What British Climate Action Looks Like Post-Election
Today was a harsh blow for climate action in the UK, with the worst possible party getting a landslide victory. The Conservative Party, the only major party in the UK to skip the Climate Debate entirely, and their victory locks us in to five more years of woefully dangerous, reckless, feckless inaction.
The Conservatives passed a law obliging the UK to halt virtually all greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Labour is aiming for earlier than 2050. The Liberal Democrats are even more ambitious, with a 2045 target. But the Greens say emissions must be eliminated by 2030. — bbc.com, November 2019
The Green Party wanted to be 100% renewable energy by 2030 and that would have been amazing. Lib Dem were aiming for 80% reduction by 2030 with 100% by 2045, and that… would have been somewhat acceptable. The Conservative government and their 2050 goal is just kicking the can so far down the road it might as well have been kicked into the sun. It is a vote for business as usual, and that has huge consequences.
The Amazon Rainforest will be gone by 2030, largely due to man-made deforestation, but also due to a huge increase in dry spells, droughts, and heatwaves, all of which come together to cause intense and uncontrollable fires.
The Arctic ice caps will be completely gone by 2030, with the rate of loss for Greenland’s ice-shelves septupling.
The Great Barrier Reef will be completely dead by 2029. Half of the reef is already dead.
The Conservatives have not once mentioned anything about the specifics of their plans to drastically curb carbon emissions. Their plan might as well be “buy up land on the north shore of Greenland”, because at this rate it’ll be the only inhabitable place left.
Cutting Coal Power Plants
The UK has been slowly phasing out coal for the last few years, due to legislation from the European Commission. The Large Combustion Plant Directive came into force in 2008, but there was no closures until 2012: with 2 of the 21 plants closing. By 2015 the UK were down to 12, and in 2016 The Industrial Emissions Directive kicked in, bringing the total number of coal plants down to 6 by 2019.
With two more plants closing in March 2020 and another converting to biomass (not a perfect solution) it seems a bit like we’ve nearly escaped coal, but there are three more plants which have no plans to close due to still having active contracts.
What can we do? The EU has been making the directives to get these closures happening, and with our EU presence on the ropes it seems unlikely we can hope for any directives to speed things up here, and the Conservative government haven’t said a word about it, so…
[West Burton has] a capacity agreement until September 2021, and owners EDF have confirmed they will operate the plant at least until then. — powerstations.uk
EDF Energy want to keep this coal plant going? Let’s tell them it is completely unacceptable by dropping them, and other coal-powered energy companies like E.On and npower. There are plenty of energy providers out there not screwing us over with coal.
One such provider is Bulb, an energy supplier who provide 100% renewable electricity, and provide 100% carbon-neutral gas. There are plenty out there, so go to Big Clean Switch, or Money Super Market to see what is available in your area. This might have been expensive back in the day, but renewable energy prices have fallen through the floor in recent years so most of the time you can find savings.
This will lower your personal footprint, and hopefully send a message to the energy suppliers that we value clean air over climate catastrophe. For other tips on improving your carbon footprint as a homeowner, check out Shrink That Footprint!
Fossil Fuel Car Bans and Low Emission Zones
The UK government’s plan to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2040 is too tame, and the date should be brought forward to 2025. The ban coming into effect in 2040 means cars will still be throwing out fumes by 2050, which is twenty years after the ice caps have melted and the Amazon has turned into a desert.
A petition was created on Parliament.UK suggesting rolling the date forward to 2025, but it was largely ignored.
Maybe there is concern about price?
The Committee on Climate Change believes the cost of electric cars will be similar to that of petrol or diesel vehicles by 2024–5. bbc.com, April 2019
Maybe there is concern about the number of charging points?
The latest figures have revealed there are 9,300 EV charging stations in the UK compared to 8,400 fuel stations. — mirror.co.uk, August 2019
Maybe people think there are bigger fish to fry?
Air pollution is the biggest environmental threat to health in the UK, with between 28,000 and 36,000 deaths a year attributed to long-term exposure. — gov.uk
This report goes on to kick the responsibility for dealing with all this to local authorities. Some of what they write is nonsense about “maybe put some more bushes next to the road” which is like sticking a plaster on a shotgun wound, but there are some good points too:
Key interventions local authorities can take include:
- boosting investment in clean public transport, as well as foot and cycle paths to improve health
- discouraging highly polluting vehicles from entering populated areas — for example, with low emission or clean air zones
Yeah, more high quality bike paths = more people cycling = less people driving = better air quality. That’s a start, but if you’d rather your friends and family avoid death caused by exposure to pollution, we need emission free zones in all major cities.
Bristol has started the ball rolling here, banning privately owned diesel cars from the center in the daytime. Commercial vehicles will pay to enter the area. The plan irked a lot of people but amazingly was approved in November 2019.
We need this in every city, right now. Then make the bans bigger. Then make the bans include petrol too. Keep on expanding the size and scope to the absolute extent of the power local authorities can muster, then push for more power. Contact your MP and hound your Mayor. Whatever you have to do.
Petitions and Local Authorities
The UK is one of a few countries where people can easily submit petitions, with the promise of having the topics discussed if they hit a certain number of signatories. Whilst it’s rare that things go well, we need to keep reminding the government that we demand climate action.
All petitions were automatically closed when the general election was announced, and we are now waiting for a new Petitions Committee to be set up before anything new can be created. Keep checking the petition website here
In the mean time other groups are working hard on petitioning local governments. Friends of the Earth have a great tool for finding out how good your local community is, with tips on things you should be pestering your MPs about.
All sorts of petitions and political actions are being collated on Awesom.Earth: Politics, so check back there now and then for new ones.
Extinction Rebellion
Sign up with Extinction Rebellion newsletter, and keep an eye out for local events. Whilst the group has had some bad press for various people going over the top, these days it’s hard to blame people for getting irate when faced with a government doing absolutely sod all to avoid the worst outcomes.
Sue The Government
Our Children’s Trust has been working with attorneys around the world, to develop and advance legal actions to compel science-based government action on climate change in various countries. What’s that mean? They’ve been out suing governments for being catastrophically inept when it comes to the climate crisis.
They are looking for people who live in the UK to get involved, and you should all go see if you can help in any way. It might sound far fetched, but they won in the Netherlands.
If we throw enough shit against the walls of Parliament, some of it might stick, and maybe we can escape the very worst version of the impending climate apocalypse.
As always, a reminder to set up an account on Offset.Earth to make yourself, your family, or even your business carbon-neutral. Then get on Awesom.Earth to find some other ways you can reduce your footprint. If we can all half our footprints in 2020 we might not be completely fucked.
