Briefing: Fracking - An attack on local democracy

Though not in the Queen's speech, the changes proposed by the Conservative Party to the planning laws surrounding the development of onshore oil and gas exploration, plus the further commitment to develop the shale gas industry (fracking) are alarming.

• The Repeal Bill will turn European Law into UK law and repeal the European Communities Act 1972. Supposedly to allow for technical editing out of references to EU institutions, it will give the Tory government sweeping powers to change British law without votes in Parliament MPs - all in the supposed name of speed.
  
  
• It is our fear that the volume of Statutory Orders will be so great that effective scrutiny will be impossible, thus potentially allowing the removal of measures to fight climate change and other environmental protection.
  
  
• The Agriculture Bill will set up a "system to support UK farmers and protect our natural environment". It is essential that the legislation does properly protect the environment. It must also protect the consumer and agricultural workers. It should encourage (relative) localism.
  
  
• The Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill will try to boost Britain's electric cars - already 100,000 of them - by paving the way for compulsory charge points at motorway services. It will also set up a common set of standards to ensure charging points are consistent across the country.
  Brexit will not close down ferries or the Chanel Tunnel. Electricity charging points need to be to European standards. While hydrogen vehicles are not yet as common as battery-electric vehicles, the bill should commit to a European standard for hydrogen vehicle connectors.
  
  
• The Nuclear Safeguards Bill will hand over responsibility for nuclear safety to an expanded Office for Nuclear Regulation. It will also support international efforts not to expand nuke stockpiles
  Our UK standards will have to remain high to protect the operation of nuclear facilities. This doctrinaire move will be much more expensive remaining in Euratom.
  
  
• The Smart Meter Bill will commit to offer smart energy meters to every home and firm by 2020.
  However, the Smart Metering scheme has been a farce, with unnecessarily complex infrastructure and a lack of proper standards. Government should explore existing market solutions rather than continue to pour consumers money into a failing infrastructure development.Smart Meters must conform to stable and well-scoped standards which will allow them to send control signals to all electrical appliances designed for world-wide distribution. This may require new British Standards to support the UK unique energy supplier driven system.
  
  
• A promise on the Paris Agreement.
  The Queen said "My government will continue to support international action against climate change, including the implementation of the Paris Agreement."
  
  
• With so many climate change deniers in the Conservatives and the DUP, it will take the combined efforts of those Tories who are environmentally responsible and members of the opposition parties to ensure that our part of that international action remains on track.
  As Green Lib Dems, we will continue to do our part to hold this government to their word.

With Donald Trump backing out of the Paris Agreement and Michael Gove being appointed as the Environment Secretary, it seems that the environment is low on the political agenda and is falling further. Climate change certainly wasn't the hot topic during the snap General Election and Gove is unlikely to push it further up the agenda.

Introducing the new Liberal Democrat team of 12 MPs, representing constituencies from Orkney to Eastbourne.

Thank you for each and every vote for the Liberal Democrats nationally, and to everyone who has helped the Liberal Democrat campaign in any way in these seats and across the country.

• Tom Brake, Carshalton
• Vince Cable, Twickenham
• Alistair Carmichael, Orkney and Shetland
• Edward Davey, Kingston and Surbiton
• Tim Farron, Westmorland and Lonsdale
• Wera Hobhouse, Bath
• Christine Jardine, Edinburgh West
• Norman Lamb, North Norfolk
• Stephen Lloyd, Eastbourne
• Layla Moran, Oxford West and Abingdon
• Jamie Stone, Caithness
• Jo Swinson, Dunbartonshire East

As the general election fast approaches candidates in RCT and elsewhere are getting lots of emails form people concerned about the environment and wanting to know what our policies are. As Liberal Democrats we believe that the environment must be at the top of the agenda, locally, nationally and globally. Climate change threatens our everyday lives and Liberal Democrats are determined that the UK should lead the fight against climate change on the international arena. We certainly cannot depend on Trump and his cronies to do anything.

Former Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Climate Change Ed Davey, one of the main movers behind the Paris Agreement, has responded to Theresa May's refusal to join our European partners in protesting against the Trump announcement.

Ed Davey said:

"We've already heard a very strong statement from the Germans, the French and the Italians.

He stressed it is still possible to stop a self-destructive Brexit that would damage Britain's economy and security, and that the country needs Liberal Democrat MPs who will fight to stay in the single market and give people the chance to vote on the final deal.

He said in the speech:

On May and Corbyn colluding over Brexit

18 months ago it seemed that there was a concensus on taking climate change seriously. Climate Change and pollution are not just an environmental issue but an economic and security issue too. But Brexit and Donald Trump's isolationism and populism in the US might well halt that progress.

In Coalition the Liberal Democrats oversaw the trebling of renewable energy production, we established the world's first Green Investment Bank, we invested in green technologies and home improvements.

Forty-Five Years Since Stockholm, Twenty-Five Years Since the Earth Summit and Five Years Since Rio+20

In an article for the Interpress News Service Felix Dodds reviews where we are and the state of the discourse on sustainable development.

"In the same way that banks succeeded at privatizing the profits and socializing the losses as they led the global economy to the brink of collapse, my worry going forward is this: are we allowing the same to happen to the environment? Humanity has taken a huge leap over recent decades that has made us more interconnected than ever before - we need to behave as a global civilization as to not face catastrophic consequences.

Mark Pack writes today :

"An updated version of my 'what the Lib Dems believe' digital graphic is now out, and designed for much better compatibility with mobile devices

- http://www.markpack.org.uk/libdem-beliefs/

The Liberal Democrats have launched their manifesto for a brighter future.

Change Britain's Future is a plan for a fairer Britain where people are decent to each other, with good schools and hospitals, a clean environment and an innovative economy.

Nothing is more important to our children's future than Brexit. A bad Brexit deal, with Britain outside the single market, will wreck the future for our children, our economy and our schools and hospitals. That's why at the heart of the manifesto is a commitment to give the people the final say on the Brexit deal in a referendum.

The Conservative Government predict a steady decline in NO2 levels sufficient to render the Greater Manchester AQMA obsolete by the year 2020, due to the NO2 levels falling everywhere below the UK/EU legal limit of an annual average threshold value of 40 micrograms per cubic metre (40 μg m-3).

The Government prediction was largely based on the replacement of the more polluting diesel and petrol engines by the Euro-6 engines for all new cars, buses and trucks. The national fall in NO2 levels is indeed happening, albeit slower-than-expected due to the 'Dieselgate' scandal and unbridled optimism.