Environment

MEPs today backed a Liberal group proposal for mandatory introduction of 'acoustic vehicle alerting systems' (AVAS) in quiet vehicles such as electric and hybrid cars, to protect vulnerable road users. Road safety groups and organisations for partially sighted and blind people such as the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association had called for these acoustic warning devices in order to avoid increased accident risks.

Research from the United States indicates that very quiet vehicles are twice as likely to be involved in a pedestrian accident as vehicles fitted with an internal combustion engine - most typically when the vehicle is slowing or stopping, moving in reverse or entering or exiting a parking space.

David Cameron's Tory MEPs showed their true colours by launching last minute attempts in the European Parliament to scupper the EU's strategy for the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change of cutting carbon emissions and increasing climate change aid for developing countries.

Tory MEPs Daniel Hannan and Roger Helmer voted against call for the Copenhagen talks to agree an 80 per cent cut in emissions by 2050. They were among 18 members of the Tories' new breakaway European Conservatives and Reformists Group including its Polish leader Michal Kaminski to oppose such a deal .

In answer to Liberal Democrat European MEP for London Sarah Ludford a top European Commission official has acknowledged that the EU has failed to convince the public of the seriousness of global climate change and the economic and jobs advantages of urgent action.

At an event organised in the European Parliament by the European Forum on Renewable Energy Sources (Eufores) Sarah Ludford asked Christopher Jones Director-General for Energy and Transport why the public relations on energy conservation and climate change was so poor. He admitted that getting the message across is one of the biggest challenges for the new Commission. Sarah Ludford commented:

A London Euro-MP has plugged in to green electricity and is urging local businesses and householders to join her in making a difference.

Liberal Democrat Baroness Sarah Ludford who is proud of the environmental record of the European Parliament is practising what she preaches by switching her office to a supplier of renewable electricity.

She has signed up to Unit[e]; an electricity supplier ranked first by Friends of the Earth as the greenest choice for consumers. Unit[e] sources its renewable energy from a wind farm in Cornwall and other small wind and wave sources around the UK.

Juliet Davenport chief executive of Unit[e] explains how simple it is for London householders to make a difference.

London's Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford has today written to Ken Livingstone urging him to add his signature to a letter from European Mayors to President George Bush regarding the Kyoto protocol.

The letter was drafted by Paolo Costa the Mayor of Venice urging Mr Livingstone to join with the Mayors of other major European cities to ask President Bush to reconsider his stance on the threat of climate change.

Baroness Ludford commented: