Climate Change is in my view the most serious issue facing us on the Earth. As climate becomes more variable and more unpredictable and areas become unsustainable then people will simply move en-masse. We have to solve the problem and solve it fast. Unfortuneately one of the first acts of the new Tory Government was to slash and burn all the environmental achievements of the coalition government. Just as renewable energy is about to reach self sustaining level the Conservatives butcher the industry and the environmental gains it brings. Its attitude to solar power and land based wind beggar belief. And if that is not enough just of the coast of Bournemouth (well I say just but in fact 13 miles off shore) the Tories have trashed an off shore wind farm. But then we know their priority Frack at any cost. What a short sighted view on life. We should be welcoming renewable energy based on the sun, wind and tides and rejecting CO2 poluting energy sources.

This was a real priority for The Liberal Democrat administration that I lead in Bath and NESomerset from 2011 to 2015. During this time we took recycling rates from 40% to 80%, increased dramatically the amout of renewable energy produced in the area and developed a sustainable food policy.

In contrast the Green lead administration in Brighton over the same period inherited a recycling rate of about 30% and succeeded in taking it down to 25%.

The motion debated:-

F23 Securing a Global Treaty on Climate Change

Mover: Lord Purvis (Parliamentary Spokesperson on Energy and Climate
Change)
Summation: Neil Stockley
Conference notes that:
a) The 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is scheduled to
take place in Paris from 30 November to 11 December 2015.
b) This will be a crucial conference, as it needs to achieve a new
international agreement on the climate, applicable to all countries,
with the aim of keeping global warming within 2°C above preindustrial
levels.
Conference applauds the achievements of Liberal Democrats in
government from 2010 to 2015 in maintaining momentum towards a new
global treaty on climate change, working constructively with other EU
member states for more ambitious action on green growth and making
progress towards decarbonising the UK economy.
Conference calls on the Government to:
1. Play a leading political and diplomatic role as part of the EU
negotiating effort to secure agreement on a fair, effective and legally
binding new global climate treaty at the conference, including
commitments by all countries to reduce emissions, with the richer
countries taking the lead, supported by a well-financed Green
Climate Fund to assist poorer countries to tackle and adapt to climate
change.
2. Cooperate with other European countries to address environmental
threats and tackle climate change by securing a formal agreement
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 (from 1990
levels), as part of a global agreement, reforming the EU Emissions
Trading System and developing the EU Energy Union.
3. Continue pressing for the greater use of EU funds to support
innovative low-carbon investments.
4. Ensure that the UK meets its own targets to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions and plays a leadership role within Europe and
internationally on efforts to combat climate change.
5. Pursue additional actions outside the UN climate talks, including EU
and international initiatives to reduce hydrofluorocarbons and other
‘short-lived climate forcers’.
6. Ensure that UK and EU development aid, free trade and investment
agreements support environmental goals and sustainable investment,
including maintaining the UK’s International Climate Fund and
supporting direct bilateral programmes with developing countries on
climate change.
Conference condemns the Government for its ideologically-motivated
decision to end support for onshore wind power, which can only serve
to increase the cost of the low-carbon transition while at the same
time losing jobs and investment and harming the UK’s international
competitiveness.