Category: Climate change

We need a new era of fossil free politics

Our pension funds should divest from fossil fuels, our ministers should reject the advances of fossil fuel lobbyists and our councils and mayors should be supported to transition to a zero carbon economy

Jenny works with campaigners and industry to promote a more radical policy agenda on climate change

Read on for her latest posts on this topic

A draconian government tries again

Published on by greenlordsmedia

The Lords deleted nearly 18 pages of the most draconian restrictions on the right to peaceful protest from the Policing Bill, but the government are now trying to bring them back. This must be opposed.

The government want to stop any protest that might get noticed and be effective. They have already got the right to ban noisy protests, now they want to clamp down on all the other forms of peaceful, non violent protest that people use to get attention. And that’s the crucial point – protestors are just people. People who work, pay taxes, study, or collect the pensions they have earned. People who see something wrong and want it to stop. People like you and me.

Continue reading “A draconian government tries again” →

Why are we paying £2m a day for Drax to pollute the planet?

Published on by greenlordsmedia

Drax uses wood from forests in Louisiana, North Carolina, British Columbia, Estonia
and Latvia. These forests will take centuries to recover, centuries which we simply
do not have when tackling the climate emergency. The government claim that Drax is sustainable simply ignores all the extra emissions from felling, making the pellets and transporting it all. It ignores the extra carbon that is oaked up by more mature trees.

Continue reading “Why are we paying £2m a day for Drax to pollute the planet?” →

The Subsidy Control Bill Committee Stage Day One: Net Zero

Published on by jonesjb

The Government keep bringing us these thin Bills that ought to include things such as the ecological crisis and climate change, but do not. The subsidy principle should ensure that all our environmental and climate targets are met. Ecologically damaging, polluting industries should be weaned off public money completely and, ultimately, binned. My Amendment 8 would ensure that subsidies contribute towards limiting global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees centigrade of warming. My Amendment 33 would prohibit subsidies for fossil fuels and extend the definition of fossil fuel subsidies to include any government policy that makes fossil fuels cheaper than their true cost. Continue reading “The Subsidy Control Bill Committee Stage Day One: Net Zero” →

Final days of Police Bill Committee Stage

Published on by jonesjb

If you make protests impossible to perform legally, criminalise non-violent direct action, abolish or restrict the ability of citizens to challenge the Government in court through judicial reviews, turn people against lawyers, gerrymander the election boundaries and dish out cash in the way that looks best for Conservative MPs, that is deep, dark politics. Many of us here are not particularly political and perhaps do not see the dangers inherent in what the Government are doing. It all seems like a calculated ploy to turn all the cards in favour of an unaccountable Government that cannot be challenged in the courts, at the ballot box or on the streets. 

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Incinerators are bad for climate change, health and recycling

Published on by greenlordsmedia

There is no logical reason why you would want to replace the Edmonton Incinerator in North London, nor build any of the other 50 new waste incinerators that are in the planning pipeline at the moment.

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This is an emergency and a crisis, and the Government are not stepping up

Published on by jonesjb

Most of us here in this Chamber will die of old age. By contrast, many of the young people at school today will die from the consequences of climate change: flash floods, droughts, and conflicts brought about by shifting climatic conditions. It is going to be an unstable world—more than it is already.

This is an emergency and a crisis, and the Government are not stepping up. For all their fine words, they do not measure up to the task.

Continue reading “This is an emergency and a crisis, and the Government are not stepping up” →

Environment Bill Report Stage final day

Published on by jonesjb

Although old train engines and boats do contribute to air pollution, they will be fairly localised and minimal compared with other emissions being pumped out by, for example, the Government building new roads or opening new coal mines—or indeed allowing the growth of incinerators all over the country that operate without proper regulations.

Sign our petition to strengthen the Environment Bill here

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My Air Pollution Amendment – Environment Bill Report Stage Day 3

Published on by jonesjb

The City of London Corporation, London Councils, Clean Air London, a Lib Dem Peer and a Green Peer: these are people you might not think would naturally link together—but on this issue we are speaking with one voice. There is a problem and we have to fix it, and this is how you can fix it.

Continue reading “My Air Pollution Amendment – Environment Bill Report Stage Day 3” →