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Minister Ed Miliband speaking at the Kilburn Tricyle Cinema |
Ex-Haverstock pupil wants to be green giant
Climate minister Ed Miliband vows to fight for an international emissions deal
A BOY from Haverstock School is going to save the planet – and make Camden Council offer every household in the borough a full recycling service to boot.
Ed Miliband, the climate change minister, is heading to the Copenhagen environment summit next week to thrash out what he believes will be a legally binding commitment from nations around the world to cut carbon emissions.
Mr Miliband spoke at a screening of the eco-film Age of Stupid at the Kilburn Tricycle cinema on Wednesday organised by campaign group Big Green Jewish – and spoke exclusively to the New Journal.
He admitted the chances of reaching out a deal to cut global warming at Denmark is “in the balance”. But he added: “There are so many obstacles. This is something the world has never done before, but it is do-able.
“People expect us to find an agreement and we have to.
“I am 40 years old on Christmas Eve – and I won’t come back from Copenhagen to celebrate my birthday unless I have a deal.”
Mr Miliband, who has recently bought a new home in Kentish Town, attacked Camden Council for their approach to green issues.
Asked by the audience for his views on the removal by the Town Hall’s Lib Dems and Tories of a door-to-door recycling service for housing estates, he said: “I will talk to Camden’s MPs about this – it is simply not acceptable. This is so important and we should insist it is done.”
The council’s environment taskforce chairman, Lib Dem councillor Alexis Rowell, said yesterday (Wednesday) that the collections, which make up the bulk of recycling in the borough, actually did little for the environment as the rubbish collected was mixed up.
He said he preferred to take his waste to bottle and paper banks.
“We need to create a system where there are a couple of central points for recycling on estates,” said Cllr Rowell. “It is actually a better way of doing this.”
Mr Miliband defended his stance on building new nuclear power stations, despite the massive investment needed, nuclear power’s poor track record of being built on time and on budget, long-standing safety fears and the issue of what to do with toxic waste, saying they would provide a crucial alternative to coal, gas and oil.
He added: “The problem is so urgent now we can’t dismiss nuclear power. It provides 20 per cent of our current energy needs.”
But he also vowed to go “hell for leather” to improve Britain’s use of renewable energy. |
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