Yorke supports climate change initiative

Rex Features

Thom Yorke has helped to launch a Europe-wide initiative to reduce the emissions responsible for climate change.

The Big Ask Europe is asking for the governments of 17 European states to commit to legally binding emission limits.

The Friends of the Earth campaign aims to reduce emissions by 30% by 2020 and 90% by 2050.

The Radiohead frontman presented the EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas with the proposal in Brussels yesterday.

Yorke said: "We will never wake from the nightmare of climate change unless our national governments and the European Union act. They are the only ones who can put the structures in place that will help us tackle climate change.

"By committing to annual cuts in our emissions at a national and European level we can play our part in tackling climate change and set an example to the rest of the world to follow."

The Big Ask has previously campaigned to get the UK to cut carbon dioxide output, with a new law limiting emissions coming into force this summer.