Wales Green Party Leader: UN Climate Change Conference in Paris must deliver a binding global agreement

Pippa Bartolotti, the Wales Green Party Leader and the lead assembly candidate for South East Wales, has set out her expectations for the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Paris from 30th November. The COP21 conference will draw together the governments of more than 190 nations to reach a new global agreement aimed at avoiding dangerous climate change.

Bartolotti, who will also stand in Newport West, emphasised the urgency and importance of facing up to the scientific facts. She said: "We can no longer stop the planet from warming. The Paris talks are now about mitigations. 2015 will be the year global warming has reached 1C – a halfway mark to dangerous warming that would threaten our homes and local environments."

Bartolotti hopes that the talks will result in a binding international treaty: "The lukewarm good intentions have achieved very little in the past. All international efforts to stop burning fossil fuels have failed. The UK must cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2030. This is not an impossible target. In Wales, we have a stunning array of inexhaustible natural energy. We are better placed than most to drastically cut our emissions."

Bartolotti highlighted the failure of the current UK government to invest in the development of the renewable sector whilst "recklessly aiming to maximise recovery from oil, gas and fracking. The Conservative administration is not even interested in creating policies for energy saving which would be the easiest option. Continuing to burn fossil fuels in the UK and globally will only result in more climate refugees and climate related conflicts will multiply. Extreme weather will harm the most vulnerable, the elderly and the very young", she said.

Whilst Bartolotti is clear that the stakes could not be higher in Paris, overall she is positive about the potential outcomes offered by the climate talks. "This is an unmissable opportunity for people to make their voices heard", she said. Bartolotti plans to join the hundreds of thousands of citizens demonstrating in Cardiff, London and Paris during the talks.