Shortly after it won the 1997 general election, the Labour party vowed to place the environment at the heart of government. Seven years on, some say the government seems to have lost its way and that its Climate Change Strategy is seriously off-course. In the following article, Peter Ainsworth MP, the chairman of the cross-party Environmental Audit Committee, assesses the government's performance. Scarcely a week goes by without yet another scientific study highlighting the potentially catastrophic impacts of climate change, and the chief scientist - Sir David King - has repeatedly emphasised the need for urgent action now to tackle what he regards as the most serious threat confronting mankind.
展开▼
