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In This Post

• • • Shocked and Annoyed
    • The Shocking Truth about How MP’s Vote for Protection of the Environment
    • Find Out How Your MP is voting for Climate Protection
    • Who is My MP?
    • The Proposed Climate and Ecology Emergency Bill (#CEE)

Shocked and Annoyed

As a cynic of at least forty years standing, I am rarely shocked. Very often, I am annoyed by the arrogance and stupidity of our politicians. However, I may be naïve in expecting those in charge of our battle with the most urgent issue the world faces right now, and hope they believe in the cause we all face together. From the current evidence, there is no assurance they believe in anything but allegiance to the party.

Take, for example, the Rt Hon George Eustace MP – Secretary of State for the Environment is the top man at DEFRA (The Dept for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). It would not be unreasonable to expect him to have an understanding of climate issues and have policies and actions to deal with them.   The shocking truth is George Eustace has never voted for or supported policies that promote climate protection.

Here are ten pieces of evidence to support this claim.

• Attendance at the Climate Debate – No
• Signatory to the Net Zero Letter – No
• The setting of Transport Emissions Targets – No
• Voted to stop Fracking – No
• Keep the Onshore wind Subsidy – No
• Removal of fossil fuel investments from MP’s pensions – No
• Support for climate action proposed by GIB – No
• Agreement for the 2016 Energy Targets – No
• Support for the 2013 Energy Targets – No
• Backing for the proposed Climate and Ecology Emergency Bill (CEE) – No

Source – The UK Youth Climate Coalition

If these are the actions of the minister of state, based on past actions, it is not unreasonable to have no faith or confidence in future protection policies for our environment.

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Read also Government ‘painfully slow’ on protecting the environment

By Roger Harrabin BBC Environment Analyst

The Shocking Truth about How MP’s Vote for

Protection of the Environment

Is George Eustace in the wrong job? As he has no belief or track record in the protection of the environment or tackling the climate emergency. But he is not the only MP to Greenwash the British public. The UK Youth Coalition has created a database of how every MP has voted or supported Climate protection issues going back to 2013.

Here are the issues they tracked

• Attendance at the Climate Debate
• Signatory to the Net Zero Letter
• The setting of Transport Emissions Targets
• Voted to stop Fracking
• Keep the Onshore wind Subsidy
• Removal of fossil fuel investments from MP’s pensions
• Support for climate action proposed by GIB
• Agreement for the 2016 Energy Targets
• Support for the 2013 Energy Targets
• Backing for the proposed Climate and Ecology Emergency Bill (CEE)

Source – The UK Youth Climate Coalition

Below is the breakdown of All UK MP’s Past Record

On Voting For Climate Protection

The Climate and Ecology Emergency Bill was presented to Parliament on 02 September 2020. Therefore, it would appear that the range of data from the UK Youth Climate Coalition is up to date.

From the figures below, It appears concerning the Conservatives will only vote for their own Environment Bill. The current issue is, what if the Conservative Bill is not as robust as the #CEE measures proposed to beef up the current 2008 legislation? MP’s are again playing party politics with a grave and imminent emergency.

Red – MP’s who mostly voted against or did not support positive climate action

Amber – MP’s who were neither strongly for or against positive climate action

Green – MP’s who mostly voted for and did support positive climate action

This is a breakdown by Party in each of the three categories

The UK Youth Climate Coalition gives each MP a score according to how they vote or support climate protection.

My methodology was to download their free spreadsheet of all MP’s scores and then filter it to tell me how MP’s have been voting for what from each major party.

49 MP’s For 

Consisting of

Conservatives 0%

Labour 44%

DUP 0%

Scottish Nationalists 24%

Greens 2%

Liberal Democrats 12%

How Green is Your MP?  

There is an online database of every MP and how they have voted or supported positive climate action created by the UK Youth Climate Coalition

Who is My MP?

If you do not know who your MP is, find out here.

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The Proposed Climate and Ecology Emergency Bill (#CEE)

Our current Environment law is the 2008 act brought in to law by Labour. The CEE bill is a private members bill that seeks to plug the gaps in the 2008 legislation. This is not to be confused with the delayed government proposed Environment Bill.

What Is the CEE Bill About?

In a nutshell, the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill calls for:

• the UK to make and enact a serious plan. This means dealing with our real fair share of emissions so that we don’t go over critical global rises in temperature
• our entire carbon footprint be taken into account (in the UK and overseas)
• the protection and conservation of nature here and overseas along supply chains, recognising the damage we cause through the goods we consume
• those in power not to depend on technology to save the day, which is used as an excuse to carry on polluting as usual
• ordinary people to have a real say on the way forward in a citizens’ assembly with bite

It has support from leading climate scientists and lawyers to ensure that it is well drafted and enforceable.

Find out if your MP is one of the 84 current MP’s supporting the CEE Bill.

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A Final Thought – 80% of Brits are Worried About Climate Change

Burning Fossil Fuels > Green House Gas > Global Warming > Climate Change > Biodiversity Loss > Animal Viruses Jump to Humans > COVID Type Pandemic

I am shocked and annoyed by the arrogance and stupidity of 53% of MP’s who have not engaged in any real way with the Climate Emergency over the past eight years. One thing the Pandemic has shown is what can be achieved by working together to produce multiple effective vaccines. Unfortunately, the COVID Pandemic is according to the UN is an obvious outcome of the Climate Emergency.

Dr Peter Daszak, the British chair of the UN group (The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) who produced the report says, “there is no great mystery about the cause of the Covid-19 pandemic, or of any modern pandemic. The same human activities that drive climate change and biodiversity loss also drive pandemic risk through their impacts on our environment.”

Note – the current COVID 19 pandemic is the third of its type since 2002 with SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) emerging in 2012. Do you see a pattern starting?

Furthermore, according to a recent UN survey of 1.2m people of all ages from 50 countries, climate and ecology are by far the greater and urgent emergency than COVID 19. The survey found 80% of Brits are worried about climate change.

Why is our government making fools of us all by promoting short-term party politics and unsustainable consumerism?