The comments made by George Eustice, the Secretary of State for Environment, on 19 August 2020.
The targets we set under our landmark Environment Bill will be the driving force behind our bold action to protect and enhance our natural world – guaranteeing real and lasting progress on some of the biggest environmental issues facing us today.
I hope these targets will provide some much-needed certainty to businesses and society, as we work together to build back better and greener.
Comments made by Ed Miliband, the Shadow Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary, on 30 July 2020.
The figures are moving in the right direction, but not yet at the pace befitting the scale of the climate crisis facing us all.
As COP26 hosts, the UK should be blazing the trail in the global fight against climate change with a Green New Deal. Yet we are falling behind our European neighbours, whose investment in a green recovery has dwarfed this government’s.
With billions of taxpayer pounds being channelled by ministers into fossil fuels abroad and the UK still off track for meeting our targets, the Government’s actions are clearly still too piecemeal and inconsistent.
The statement made by the Energy Saving Trust on 29 July 2020 after problems with their management of the Bike Voucher Scheme.
Energy Saving Trust would like to apologise for the frustration and inconvenience at the Fix Your Bike Voucher Scheme website being taken offline. This was due to unprecedented high demand at launch, the site was inundated with users attempting to gain access at the same time. The website was designed for high volumes of traffic, however, at the time of the scheme launching, demand in fact far exceeded even our highest expectations.
Our team continue to work hard to resolve these issues and have the Fix Your Bike Voucher Scheme available as soon as possible. We will post any updates on the website and on our social media channels.
Comments made by Luke Pollard, the Shadow Environment Secretary, on 29 July 2020.
This report reinforces the urgent need for action on the two biggest food challenges facing Britain: the growing scandal of food poverty and the need to prevent British farmers being undercut in new trade deals.
Far too many children are growing up in difficult circumstances and do not receive free school meals while their families struggle to make ends meet. The Government should be working to ensure every family can afford for their children to get a healthy hot meal every day.
Having heard the message from Labour, the public and farmers that we do not want lower food standards, perhaps hearing it from its own advisor will force the Government to secure Britain’s high food and farming standards in law.
The comments made by George Eustice, the Secretary of State for the Environment, on 27 July 2020.
The so-called greening requirements have added little to our environmental efforts. We believe that farmers will benefit from this reduced bureaucratic burden next year as we begin the move towards our new Environmental Land Management scheme which will deliver greater benefits for the environment.
We will be setting out more detail in the autumn on how we will ensure a smooth transition for our farmers, as they move towards our new, fairer agricultural system, which will reward them for the hard work that they do to protect our environment.
The comments made by Alok Sharma, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, on 20 July 2020.
We have an incredible aerospace industry right here in the UK that defines the way aircraft are manufactured globally.
This £400 million ATI investment will help secure our world-leading position in developing new flight technology to make air travel safer and greener into the future.
Text of the letter sent by Matthew Pennycook, the Shadow Climate Change Minister, on 20 July 2020.
Dear Alok,
UK credibility on climate change
I am writing to you as the Minister with lead responsibility for tackling climate change regarding the need for consistency across government policy to ensure the UK’s credibility ahead of the crucial COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow next year.
As you know, we are at the start of the decisive decade in the fight against runaway global heating. COP26, now rescheduled for November 2021, will be a critical moment in that fight. As the first country in the world to industrialise, the world’s sixth-largest economy and the summit’s host, we have a particular responsibility to make it a success.
Establishing the credibility of our COP26 Presidency depends on demonstrable leadership. That has to begin here at home with action to make up the ground lost over recent years and put us on track for net zero emissions.
The need to rebuild our economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic presents the Government with a once in a generation opportunity to bring forward an ambitious stimulus package geared towards the rapid decarbonisation of our economy; one that would create swathes of new jobs across the country, lay the foundations for an enhanced 2030 climate pledge and build momentum in the lead up to COP26.
Yet while other major economies are racing ahead, we risk slipping behind. The energy efficiency measures set out in the summer statement were welcome but what has been announced to date in no way amounts to the “green recovery” that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has promised. Narrowing the gulf between the Government’s rhetoric on climate action and the reality is going to require far more domestic ambition before the year’s end.
However, the credibility of our COP26 Presidency also rests on the consistency of our actions abroad. I know that you recognise this fact and I note that just this month, you used your London Climate Action Week keynote address to state your commitment to making sure that “climate risk is factored into every single investment decision taken around the world”[1].
Yet over the last decade the Government has directed £6 billion of public money into fossil fuel projects around the world via UK Export Finance (‘UKEF’)[2], the UK’s export credit agency. Indeed, between 2013 and 2018, 96% (£2.5 billion) of UKEF’s support for global energy projects went to fossil fuel ventures – the vast majority of which (£2.4 billion) was channelled in projects in low and middle-income countries[3].
In May 2019, a report from the Committee on Climate Change made clear that UKEF “is not aligned with climate goals, and often supports high-carbon investments”[4]. Similarly, in June 2019, the House of Commons’ Environment Audit Committee (‘EAC’) found that UKEF’s activities were “undermining the UK’s international climate and development targets” and called for UKEF to end its support for new fossil fuel projects by 2021 and to align all its investments with the UK’s 2050 net zero target [5].
Those recommendations have so far been ignored. Instead, at this year’s UK-Africa Investment Summit, 90% of the £2bn invested in energy deals went into fossil fuel projects[6] with the Government committing at that summit only to end UKEF support for overseas coal – an easy pledge to make given the UK has not provided finance for overseas coal projects since 2012[7]. Just last month, it was reported that UKEF will provide a £1bn loan guarantee for Mozambique’s first onshore gas pipeline which, on completion, will account for 10% of that country’s greenhouse gas emissions[8].
When it comes to the climate crisis, the Government’s deeds need to consistently match its words. It is clear that the Government’s support for overseas fossil fuel energy projects is not in line with the UK’s obligations under the Paris Agreement, which commits signatories to make “finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development”[9].
What is more, by backing these projects, we send a strong signal about their viability to other investors; de-risking them, crowding in further financing, and locking low and middle-income countries into high-carbon dependency for decades to come.
Nor is it at all clear that investing in such schemes provides value for money for UK taxpayers. In a Paris-complaint world most will not be economically competitive and will become stranded assets[10]. As the Conservative MP and current chair of the EAC Philip Dunne said last month, “such investments look very poor value for British taxpayers compared with renewable alternatives”[11].
The government has highlighted[12] the jobs in the UK oil and gas sector that could be put at risk by ending support for fossil fuel projects abroad. This is a legitimate concern and one that we share. However, research shows that with the right policies, job creation in clean energy industries will exceed affected oil and gas jobs more than threefold in the years ahead[13].
Rather than ducking this issue and simply storing up problems for the future, the government must align its policies at home and abroad with the transition that we know must take place and bring forward the investment and support necessary to help those whose jobs currently depend on the financing of overseas oil and gas projects begin the transition to the low-carbon industries of the future.
We urgently need a different approach. The Government has an opportunity to match its stated net zero priorities at home with its practices abroad, and to show the leadership and consistency required from its COP Presidency to make next year’s summit a success.
As such, we are asking the Government to:
1. Immediately end all financing of new overseas fossil fuel projects and review the decision to use public money to underwrite the Mozambique onshore LNG project;
2. Change UKEF’s mandate to ensure that any financing provided by it is aligned with the UK’s climate commitments and the Paris Agreement;
3. Leverage UKEF’s position among other OECD export credit agencies to ensure multilateral action towards net zero emissions by taking up the EAC’s recommendations from last June and:
a. Reporting on the forecast and actual emissions of the entire UKEF portfolio, including scope 3 emissions, to ensure maximum transparency; and
b. Committing to follow recommendations by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures to quantify and report its exposure to stranded assets due to climate change and its actions to support energy transition.
4. Bring forward a Just Transition Plan for British workers affected by these changes to retrain and reemploy them in decent, long term jobs in renewable projects instead.
I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
Best wishes,
Matthew
The text of the comments made by Rebecca Pow, the Domestic Marine Minister, on 18 July 2020.
Whether it is to enjoy a sport, take a walk, watch the wildlife or to simply admire the landscape, for many of us spending time by the sea is not only hugely enjoyable, but it has a welcome impact on our well-being too.
This realisation makes it all the more important that we take care of our environment, and our ever-expanding national ‘Blue Belt’, protecting more than 40% of English waters, is helping to safeguard these precious habitats for future generations.
The text of the comments made by Chris Clarkson, the Conservative MP for Heywood and Middleton, in the House of Commons on 15 July 2020.
I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to require building developers to ensure that the streets of major new developments are lined with trees; and for connected purposes.
In my short time in this place, I have spoken repeatedly about my admiration for my right hon. Friend the Chancellor and his new deal. However, in introducing my ten-minute rule Bill, I must first turn to the architect of the original new deal, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who remarked:
“Forests are the ‘lungs’ of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.”
Put simply, trees are good for us, and the presence of trees and other greenery in urban environments has a discernible effect on the physical and mental wellbeing of those who live there. The presence of trees has a particularly important role to play in that philosophy, as they are inextricably linked to cleaner air, increased physical exercise and enhanced health and wellbeing. Trees also play a central role in nature’s recovery and in addressing climate change.
This Bill is important, as it would ensure that new developments fully recognise those benefits, and I want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the Woodland Trust for its tireless work in highlighting the importance of trees in our national and environmental life.
Street trees seem particularly important in supporting this work. Indeed, a recent study into neighbourhood green space and health in large urban areas was able to map the location of 530,000 trees and compared them with the health records of 30,000 residents, concluding that people who live in areas with a higher street tree density report better health perception and fewer cardiometabolic conditions compared with their peers living in areas with lower density.
The planting of trees is also crucial in our fight against climate change, as trees store carbon and can help to make our towns and cities more resilient. The Bill could therefore make a small contribution to the Government’s aim of eradicating the UK’s net carbon contribution by 2050.
In my seat, we widely welcomed the Government’s £10 million urban tree challenge fund, which was introduced in May 2019 and which will see 130,000 trees planted across towns and cities in England by 2021, and the Bill could also support that ambition. Additionally, it would contribute to the Government’s ambitious target of planting 30,000 hectares of trees across the entire United Kingdom by 2025.
In recent years, we have certainly seen a reluctance among developers and local authorities to promote trees in streets. Frequently, issues such as expense, hassle and liability are levelled as excuses not to rise to this environmental and public health challenge. Therefore, a Bill placing a requirement on major new developments to ensure that streets are lined with trees would ensure that important environmental health and aesthetic considerations are at the heart of new developments across our country.
The people of Heywood and Middleton, like every great citizen of the four nations of our United Kingdom, love nature and frequently demonstrate a desire to protect it—whether the precious green belt around Bamford, Crimble Mill or Slattocks, or smaller green spaces in the towns of Heywood and Middleton—and their enduring objection to any new developments.
Over 100 years ago, the aims of the Planning Act 1909 were to secure
“the home healthy, the house beautiful, the town pleasant, the city dignified, and the suburb salubrious.”—[Official Report, 12 May 1908; Vol. 188, c. 949.]
That seems more relevant now than ever. In our desire to build beautiful we must strive to create an atmosphere that promotes community health and cohesion, and I believe that this Bill will go some way to supporting those values.
The text of the comments made by George Eustice, the Secretary of State for the Environment, on 14 July 2020.
The devastating impacts of last winter’s flooding were an important reminder of the need to continue to invest and accelerate action to reduce the impact of flooding on our communities.
Our record investment and ambitious policies will better protect homes, schools, hospitals and businesses, but we also recognise that we cannot prevent flooding entirely, which is why we will ensure that communities at high risk are more resilient.
Working closely with the Environment Agency, local authorities, business and the third sector we will create a better protected and prepared nation.