A Climate Change Bill will be considered in next month's Queen's Speech. Christian Aid has welcomed the decision, as such legislation would send a clear message to governments in the developing world that the UK is serious about tackling climate change.
"It's very important for the world's poorest people, who rely on action in rich countries to reduce the risk of runaway climate change because as very low emitters themselves, there's very little they can do except hunker down and wait for apocalypse," said Paul Valentin, Christian Aid's International Director.
In the next 15 years, displacement, disruption to agriculture and food supplies, and damage and destruction to infrastructure is likely to lead to economic and political instability, both within countries and across international borders, and even to wars as environmental refugees seek new homes and countries clash over scarce water and food supplies, the relief agency reports.
The industrialised countries may also find themselves under immense pressure from huge numbers of environmental refugees from the developing world.
According to Christian Aid, it is not just emissions within the UK that should concern people in Britain either.
"UK companies invest all over the world and increasingly have their goods manufactured elsewhere, which simply moves the emissions from one place to another. We must recognise that the UK stock exchange and the City of London have a massive impact on the whole world's carbon emissions," added Mr Valentin.
Christian Aid is a member of Stop Climate Chaos, an unprecedented and growing coalition on climate change, bringing together environment and development organisations, unions, faith, community and women's groups. Other members include Friends of the Earth, RSPB, Greenpeace, WWF, Oxfam, Tearfund, the Women's Institute and UNISON.
Stop Climate Chaos warns: "If we are to avoid catastrophic climate change, we need to cut our emissions of greenhouse gases, and keep the average global temperature increase less than 2°C. Capping the rise in average global temperatures doesn't mean that we won't see any harmful impacts, but a 2°C limit will keep them to a minimum. To stay within this limit, global greenhouse gas emissions must peak and be falling irreversibly by 2015.
"Therefore the choices made now and in the next five to ten years, by politicians and decision makers, will determine the extent of the devastation faced by future generations."
