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.

The start of a new Parliamentary session

Published on by jonesjb

After 13 years of Tory Britain, you can spend three years in prison for erecting a climate crisis banner while sexual predators are quietly fast-tracked for release to help with prison overcrowding. 

We all know who is not facing jail time: the water company CEOs who fleeced customers for billions of pounds, filled our rivers with sewage and are now asking for our bills to go up so they can take even more of our money; the Conservative Party members who benefited from the billions handed out via the PPE fast-track scheme and numerous other scams; the Tory donors from the oil and gas industry who have had their payback through tax breaks, new licences and delays in the net-zero policy. Those are climate criminals who are costing us a fortune now and costing future taxpayers billions to clean up the mess and mitigate the damage caused by flooding, wildfires, food shortages and other climate catastrophes. Continue reading “The start of a new Parliamentary session” →

Geothermal Heat and Power Debate

Published on by jonesjb

This Government are eco-stupid. Part of their problem is an inability to see the global impact of climate change and our role in it. Part of it is the straightforward corruption of donations to the Conservative Party buying influence, North Sea oil licences and the demolition of our net-zero target. Their resistance to all things green is often disguised as innate conservatism, but it is pure hypocrisy, they love open-cast coal mines and giant fracking wells but find large windmills an ugly addition to our traditional landscape. Continue reading “Geothermal Heat and Power Debate” →

Greenpeace joins calls to ban incineration

Published on by greenlordsmedia

Jenny’s long standing campaign to stop incineration and raise the alarm over CO2 emissions and local air pollution has been joined by Greenpeace. They have teamed up with Exinction rebellion and UK Without Incinerators to deleiver a 10 point action plan to the PM for a swift shift to a circular economy.

Noting social justice concerns, the action plan stresses that better measures to curb pollution from incinerators are urgently required. It points out that incinerators are “imposed on communities against their will, harming their air quality without their consent” and that these plants “are more likely to be built in poorer areas and in areas with higher racial and ethnic diversity”. Greenpeace data has shown that UK waste incinerators are three times as likely to be located in deprived areas.

Jenny met them at the Big One weekend of protests in London, saying that “Everyone deserves clean air”

A key green party demand is to stop more incinerators being built and for councils to withdraw from the long term contracts that have such a negative impact on recycling rates.

Government defeats on the Energy Bill

Published on by greenlordsmedia

The government suffered four defeats on amendments to the Energy Bill in the Lords last night, including one championed by my Green Party collegue Natalie Bennett on community energy. These will now go back to MPs for them to consider and hopefully we will get a few shifts in the government’s position.

The first amendment adds a new clause imposing a duty on the Secretary of State to bring forward a plan within six months of the passage of the act for low carbon heat, energy efficient buildings and higher standards on new homes.

The second adds a new clause requiring the Secretary of State to bring forward regulations to prohibit the opening of new coal mines in England.

The third adds a requirement to have regard for the UK’s net zero emissions target into Ofgem’s general duties.

The fourth amendment requires the Secretary of state to bring forward regulations to require large energy suppliers to purchase electricity from low carbon community sites and provide annual reporting on the use of such schemes

Not even baby steps

Published on by jonesjb

In this budget the Chancellor has taken absolutely no steps on the path to a green economy. Green growth is an oxymoron. The minute you grow anything, you have to degrow in a different area. Green growth is possible but not if you do not cut somewhere else. Every time we grow the economy, we take a bite out of the planet’s resources. In the words of Professor Jason Hickel, author of ‘Less is More’ –

“Decarbonization with growth is like trying to run down an escalator that is accelerating upwards” Continue reading “Not even baby steps” →

Environmental Targets: Marine

Published on by jonesjb

As a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the UK failed to reach its target of restoring at least 15% of degraded ecosystems by 2020. It was adopted by the UK as part of target 2 of the EU’s biodiversity strategy, and the lack of progress is most pronounced in the marine and costal environment, where habitat degradation continues and restoration remains in its relative infancy. I believe that nobody in the Government understands the ocean, it is crucial to our well-being, and these new Government targets related to the Environment Act 2021 are utterly insufficient. Continue reading “Environmental Targets: Marine” →