Labour Leaders' speech to Green Alliance 35th birthday party - in full
This movement is incredibly important; incredibly important to the cause of climate change here and around the world. Don't let this summit somehow pass by on the other side. Use it as a moment to push government, whichever government it is, to push us on ambition, to push us on the climate fund and developing countries, to push us on technology and all the things that we need to do. Because this is a moment when we actually say, we raise our sights and raise our ambition. That is the last point I want to make to you.
Different people have different views on Copenhagen, I think it is fair to say, which is where I started my remarks. I think that actually Copenhagen goes with the territory when you are trying to do difficult things. The history of struggle, the history of the struggle against social injustice, is always that you have setbacks along the way. It is always about ambitions which look ludicrous and don't get achieved and they take a number of goes along the way to achieve them.
If it was easy, then it wouldn't be ambitious enough.
The reason why we had setbacks is because you as a movement were ambitious. We didn't meet the ambition, but the answer is not to lower your ambition the next time around. It is actually to say, ‘we still have the same ambition and we are going to keep pushing, and keep pushing until we succeed'. And I believe this movement can succeed. And I believe there is no choice for the world but for this movement to succeed.
That is why you have got to keep pushing us, and keep campaigning. And I look forward to the Green Alliance's 35 more years, so that when we all meet in 2049 - I am not expecting to be in government in 2049 - a year away from 2050 and 80 per cent reductions, we will be saying ‘yes, we had setbacks along the way, but we did what the planet and our kids and our grandkids needed us to do'.
