(DECC) Ed Miliband statement on G20

Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Ed Miliband said:

"The Summit communique makes building a green and sustainable economy one of the six core commitments of economic recovery made by the G20 countries, and 'accelerating the transition to a green economy' one of the goals of fiscal expansion.

"The leaders also agreed a strong commitment to achieving a deal at Copenhagen - the first time all major countries have collectively done so.

"This provides an excellent platform for discussions at the upcoming Major Economies Forum. The Prime Minister welcomed the decision by President Obama to re-establish the forum including a Leaders' Summit to discuss climate change.

"These are good outcomes, establishing the central role of climate change in economic policy even in the midst of this financial and economic crisis."

Britain needs elected Greens more than ever before: Lucas

Caroline Lucas MEP, leader of the Green Party, delivered a blistering attack on the failure of Britain's biggest parties to develop a stable, sustainable economy. Dr Lucas said the big three were incapable of meeting a moral challenge head-on and dealing with it properly. She likened the government's half-hearted approach to the climate crisis to those who, in times past, have stood in the way of other kinds of progress, from abolishing slavery and acknowledging women's rights.

"Imagine if they'd said: slavery is wrong, so let's cut down a bit - own one slave instead of two... Or if instead of letting women vote, own husbands had just agreed to ask us our views before they went to vote.'

The government, she said, was responding to the climate crisis with "a few low-energy light-bulbs here, a bit of loft insulation there."
And she spelled out how a Green industrial revolution would create hundreds of thousands of jobs across a wide range of sectors, and give Britain a new economy grounded firmly in social justice and ecological sustainability