding and it is not just in europe that the weather is creating unexpected hardship
adverse weather is causing other unforeseen human tragedy across our planet
denial is the easy option but i did not go into politics to fight for easy options
i do not want my children or my grandchildren to ask why i did not act
in my region the conservatives are represented by roger helmer who describes man-made climate change as a myth
despite the claims of the tory leader david cameron that they are a party of the environment helmer represents the danger and unreliability of conservative environmental policy
we need to act but fighting this alone will not work
we need action at all levels which involves reducing the amount of carbon we produce to at least two
i support those like our prime minister who has pledged to cut carbon emissions by eighty by twenty fifty
the labour government in the uk wants a deal that is ambitious effective and fair and to support the poorest countries to cut their emissions and adapt to climate change
any climate financing agreed must be additional to existing development aid targets and it must not come from existing budgets
any funding agreed at copenhagen needs to deal specifically with the effects of climate change on the developing world and should not replace other valuable aid flows
presently the focus seems to be on near-term fast-start finance but we also need long-term commitments
can mr barroso guarantee that he will make post twenty twelve finance commitments a priority for any copenhagen agreement
