Here is Lynne Feathestone’s speech to yesterday’s climate change debate. The party passed entirely predictable policy – in summary, Paris Agreement is fantastic. Trump and the Conservatives are awful and we are the party of renewables and the green economy.
This is what Lynne said:
It was a glorious moment in time
The signing of the Paris Agreement
The world coming together to do the right thing
Thinking of future generations
Accepting responsibility
Taking real action to turn the tide
A moment in time
But time is not on our side
And the battle intensifies
Even as 97% of experts – so beloved of Michael Gove – agree on climate change
Even as the world agrees on Climate Change
Even as we have had the hottest summers
The wettest storms
Sea levels rising
And the fiercest hurricanes in history
Climate deniers still propagate untruths
It’s a hoax made up by the Chinese
It’s a scam
scientists are fudging the numbers
In my time as Minister for International Development
I saw first hand the impact that climate change is already having in some of the poorest areas of the world
I stood in Darfur and felt desertification under my own feet.
I saw with my own eyes the ravages that too little water in Africa and too much in Asia can bring.
I implored governments and leaders to stop the fight between peoples over scarce resources.
I visited communities learning to adapt to climate change.
Those living in areas already deeply affected by climate change don’t question its existence.
They see it. They suffer from it. They didn’t cause it.
If we don’t succeed in adaptation, mitigation and keeping temperature rise below 2 degrees centigrade – then the tide of human misery we have seen fleeing conflict will be as nothing compared to those fleeing the worst ravages of climate change
But we have formidable foes in our endeavor
Donald Trump – need I say more
Big players with big financial interest and influence
And then there’s Brexit
the EU is the most ambitious bloc in the internationals climate negotiations, so if the UK is serious about climate leadership it makes no sense to separate ourselves off.
There have been positive signs just in the last week.
The cost of offshore wind has plummeted to half that of nuclear, opening up huge potential for further investment in wind energy.
A report from PwC has shown that the UK is decarbonizing at a faster rate than other G20 countries.
The fantastic work of Ed Davey and Chris Huhne in Coalition government is paying off.
But this progress will not be sustained if the Tories continue as they are.
We are up against it – with the best will in the world
And sadly, our Tory government does not have the best will in the world
Targets will be missed
Promises broken
Shale wrongly hailed as savior
Uncertainty created
Investor confidence decimated
Clean growth plan delayed
And delayed
And delayed
An industrial strategy that virtually ignores climate change
No plan for green finance
No sense of urgency
But this is urgent
We will not be able to restrict the rise in global warming to 2.0 degrees let alone 1.5 – the targets we committed to under the Paris Agreement
if we do not
And if others do not
Take radical action
It can be done
We do have the answer
The challenge is the government has its hands over its ears
It does not want to take the action needed
The economic argument alone should persuade
Even a government that hates green crap should be enticed by the economic miracle for the 21st century offered by the clean agenda over the next few decades – worth trillions.
Low carbon products
Low carbon services
With the forcing mechanisms
Of the sustainable development goals
And the Paris Agreement
These are the growth markets worldwide
These are the money making investments
Solar, storage and cutting edge technologies
Serious investors are turning this way
So we’re trying to help our incompetent government
Liberal Democrat policy is for the UK to be zero carbon by 2050
On Monday we will launch a report that I commissioned on what we need to do to deliver it
A Vision for Britain: Clean, green and carbon free
the report comprises evidence collected from a wide range of industry experts and academics after months of research
and it draws on the expertise within the party – we have a depth of knowledge and experts within our own ranks who over the last few decades have enabled the Liberal Democrats to be leaders on this agenda
the evidence is clear – the report shows we must become carbon free by 2050 in order to meet the Paris agreement
to do that we need to go further than the current 80% by 2050
we have to reduce Green house gases by 80% by 2040
To get there
We are going to have to go further and faster
We have to forge ahead on every front
We need investment in renewables
In innovative technology
We need carbon capture and storage
We need a major program on energy efficiency
We need to accelerate the deployment of renewables
A new governance structure
A rapid rollout of storage technologies
And integrated electricity system operator
To reduce demand
Address aviation and shipping
Optimize supply chains
Tackle industry
Ensure a circular economy
support for low carbon heat
low carbon transport
Afforestation
Close cooperation with EU I wished
what about our peatlands
what about community energy
what about housing standards
what about onshore wind
what about heat pumps
what about tidal lagoons
what about biogas
what about climate risk finance
what about jobs
what about
it’s all got to be done
it’s all got to be done
every single bit of it
done to the max
and it can only be done
with political will
a thriving green energy sector is being slowly strangled by unnecessary government delay
and as our lily livered government doesn’t seem to know the way
Liberal Democrats will bloody well show them
Support the motion
You will be able to read a full report of the debate here.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
6 Comments
I would like every politician, who believes that our planet, its flora and fauna, is going to survive on “zero Carbon”, to vow not to fly again.
Credit where credit is due – I believe that Sarah Ludford has made this vow, and is AFAIK the only politician to do so.
Let’s see our politicians practising what they preach.
Sadly, the models are still wrong.
@wg “Let’s see our politicians practising what they preach.”
I can’t help but wonder what is the carbon footprint of all those party members travelling twice a year to congregate and hear speeches about preventing global warming?
Perhaps Lib Dems could lead by example with online conferences and votes, with the democratic improvement that it might also bring.
@ wg – “I would like every politician, who believes that our planet, its flora and fauna, is going to survive on “zero Carbon”, to vow not to fly again.”
It is important that you realise that at carbon levels lower than the current ones, there will be no flora and fauna and we shall all be dead. Carbon dioxide is essential plant food and we are at a low in the geological record.
http://deforestation.geologist-1011.net/
Even as 97% of experts – so beloved of Michael Gove – agree on climate change
So she’s implying that these experts are “getting it consistently wrong”.
— Michael Gove, Interview with Faisal Islam, Sky News, 3rd. June 2016.
Gove: Britons “Have Had Enough of Experts”:
Peter. Fortunately not. The models are remarkably good but are rather peripheral to the matter in any case. They aren’t the reason why we think 1) that AGW is happening and 2) that it may be very dangerous.
Nobody has yet proposed plausible alternatives so do you have an alternative model to propose? An alternative understanding of the physical chemistry of gas mixtures? An alternative interpretation of the effect of CO2 in the palaeoclimate record? An alternative understanding of current climate change? With data and equations and stuff?