Topics to Raise with your MP

Letter to your MP

We are all aware from the news items that our climate is getting rougher. Scientists tell us we can do a lot to reduce the impact. Please tell your MP you care about this and want our Government to take more action now across all Government Departments to address the Climate Emergency. You can find your MP here. Please include your name and postcode and that you are a constituent. Let’s make this happen!

A draft of a letter or email follows, with suggestions about the lack of Government action to address the climate emergency. The number of people who contact the MP to say they are concerned is very important in order to raise this up the political agenda. MPs pay more attention to the personal concerns of their constituents as opposed to campaigns run by lobby groups. Hence the format and alternative points in the following draft. Please include your own thoughts on this.

Dear ……..

The main message

I am your constituent living in postcode XXX YYY. I am extremely concerned by the lack of coordinated action across Government departments to address the Climate Emergency. There appeared to be no mention of the subject in the Prime Minister’s priorities for action in 2023, despite calls for leadership from the top, outlined in the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee 1st Report of Session 2022–23 which stated  ‘There is a need for greater leadership and coordination across Government departments and with wider society on behaviour change for climate and environmental goals.’ Chris Skidmore’s Mission Zero report calls for action in many Government departments. It concludes ‘Net zero is the growth opportunity of the 21st century. The economy and climate change are intertwined. We must act decisively to seize the opportunities in a global race. We must grab this opportunity, there is no future economy but a green economy….The Government meet the net present danger of not acting fast enough by taking forward a series of policy recommendations that can be delivered now’. The creation of the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero on 7th February will no doubt provide a focus on the Climate Emergency but what is required is that action to address the Climate Emergency be prioritised across all Government Departments.

Shorter version of letter – use statements above in bold!

Additional detail. If you would like to go into more detail, it is suggested you could choose one or two of the following topics. Click here for more detail on each of these topics requiring Government action. You will be taken to the following list of topics hot linked to more detail on each topic. The topics have been placed in what the editor of this site considers to be priority order.

I am particularly concerned about: (Chose one or two topics only!! Click on the links for more detail – e.g. click on Leadership to see more on this subject)

  • The need is for Leadership from the top and across all Government Departments to guide the public in changing their behaviours; 
  • The Treasury must to Re-think the economics of GDP driven growth at any cost, so that the protection of our environment and the wellbeing of the population receive as much attention as policies to increase GDP.
  • We lack a strategy to plan for the increasing need for electricity, whilst rapidly reducing our use of fossil fuels. We need to develop a National Energy Generation Strategy;
  • We need a statement of Priorities for the Use of Land, to include food production, sequestering carbon into the soil, re-wilding, development, wind and solar power installations and water management.
  • We must have a plan for how the UK plays its part in leading International Cooperation towards a net zero world, to overcome global lack of action and cooperation amongst nations to deliver agreements from the COP process, which started in 1992. The need for international action to force oil companies to capture and store as much CO2 pollution of the atmosphere as their products produce is of paramount importance.
  • Our International Aid Policy must address Population Migration at source. Pressure will increase to move away from areas of the world which are can no longer support their populations.
  • We need a clear National Vision for how our communities would look in a net zero world and suitable roadmaps and funding to deliver them.
  • We must establish a programme with incentives to Insulate all Existing Homes. Encouraging businesses to specialise in home insulation will create hundreds of jobs.
  • We need to review Development Policy, planning law and tax breaks, so that building social housing becomes more profitable and market value housing less so to the builders. We need to ensure that all new builds are up to the latest environmental standards.
  • We need to create a framework of Business Incentives, industrial policies and taxes so that businesses, consumers and other groups can feel the financial consequences of the carbon impact of business.
  • Government must Transform Meat and Dairy in a systemic way – maximising the societal benefits of plant-based and cultivated meat. Animal agriculture causes 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions. It is recommended that the UK cut its meat and dairy intake by one-third by 2050.

Please use all your persuasive powers to raise the need for urgent action high enough up the political agenda, across all Government departments, so that we make the progress in 2023 needed to achieve net zero by 2050. This Nation-wide project has to be driven forward by leadership from the top.

Yours Sincerely,

 

Your Name

 

Resident in Post Code XX1 2YY

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