28 February 2022

The Green Party has urged the government to make it a key national security objective to focus on eliminating our dependence on gas following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said:

“The latest IPCC report makes clear how humanity’s use of fossil fuels has had a devastating impact on our climate and environment. Security experts have long warned that the climate crisis is a major national security risk but Putin’s use of energy aggression in Ukraine strongly underlines this. However, our reliance on oil and gas also leaves us susceptible to major national security concerns, such as those we are currently witnessing with Russia.

“It is imperative that the government starts taking the necessary steps to wean us off this addiction to fossil fuels and develop the renewables and efficiency measures required to ensure we are not beholden to despots such as Putin.

“Our addiction to fossil fuels has encouraged us to turn a blind eye to Putin’s decades of outrages. We have encouraged Russian energy companies and Russian oligarchs and Russian energy companies into the heart of our economy and society. 

“To strengthen European defences against Russian aggression we must install thousands of wind turbines, millions of new solar panels and millions of well-insulated homes. The government needs to treat this with the seriousness it deserves as a potential cause of conflict in the near future.”

ENDS

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28 February 2022

Responding to the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [1], Green Party MP Caroline Lucas has said:

“This report sounds what should be a deafening alarm bell about the urgency of tackling the climate emergency and, in stark terms, makes clear that the impacts of the climate crisis are greater than many feared. 

“With the Red Cross already warning that around two million people a week need humanitarian assistance because of the impacts of climate breakdown, it’s clear that we’re facing not just an environmental crisis, but a humanitarian emergency of monumental proportions. 

“One of the most terrifying parts of the report are the impacts of extreme weather which it predicts are already baked in, even if the world succeeds in limiting global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. 

“That means there must be a ramping up of investment in adaptation, including in the UK where the Government’s own independent advisors say it has long been ‘underfunded and ignored’. When the impacts of the climate emergency are already upon us, adaptation can no longer be left to the side-lines. 

“The COP26 Presidency must also ensure that rich countries finally come-good on their existing finance commitments and that new and additional adaptation finance is prioritised for the post-2025 goal.

“Just over 100 days have now passed since the  Glasgow Climate Pact was agreed, with its renewed commitment to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees – but we have seen little action. And in the UK, Ministers perversely plan for more domestic oil and gas in response to the global gas crisis. 

“The dangers of our addiction to fossil fuels are clear and the Government must stop pouring fuel on the fire to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. This means urgently ruling out future oil and gas licences, delivering a just transition for workers and investing in clean and bountiful renewable energy.

“Crucially this report shows that there is a deep injustice at the heart of the climate emergency.  Whilst nowhere is safe from the impacts of the climate crisis, those in the poorest countries will be hardest hit.  

“We cannot leave those on the front lines of this crisis to bear its costs alone, and as COP26 President, the UK must heed the call for new finance for loss and damage and do much more to build consensus ahead of COP27. Rich Governments cannot continue to turn a blind eye to this moral issue.”

ENDS

Notes

1

https://www.ipcc.ch/2022/02/28/pr-wgii-ar6/

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28 February 2022

Ahead of Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Spring Budget Statement, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas will personally deliver a letter to the Chancellor today [Monday 28 February] calling on him to take immediate steps to get dirty fossil fuels out of our economy and invest in the energy transition that’s needed to bring down household bills.

The letter urges the Chancellor to make key spending commitments to help people facing extreme poverty as a result of soaring energy bills and to end our continued dependence on fossil fuels. These include:

• Much higher spending on home insulation to reduce demand for fossil fuels and bring down people’s energy bills
• A Dirty Profits Tax on the massive profits of North Sea oil & gas producers to help support people struggling to pay their energy bills
• Funding for a 1.5 degrees compatible energy transition, including support for a just transition for oil, gas and coal sector workers
• Future proofing the stability of the economy by ending all tax reliefs, financial support and other subsidies for the fossil fuel industry
• Reporting on indicators of wellbeing that show whether people can live healthy and fulfilled lives.

Caroline Lucas said:

“For too long, the Treasury has blocked effective climate action.  In his past budgets and spending reviews, the Chancellor has barely even acknowledged that we face a climate and ecological emergency.

“It’s time he woke up to the reality and looked at the climate science.  We have to act now if we are to have any chance of limiting global heating to 1.5C.  We need to leave fossil fuels in the ground and accelerate the transition to a carbon-free future with properly insulated homes kept warm with clean renewable energy. 

“Our future is at stake. We have to reclaim it from a Chancellor and Treasury which are too stuck in the old ways and too cosy with fossil fuel interests.  Subsidies and financial support for the oil and gas sector must end now.”

Earlier this month, Parliament’s Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee warned that the Government is failing to cut greenhouse gas emissions from heating the UK’s homes, “lacks clear direction” on the issue, and that its current policies were inadequate to the scale of the problem.

Soaring gas prices mean that 6.5 million UK households will be living in ‘fuel stress’ when the domestic energy price cap rises this April, according to National Energy Action. Citizens Advice and other agencies are warning that millions of people are facing extreme poverty and ever deeper debt as a result.

Rocketing oil and gas prices also mean that the companies extracting the fossil fuels that are destroying our climate system are making bumper profits, with BP’s boss boasting recently that his company has become a “cash machine”.

Global levels of CO2 and methane, the main greenhouse gases, have continued to climb after a pandemic-related dip in 2020, and both hit record highs in 2021 according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

ENDS

Notes to editors

1

The letter can be read in full here

2

Net Zero & decarbonising heat in homes – Government’s approach lacks strategic direction, says Business Committee

https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/365/business-energy-and-industrial-strategy-committee/news/160772/net-zero-decarbonising-heat-in-homes-governments-approach-lacks-strategic-direction-says-business-committee/

2

Families suffering from ‘fuel stress’ set to treble overnight to six million households as energy bills soar

https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/press-releases/families-suffering-from-fuel-stress-set-to-treble-overnight-to-six-million-households-as-energy-bills-soar/

3

Global emissions hit record highs in 2021 according to Copernicus Climate Change Service

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/10/last-7-years-warmest-on-record-globally-by-clear-margin-eu

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24 February 2022

The Green Party has strongly criticised Education Minister Nadhim Zahawi’s announcement of the Government’s response to the Augar Review of higher education. 

Young Greens co-chair Jane Baston said,

“It is scandalous that the Government will make it much harder for students from working class and disadvantaged backgrounds to enter universities, further entrenching the inequalities and marketisation within higher education. 

“The minimum entry requirements and restrictions on student loans that the government is introducing will disproportionately impact those who do not come from a privileged background. Behind these changes is a deeply regressive vision of education that rewards those with access to private tuition and penalises those who do not fit the Conservative ideology.” 

Green Party education spokesperson Vix Lowthion said,

“The Green Party believes that education should be accessible for all, regardless of background and income, and we support the scrapping of high stakes examinations and the removal of tuition fees. Students should not have to face any further barriers to access an education.”

ENDS

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24 February 2022

Responding to today’s Government figures showing that 1 in 9 households are in fuel poverty, Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said:

“Millions of households will be fearful about their energy bills, knowing that they cannot afford the vast increases in fuel costs. This is an incredibly stressful time for many people. Tragically, fuel poverty could mean thousands of lost lives. [1]

“Yet the government is allowing energy companies to make record-breaking profits off the back of ordinary people’s misery. Its response to the cost of living crisis is to merely delay the pain and add to the anxiety by offering loans that will saddle households with more debt.

“Instead of this cruel approach, the government should be immediately implementing a ‘dirty profits tax’ on oil and gas company profits, and using this to ease the pain of those in fuel poverty. [2]

Carla Denyer added, “What makes this crisis worse is that the UK has some of the leakiest and least-energy efficient housing in Europe. If we are to bring down the cost of living once and for all, as well as cutting carbon emissions, we need a nationwide drive to insulate houses, led by local authorities and backed with public money, as Green-led Lewes District Council is already doing.” [3] 

Notes

1 https://www.nea.org.uk/news/271120-01/  

2 https://www.politicshome.com/thehouse/article/a-dirty-profits-tax-will-bill-energy-giants-for-rising-energy-costs-not-families-struggling-to-make-ends-meet

3 https://www.politicshome.com/thehouse/article/the-green-party-has-a-plan-to-tackle-the-costofliving-crisis-now 

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