RANIA KHAN ADDRESSES CLIMATE CONFERENCE
(8 November 2006). Report by Emdad Rahman.

UK Respect Party Member Councillor Rania Khan addressed a crowd of 60,000 protesters outside the US Embassy on 4 November 2006 during a march from the Embassy in Grosvenor Square to Trafalgar Square, organised to highlight the issue of climate change. "The E in RESPECT stands for Environment. As individuals and as a party we take climate change extremely seriously" said Councillor Khan.

"The Stern Report is to be welcomed - anything which puts pressure on world leaders such as Bush and Blair to wake up and take the necessary action against the overheating of our planet, before it is too late, is valuable'"she continued.

"As individuals we can do our bit but the vast majority of GHG's [Green House Gases] come from businesses and it is government's policies that can put pressure on them to change. In Britain 40% of CO2 emission is from energy industry, 40% from transport and other industries and 15% from households."

She added; "We can get people out of their cars and we can change to renewable energy. The technology is there, but we need governments to provide the infrastructure to deliver these changes. A good start would be to re-nationalise public transport.

If the Government are worried about where the money will come from to implement these measures they could cancel TRIDENT and stop waging illegal wars!

Climate change is a disaster imposed upon the poorest in society by the richest. We will ultimately all be affected, but people in the third world are already suffering extreme weather patterns. The Borena people of Ethiopia have seen 99% of their cattle, and hence their livelihood, die this year, in one of the longest droughts in living memory. Hurricane Katrina last year showed how even within the richest nation in the world, when climate disaster strikes, the rich get out, while the poor drown.

Stern talks about adapting to climate change, but for Bangladesh, which has done precious little to cause the problem, the cost of adapting is greater than their total GDP".

Councillor Khan is the youngest councillor in Britain, a British Bangladeshi and was the only Asian speaker at the Grosvenor Square rally.

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