Downing Street Says » Copenhagen

Asked if the Prime Minister was laying claim to the conference, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that there were 192 countries present. The Prime Minister took his role very seriously, in terms of trying to find a way through and establish agreement with other countries. The Prime Minister was looking at various options, he had listened to Prime Minister Meles’ proposals on finance and he would be talking more to Ban Ki Moon and Prime Minister Rasmussen about further aspects of finance.

Asked how the Prime Minister had got to the 500,000 renewable energy jobs figure, the PMS said that this was an estimate the Prime Minister had given in terms of the opportunities that moving to a low carbon economy could create for people in Britain. Put that it was a guess, the PMS said that it was an estimate.

Asked about the mass phone-in the Prime Minister was taking part in, the PMS replied that it was on similar grounds to the one Ed Miliband took part in a few days ago. The PMS added that it was open to anyone and one of the organisers was a climate change campaign group. It gave people the opportunity to put their case to the Prime Minister and ask him questions.

Put that it was only open to people who were sympathetic to the theory of man-made climate change, the PMS said that it was open to anyone who wanted to speak to the Prime Minister.

Put that there was a report in The Australian newspaper that the Prime Minister had agreed a set of proposals with Prime Minister Meles and Prime Minister Rudd which would include a tax on shipping, a tax on aviation and a Tobin tax as a way to reach the $100billion figure, the PMS said that she had not seen that report. The Prime Minister would be speaking to Prime Minister Rasmussen and Ban Ki Moon in the next few hours.

Asked if these were the proposals that the Prime Minister had said looked good , the PMS said she could not confirm that. The Prime Minister had made his views clear on transaction tax previously. Put that when the Prime Minister had announced the transaction tax he had said that proceeds would go to propping up the banks and not to tackle climate change, the PMS replied that climate change would affect every country. A transaction tax would be a global tax, so if climate change was going to have a catastrophic effect as predicted on economies around the world, a transaction tax was potentially an option to help the global economy.

Asked if the Prime Minister saw the proceeds of a transaction tax going to both of those purposes, the PMS replied that climate change would affect economies around the world, but it was also an opportunity for job creation. A transaction tax was one of the options for meeting the economic challenges that every country would be facing.

Asked if that included environmental challenges, the PMS said that they potentially went hand in hand. Asked if they could be divided or were the two essentially the same thing, the PMS said that environmental challenges posed by climate change would also affect countries economies.

Asked if the Prime Minister compared climate change with Afghanistan in terms of having difficulty getting the message across to the public, the PMS said that there were many commentators on climate change. There was a consensus of opinion that climate change was a threat and needed to be tackled and that was why 192 countries had descended on Copenhagen looking for a deal to combat the threat.

Asked if there was a consensus that climate change was man-made, the PMS said that there was largely a consensus on the science; there were critics but the Prime Minister’s view was that the evidence did stack up and the threat needed to be tackled.

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» Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Copenhagen

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