Special Interest Groups

Your invitation…

Dear GLD member,

You may previously have seen some mention of our idea to create some Special Interest Groups, to talk about policy and provide campaigning materials on related topics. If you have not seen anything about it - this is the LAUNCH!

We have been talking about it for too long, now is the time to put the talk into practice and get on with it!

Lessons from Covid-19 from theecologist.org

Learn from Covid-19 pandemic to prevent environmental catastrophe, scientists argue.

Professor Dame Georgina Mace from University College London said: "In the Covid-19 crisis we've seen young and working age people sacrificing education, income and social connection primarily for the benefit of older and more vulnerable people.

A campaign to make the Ox-Cam Arc the UKs first DC-enabled Zone

Breaking News: GLD Exec Members, Cllr Pippa Heylings and Cllr Geoff Harvey recently launched a campaign to make the huge Ox-Cam Arc national infrastructure project an exemplar for clean energy infrastructure based on smartgrid DC power transmission. Working closely with South Cambridgeshire District Council Leader, Cllr Bridget Smith, who also heads up the Ox-Cam Arc Environment Pillar of policy development, Geoff and Pippa have notched-up a first success: At the Arc Conference and Prospectus Launch, on 17^th Nov, to an audience of close to 500 delgates, Cllr Bridget Smith included the following aim in her speech:

On Twitter Sarah Olney MP, the LibDem Environment spokesman says:

10 reasons why the #10pointplan isn't as good as it seems.

• 1.Two-thirds of the money in Boris' Climate Plan has already been pledged. Of the £12bn "announced" today, only £4bn is actually new.
• 2. The plan continues to invest in nuclear power - this is a huge waste of time and an even bigger waste of money that we could be investing in renewable energy. The unit cost of nuclear is now far higher than the unit cost of renewables, making nuclear a poor investment.
• 3.The £12 billion (sorry, £4 billion) pales in comparison with the investment we have seen in other countries, such as €42 billion in Germany and €35 billion in France. This sum is nowhere near what we need to spend.
• 4. Boris has repeatedly claimed this plan is part of a highly ambitious COP26 strategy as the hosts of next year's UN climate talks. However, this plan gets the UK nowhere near the emissions reductions needed to be consistent with Paris Agreement or 1.5C warming.
• 5. The PM mentions only one nature-based solution in his entire plan - planting trees. Clearly the Government doesn't care enough about the biodiversity crisis to invest in the UK's peatlands, wetlands or native woodlands.
• 6. Despite promising to end petrol and diesel car sales by 2030, this plan will allow hybrids to continue to be sold - keeping fossil fuel cars on the road for at least five more years.
• 7. This plan makes absolutely no changes to how the climate crisis is handled by the Government. There is still no Department of Climate Change to deliver the net zero commitment and no new powers for local authorities who have an important role to play.
• 8. This plan has completely ignored the need for net zero newbuild homes yet again, as does the Planning White Paper. Since the Conservatives scrapped the net zero homes legislation in 2016, another one million homes have been built which will need to be upgraded.
• 9. The Conservatives scrapped previous Liberal Democrat work on Carbon Capture and Storage only to come full circle back to it now. They have wasted the last five years which they could have spent investing in and developing the technology.
• 10. Extending the Green Homes Grant for another year, doesn't give the construction industry the investment it needs to recruit and train the skills needed to deliver home upgrades on the scale needed. A much longer-term commitment is needed to provide green jobs.

The Woodland Trust have announced a Free Trees for Schools & Communities project.

Community groups such as the Borough's Friends of Parks and Park Champion groups can apply for a 'free trees pack' to be delivered in March 2021, to be planted on publicly accessible land.

Defend local planning and ensure your community's voice is heard

An open letter hosted by CPRE, the countryside charity, and Friends of the Earth to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government has already been signed by over 1500 elected representatives.

The open letter is about the government's proposed changes to the planning system, as announced in August 2020 in the White Paper - Planning for the Future.

Today the Government announced their Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution.

Sadly, it fails to undo the damage the Conservatives have done to the UK's progress on climate change over the past five years.

We need a long term plan backed by meaningful funding.

Their plan not only pledges to continue selling fossil fuel powered hybrid cars past 2030 but it also extends the Green Homes Grant by just one year.

Introduction

I recently spoke in favour of carbon taxes at two GLD events: a session at the GLD conference in the Summer, and a fringe meeting during the main party conference. Both times, the meeting agenda was somewhat changed at the last minute, taking the focus away from the advantages of Carbon tax and onto other people's concerns.

"Stay European" Conference examines the environment...

Green Liberal Democrats have been asked by the campaigning group "Stay European"* to organise a fringe session for their conference on Saturday 21^st November. Rather than keeping the session to themselves "Stay European" have kindly opened the session to others who may be interested. You can register for the conference here >> https://www.stayeuropean.org/conference/ and a Zoom link will be sent to you for the meeting.

The Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE) Bill is a Private Members' Bill, and taking it through parliament will be a hard-fought process but it has been done before with major climate legislation. This is an alliance bill that has been written by scientists, lawyers and activists; it is gathering support from a broad range of campaign groups, businesses, charities and individuals. The bill has the potential to become the most significant move forward since the Climate Change Act 2008.