UK must fight climate change on ‘war footing’ like defeat of Nazis, Theresa May told

The UK must throw as much effort into stopping climate change as was deployed in defeating the Nazis, Theresa May is told today – ahead of new warnings from experts that greenhouse gas emissions must be cut further and faster.

The prime minister is told to put the country “on a war footing” and end “climate appeasement” to avert disaster, by a new cross-party group of politicians including Labour’s Ed Miliband and the Greens’ Caroline Lucas.

The call comes as Ms May prepares to receive fresh advice from her own climate watchdog that the current official target – to slash carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 – is inadequate and must be ripped up.

The Committee on Climate Change is expected to say the UK must reach zero emissions by as early as 2040, to help limit global temperature increases to 1.5C and avoid catastrophic effects.

The new target is also likely to pose challenges for Labour, which has set an ambition of zero emissions by 2050 – one day after it attempts to force the Commons to declare a climate emergency.

Meanwhile, Extinction Rebellion will demand the UK moves even faster by reducing net emissions to zero by 2025, when the group meet Michael Gove, the environment secretary, on Tuesday.

“This will be Michael Gove’s opportunity to show he’s ready to act on the climate and ecological emergency,” a spokesperson said, and added that the meeting would be filmed and released to the public.

The group will also meet John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, days after ending its Easter street protests, which brought huge disruption to central London and led to 1,130 arrests.

The battle against climate change is increasingly being likened to the situation facing governments in the 1930s, when all other considerations were sidelined by the need to fight Nazi Germany.

That comparison is brought to life in the launch of a new environmental justice commission by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank, which also includes Laura Sandys, a former Conservative MP.

Mr Miliband called climate change “the biggest threat to our economic and social wellbeing and to our national security”, and has demanded a green new deal “putting our country to work”.

“Politics needs to be on a war footing to deal with this enemy but too often it sends the message that business as usual will do,” he said.

“We need a revolution in political leadership; the problem we face is not just climate denial but climate appeasement.”

Ms Lucas said: “We must now focus on what is scientifically necessary, not what is seen as politically possible. Maintaining the status quo is to gamble with the fate of humanity and the prosperity of all who live in this country.”

Ms Sandys said the Easter disruption was “nothing in comparison to the upheaval and change to our way of life that we will face if we don’t take transformative action to address the climate emergency now”.

The IPPR commission includes leading figures from business, trade unions, civil society and academia, as well as climate activists including a member of Extinction Rebellion.

Its protests have electrified the debate by demanding action by 2025 to limit climate catastrophe, which is even earlier than the 2030 date set by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last autumn.

That report prompted the government to ask its own climate change committee to advise on what target UK should set for net zero emissions and how it could be achieved.

Chaired by Lord Deben, a former Conservative environment secretary, the committee is expected to make reducing emissions from heating homes, by replacing gas boilers, a key part of achieving a tougher target.

Reducing the use of petrol and diesel in vehicles and increasing the use of electricity from low-carbon sources are also expected to feature strongly in Thursday’s report.

Chris Stark, the committee’s chief executive, in a speech last month signalled that a radical change of approach was needed if the UK was to continue to feel “proud” of its climate performance.

“A great deal has changed since 2008. The UK has signed the Paris Agreement, which expects greater ambition from developed countries – and references 1.5 degrees as a global temperature goal,” he said.

“Whether we can continue to claim global leadership now depends on what we do next.”

Mr Stark said the predicted costs of a low-carbon transition – estimated to be 1-2 per cent of GDP – were now “much lower than we thought”.

He stressed Britain’s huge influence, and added: “The international signalling of the UK setting, and then achieving, a tougher emissions target can be a powerful signal to other countries.”

Ahead of the meetings with Mr Gove and Mr McDonnell, Sam Knights, a member of Extinction Rebellion’s political strategy team, said: “The legacy of our political leaders will stand or fall by what they do now.

“Either they take steps to give our children the future they deserve or they do nothing. They must respond to the climate and ecological emergency with the clarity and urgency our children demand.”