MP's call for action on global poverty and climate change

A Leeds MP will call for greater efforts to be made to tackle climate change and global poverty when he addresses a local campaign group this week.

John Battle (Lab, Leeds West) will argue that the impact of environmental change on poor communities is undermining international action to eradicate poverty in a speech to activists at Leeds campaign group TIDAL on Thursday.

Mr Battle said: “We urgently need to fuse together the campaigns on global poverty and climate change. It’s the world’s poor who will suffer most from climate change, as they tend to live in more vulnerable conditions and their access to resources such as clean water and sanitation is often scarce. If we don’t take strong action to tackle climate change, recent gains in reducing poverty will be thrown into reverse in coming decades.”

He believes the momentum generated by the Make Poverty History campaign can be carried over into action on climate change.

“If we can make the connection between poverty and climate change, the pressure on international leaders to take real steps to cut carbon emissions will be huge. Make Poverty History showed that there is a tremendous desire to alleviate poverty in the developing world, but now that needs to be brought to bear on ensuring we live sustainably,” Mr Battle said.

“We all have to do our bit if we want to tackle this challenge: government, business and individually,” he added.

John Battle MP 17 April 2004