Yesterday the Liberal Democrats called on Parliament to back the 10:10 campaign on climate change. Sadly, the Labour Government applied a three-line whip (why did they have to do that? - doesn’t that just make politics even more pointless to real people?) to vote down any specific action and the motion was defeated.  It was heartening to see local Conservative MPs speaking and voting in support of this initiative, although not surprisingly our own MP, whose views as a denier of climate change are well known, did not see fit to attend the debate.

The 10:10 campaign calls for 10% cuts in carbon dioxide emissions by the end of 2010 and is aimed primarily at individuals but organisations can sign up too.  For most of us a 10% cut is actually quite feasible because we generally lead quite wasteful lives, and the 10:10 website probides some quite useful tips on how to reduce our emissions.

I signed up to 10:10 in the first week of September.  We have already taken some steps to reduce our emissions, but there is a load more still to do, principally in looking at ways to reduce energy consumption in our 200 year old house, or if this is not possible, to generate our own electricity and heat from solar or other renewable sources.  We already take the train on vacation whenever we can - but removing the flying habit completely will be a challenge as travel is one of my passions.  The point of the 10:10 campaign though is not to worry about what cannot be done, but to focus on what can.

The Liberal Democrat news item on the debate is here and there is a short film by Simon Hughes MP here.