I conducted a quick question and answer session with Caroline Lucas, the Green MEP and expert on climate change. She is appearing this afternoon at the G8 Alternatives session on the environment.
Q. Are you worried, with the focus on Africa - most notably yesterday at the Live 8 events - that climate change could become the Cinderella of this Gleneagles summit?
A. Absolutely. Yes. When you look at the leaked communiqués so far, the lack of progress would be laughable if it were not so serious. We need realistic timetables for action, deeds not words, yet the US government is blocking everything, even an acknowledgement of the basic science of climate change. So I think Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are happy to let the focus be on aid and debt, and present the US as the scapegoat on climate change.
Q. When climate change is discussed by the G8 leaders, the focus seems to be on non-carbon technologies such as nuclear power, or carbon sequestration. Should these be priorities or are they distractions?
A. There's a very real danger of only looking at the technological "fixes" rather than looking at changes in behaviour, which are what is really needed. We will have to change very radically our business model, our economic measures, and nuclear and carbon sequestration are costly, slow, and a prone to terrorism attacks and the unresolved problem of nuclear waste. You don't solve one problem by creating another ...
Q. Just now the conference has heard a call from Walden Bello, the director of the Focus on the Global South, urging as many activists as possible to attend and disrupt the next World Trade Organisation conference in Hong Kong in December. He even urged people to "catch a cheap flight" there to swell the numbers of activists. Doesn't that show the dilemma at the heart of much protest – that to demonstrate against the current trade rules, activists will be contributing to climate change?
A. As activists, we are going to have to have a rethink on how we organize and what we do with our activism. And I include myself in this. It is incredibly difficult, but we are starting to realize that the ends don't necessarily justify the means. We need to change the structures, but that is not going to happen overnight. As an MEP, I face this problem. I use the Eurostar to get to Brussels, but I have caught flights, and obviously I flew to Cancun [the venue for the fifth round of ministerial WTO talks in 2003]. One obvious thing we could do is abolish the Strasbourg parliament, which would obviate the need for a lot of travel.
