Britannia Radio

Quit call over blocked green ad

A Northern Ireland minister's decision to block a government
advertisement campaign on climate change has led to a call for his
removal from office.

The advertisements urged people to reduce energy consumption and cut
carbon dioxide output.

But Environment Minister Sammy Wilson claimed the adverts were part of
an "insidious propaganda campaign".

Calling for his removal, the Green Party said Mr Wilson made "a laughing
stock out of Northern Ireland."

Sammy Wilson argued that the Scottish executive had objected and stopped
the adverts being broadcast. However, the Scottish executive told the
BBC the reason it did not run these adverts was because they are already
running their own climate change adverts.

He argued that they were "giving people the impression that by turning
off the standby light on their TV they could save the world from melting
glaciers and being submerged in 40ft of water".

He said that was "patent nonsense".

Mr Wilson said he had written to the UK Department of Energy and Climate
Change (DECC) to say that the advertising campaign Act on CO2 "was not
welcome".

He explained that he did not believe in its message that "man-made
greenhouse gas emissions are the main cause of climate change" and that
the campaign was contrary to his personal views.

He told DECC: "I do not wish for climate change messages to be promoted
by other Whitehall departments here".

But Brian Wilson, of the Green Party, said the environment minister
should be removed from office for refusing to recognise climate change.

"He is a climate change sceptic. We have got to take all measures we can
to reduce our carbon footprint. Mr Wilson does not agree with that.

"This is totally incompatible with him being minister for the
environment, " he said.

Friends of the Earth NI director John Woods said: "It's bad enough that
we have an environment minister who doesn't accept that human activity
is driving climate change, but trying to block advice to people on how
they can help tackle it is completely irresponsible.

"The reality is that the overwhelming majority of climate scientists
believe that our activities are causing global warming and that urgent
action is needed to tackle it."

The Alliance Party and the SDLP have also criticised Mr Wilson's
decision.

Alliance leader David Ford said: "The simple fact is that there is
scientific evidence, accepted by the overwhelming majority of
scientists, that manmade climate change will affect our environment if
it is not brought under control," he said.

Tommy Gallagher, SDLP, accused Mr Wilson of "political sabotage of an
important public awareness campaign".

"We need all the awareness campaigns we can get on this issue, and in
particular we need to ensure that efforts to combat climate change do
not become victims of the downturn. The minister must be held
accountable for his maverick posturing," he said.

BBC Northern Ireland environment correspondent Mike McKimm said: "Mr
Wilson has also advised Whitehall that such messages can only be
promoted in Northern Ireland with his permission and he wants to see
what he terms 'postcode lockouts' used to prevent them 'leaking' into
that part of the UK.

"He also told the DECC that this applies to specific organisations
licensed to use the "Act on CO2" brand, including the Carbon Trust.

"Mr Wilson's departmental website says it takes a lead on climate change
issues.

Emissions

"His own political party manifesto also makes similar claims: 'The DUP
has... called for year-on-year targets in order to achieve reduced
Carbon emissions.' (DUP 2007).

Commenting on Mr Wilson's approach to climate change and its Act on CO2
campaign, the DECC told the BBC that human behaviour causes climate
change.

They said their commitment to this campaign was guided by the "best
science, the most up-to-date information and the evidence... the only
way we can tackle it is by working together".

A weekly series of thought-provoking opinion pieces on environmental
topics

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news. bbc.co.uk/ go/pr/fr/ -/1/hi/northern_ ireland/7878399. stm

Published: 2009/02/09 13:33:14 GMT