PRESS RELEASE

MPs Ask: 'Replace Trident or Tackle Climate Change?'

4 December 2006: for immediate release

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament will host a public meeting tomorrow, Tuesday 5th December, from 4-6 pm in the Grand Committee Room of the House of Commons to address the issue of how removing the threat of nuclear destruction could fund new ways to tackle climate destruction.

Tomorrow’s meeting comes at a time when members of the cross-party Environmental Audit Committee have called on Gordon Brown to take drastic action to help curb greenhouse gas emissions. The government has stated that climate change is the greatest threat to the planet, yet according to today’s White Paper it appears set to spend tens of billions of pounds on replacing the Trident nuclear weapons system.

Speakers at tomorrow’s meeting include:

• Colin Challen MP, Chair of All Party Parliamentary Group on Climate Change
• Norman Baker MP, former Lib Dem Environment Spokesperson
• Katy Clark MP, member for Ayrshire North and Arran
• Dr Stuart Parkinson, Director, Scientists for Global Responsibility and former expert reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
• Kate Hudson, Chair of CND

Recently, the Labour Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Climate Change, Colin Challen MP, said, ‘The cost of Trident is too great since it doesn’t seem to have a strategic purpose any more. We can’t fight climate change militarily and it’s the greatest threat we face. Logically, that means we don’t spend money on Trident but on mitigation and adaptation measures for climate change.’ (5)

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Notes to Editor:

1. For further information and interviews please contact Rick Wayman, CND's Press & Communications Officer, on 0207 7002350 or 07968 420859
2. CND’s Alternative White Paper on Trident Replacement is available online at http://www.cnduk.org/pages/altwhitepaper.pdf
3. An ICM poll from June 2006 showed that 81% of the British public believes that any decision on Trident replacement should be made by Parliament, not the Prime Minister alone. Click here for a full copy of the poll.
4. According to a July 2006 ICM poll, 59% of the British public opposes a replacement of Trident when presented with a cost of at least £25 billion. Click here for a full copy of the poll.
5.The Guardian, “Could Scrapping Trident Save the Planet?”, 04.11.06
6. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is one of Europe’s biggest single-issue peace campaigns, with over 32,000 members in the UK. CND campaigns for the abolition of all nuclear weapons everywhere. www.cnduk.org

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