The Liberal Democrats have today urged MPs to oppose "decisions that fly in the face of climate change commitments" and back their amendment to cancel Heathrow's third runway. Munira Wilson, the Liberal Democrats' Transport Spokesperson and MP for Twickenham, has lodged an amendment to a Labour motion calling for the cancellation of Heathrow's third runway. This move, to be debated in the House of Commons on Tuesday [05/02/2020], will give MPs the first opportunity to reject Heathrow expansion in this Parliament. It is also the first vote MPs will have on the issue since June 2018. Munira Wilson, Liberal Democrats' Transport Spokesperson, said: "Heathrow is already the UK's biggest source of carbon emissions and a third runway will increase the number of flights by 300,000 a year. We cannot continue to make decisions that fly in the face of our climate change commitments. "The utter cheek, therefore, of Tory Ministers claiming to be committed to achieving net-zero emissions whilst pressing ahead with one of the most damaging projects is beyond me. "Liberal Democrats will continue to fight against expansion of Heathrow airport and will hold the Tories to account on their poor record on tackling the climate emergency. We will therefore give Parliament an opportunity to put action to warm words and vote to reject a third runway."

13-15th March 2020

Libdem Conference, York

GLD Fringes:

A BURNING PRIORITY

STEVE YOLLAND

23rd January 2020

from GLD Challenge magazine 2019-20

Australia is known for many things. Lovely beaches, great cuisine, a laid-back attitude, world-leading arts, egalitarianism, and now ... fires. Blistering, unstoppable and unprecedented fires.

This essay will, of necessity, be impressionistic. The fires in Australia in the last six weeks or so have been so vast, so complex, and so terrifyingly new in their scale and ferocity, that all a member of the general public is left with are ... impressions. Facts are hotly disputed. News is garbled. Political agendas abound, and they skew people's reportage. People take sides, and seem incapable of getting out of their trenches once in them.

BirdGirl to become youngest Honorary Doc ever.

Mya-RoseCraig, otherwise known as Birdgirl, one of our speakers from last year`s Green Lib Dem Conference in Nottingham is to receive an Honorary Doctorate in Science from Bristol University in February. Still only 17, this will make her the youngest Honorary Doc in the UK. WELL DONE Mya-Rose!

Articles, Photos, artwork and ideas please for GLD Challenge Magazine 2019/20

challenge@greenlibdems.org.uk

Especially reviews of the general election - our successes and failures and lessons to be learned

This must be printed and posted to our members before the LibDem York Conference 13 March 2020.

Most articles will also be published on our website, so as to reach a wider audience through search engines and social media shares etc

Greening the Liberal Democrat Conference(s)

The observant amongst you will perhaps recall that, although I did not quite manage to make it onto the Federal Conference Committee in the recent elections, I was actually "Last Man Standing" in the single transferable vote as the counts progressed! Last one dropped!

Reasons to be at the GLD AGM

Calling Green Lib Dems who will be attending the Spring Conference in York…

The much-delayed Annual General Meeting of the Green Liberal Democrats will be held in York on the evening of Saturday 14^th March at 19.45 in room 5 of the Novotel Hotel.

As well as the perfectly sound reasons of electing the new Executive Committee and hearing a leading speaker (tba), normal for an annual general meeting, of course, I would like to emphasise three additional reasons for being there. These are all to do with the Campaign Strategy of GLD - and as Vice Chair (Campaigns) I feel a particular responsibility for raising these issues with you.

The World is on Fire

I feel sure you have been moved, like me, by some of the recent sights we have seen on TV and in the newspapers of Australia on fire, as it has been for months. We worried when the Amazon lost nearly a million hectares to fires starting last January. We continued to be concerned as over two and a half million hectares of Siberian Steppes were lost to ash later in the year. Now Australia is facing a loss of more than five million hectares of bushland, including many homes and many human lives already - as well as huge losses of animal life, including, perhaps whole species being lost to the flames.