Tag: Climate Change

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Big oil continues to spout its nonsense

COP28 is on right now. The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, to give it its full name, is currently grinding through its agenda in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. I suppose it is better that this event happens than it doesn’t, but many are giving up hope of real change happening fast enough to avoid a worsening climate catastrophe.

You would be forgiven some cynicism in thinking the UAE is an odd place to hold a climate change conference. They are after all the world’s seventh largest oil producer and currently committed to a massive expansion of that industry. 

And yet the central discussion this weekend is whether to agree to phase out the production of fossil fuels in decades ahead. Not immediately. Just a target in years to come. 

Astonishingly, this isn’t already the case. Pretty much everyone accepts that burning fossil fuels is why we are in the mess we are, and yet there are plenty who say we don’t need an outright ban. Just cut down a bit, they say.

Big oil is sort of going through the phase big tobacco was in 20 years ago. They accept their product is bad for you but rather than simply stop, they are promoting ways to mitigate its effect. Pretty much the same thing happened when the cigarettemanufacturers said they weren’t advertising cigarettes but promoting smokers to switch to lower tar brands.

It was nonsense then. It’s nonsense now. There is of course a role for technologies like carbon capture, being pioneered in our own fair city. But the worst role for it would be create an excuse for the continued development of more oil and gas.

We need to get over it. The fossil fuel era needs to end.

You would hope that our government might take the lead in this switch. I was one of several MPs in the climate group who wrote to Rishi Sunak in the summer asking him to do just that. A week later, he announced that the Rosebank oil field – bigger than any we have had before – would get the green light. So, it’s not going well.

Too many people at this weekend’s conference will be bumping their gums. Going through he motions. Saying one thing. Doing another. Something gotta change.

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COP15: UK Government failing to turn global promises into domestic action for nature

The UN’s COP15 biodiversity summit is now over, with a global biodiversity framework now agreed. It’s being called “a first step in resetting our relationship with the natural world” and includes commitments to restore on 30% of degraded ecosystems on land and sea by 2030; 30% of terrestrial and marine areas conserved and managed by 2030; and halting and reversing nature’s destruction by 2030. 

A much less discussed COP than Glasgow’s COP26 conference last year, the global ambition for nature is now set. Now it’s time for countries to deliver on the promises they’ve made on the international stage. We have no time to lose if we are to meet these targets in eight years’ time. 

Across the Scotland and the rest of the UK, action means ensuring that nature loss is both halted and reversed. To protect and restore our precious species, habitats, and ecosystems. And to ensure that our best ally in the fight against climate change – nature itself – can flourish.

The problem? Here in the UK, we have one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. The UK Government has made no progress on its own commitment to restore 30% of land for nature by 2030. And, according to environmental groups, its nature restoration ambition will mean there’s less wildlife in the decades ahead than there is today.

The stark contrast between the Scottish Government’s leadership on tackling nature loss – and UK Government’s complete failure of leadership is plain to see. Scotland was one of the first countries in the world to declare a joint biodiversity and climate emergency. And now the Scottish Government is taking action to tackle the nature emergency with the powers at its disposal.

Meanwhile, at Westminster, the UK Government’s (Environment Act) targets, won’t deliver on the pledges made at COP15. Put simply, they are too weak. There’s no overall target to improve water quality. No target to improve the condition of protected nature areas. And they won’t help us to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030.

The UK Government must therefore urgently publish a clear pathway to meet its commitments. It must also scrap the Retained EU Law Bill, which seeks to undemocratically wipe away the last vestiges of EU environmental protections in UK law. And, most importantly, it must support the Climate & Ecology Bill.

By enacting the Climate & Ecology Bill, we would have a science-led plan to help us solve the climate-nature crisis. A plan that will reduce the UK’s full greenhouse gas emissions in line with the best chance of limiting global heating to 1.5C. A plan that will mean we have reversed nature’s destruction by the end of this decade. A plan that commands the support for the public, via a temporary citizens’ assembly to help decide the fairest way forward.

The Bill is already backed by hundreds of scientists, NGOs, community groups and businesses. Zero Hour, the campaign for the Climate & Ecology Bill, is now calling on all politicians to get behind this serious environmental plan. A plan that treats the crisis for what it is – an environmental emergency.

As Rishi Sunak said at COP27, “there’s no solution to climate change without protecting and restoring nature”. So I ask my colleagues, across the political spectrum, to support the Climate & Ecology Bill and work together to enact this crucial law.

And as the snow settles after COP15, it’s essential to lock the pledges the UK Government is making into law. We have a vanishingly small window to act, but there’s still time to do so.