Read Jean's speech on Global Warming
GREEN MEP Jean Lambert will warn demonstrators protesting the second anniversary of George Bush's rejection of the Kyoto Protocol that war and global warming threaten the end of the world as we know it.
Speaking outside the US Embassy following a 'March to the End of the World' organised by the Campaign Against Climate Change, Mrs Lambert will say US Government policy is directly responsible for both war in Iraq and undermining global efforts to tackle climate change before it is too late.
"Corporate interests have such power at the heart of the US administration they have been able to ensure Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol within weeks of taking office, and has consistently denied and responsibility for climate change," the London MEP said.
"The US is one of the largest producer or greenhouse gas emissions and any attempt to reduce our impact on our climate is severely undermined by the US refusal to address its consumption patterns.
"We are seeing exactly the same pattern in Iraq, with the US already awarding post-war reconstruction contracts to American firms whilst conflict still rages in the Gulf."
"That this is as a result of corporate influence is proof positive that democracy is barely functioning in the US today.
The 'Kyoto March' will set out from ExxonMobil's headquarters in Leatherhead, Surrey, at 7am, arrive at the Imperial War Museum at Geraldine Mary Harmsworth ParkWaterloo at 3.30pm and is expected to reach the US Embassy by 5.15pm.
Organised by the Campaign Against Climate Change, it is the third annual event to mark Bush's decision to tear up the Kyoto Protocol shortly after his election in 2001. Kyoto would have committed the US to reducing Carbon Dioxide emissions by 5.8 per cent by 2012. Experts warn a reduction of nearer 60 per cent is actually required to halt climate change.
Mrs Lambert added: "The US administration and its corporate masters are taking us to the end of the world as we know it. They must be stopped, before it is too late."
ENDS
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Notes
Campaign against Climate Change exists to fight against the ignorance, inertia, short term greed and vested interests that stand in the way of the immediate and resolute action urgently needed to prevent the irreversible destabilisation of our planet's climate.