The climate emergency is a pressing global issue with very local implications for us in Hexham and Northumberland. The government has set targets to reduce carbon emissions, with an aim of achieving net-zero by 2050. Unfortunately, the pace of progress is too slow. In September 2023, in a substantial failure for the Government’s green credentials, the auction for new offshore renewable energy attracted no bidders.
Early September 2023 also saw Guy Opperman vote with the government against measures to address the climate emergency. Proposed laws to reduce emissions of methane, (one of the worst greenhouse gases), to make it easier to build onshore wind turbines, and to introduce a warmer homes action plan were all voted down. Despite their claims to be “green”, the Conservatives continue to block real action on the climate emergency. And as always, Guy Opperman just goes along with any government policy however misguided.
We need the greener, fairer future a Labour government can deliver.
One of the biggest contributors to carbon emissions is the energy sector. We need to decarbonise our energy production by expanding the use of renewable technologies. This will will help us to combat climate change and reduce our reliance on imported fossil fuels, while bringing skilled jobs and investment to our region. One of Labour’s five key missions is to Make Britain a Clean Energy Superpower.
“It’s been obvious for a long time that the Tories have given up on farmers”
It’s not just energy production. In a rural constituency like Hexham, we recognise the need for sustainable land use practices, including the restoration of peatlands and forests. These natural habitats play a crucial role in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and their protection and restoration is essential to combating the climate emergency.
By working with and supporting famers and rural communities we can make opportunities and livelihoods for all, as well as producing high quality food in sustainable ways.
Keir Starmer, speaking to the NFU, said:
“It’s been obvious for a long time that the Tories have given up on farmers”
Labour will bring forward policies on landuse and the financial viability of farms. Labour will also work with farmers to ensure that the food we need is produced in an environmentally sustainable way.
Jim McMahon, Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said:
“The best farmers are custodians of animal welfare, and custodians of nature, the best farms, and we need to make sure that we embrace that, and we encourage more of that”
Unlike the Tories, we’ll stand with rural communities to build a fairer, greener Britain.
The importance of transportation is key to all of us living in England’s second largest constituency by land area. To combat the climate crisis we need better, cheaper and more reliable public transport. Many of us commute to work by car because we have no other choice.
Speaking at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool in 2022, Louise Haigh, the Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, pledged to address the decline in public transport:
“Where broken promises on public transport hold our country back. Where services connecting our major cities are slashed without warning by unaccountable private operators. And where the public pay ever more for less. Because if many millions –let down by services they can no longer rely on – cannot or will not use public transport then, quite simply, there is no path to net zero. And we will never build the fairer, greener future our country demands.
That’s why my number one priority as your Secretary of State will be ending this spiral of decline on our public transport system”.
