Climate Action - Fleur Anderson MP

The Labour Party and myself are concerned about the climate, environmental and energy crises. We will continue to press the Government to take urgent action to tackle these interlinking crises.

To address the Climate Crisis, Labour and Keir Starmer have committed to a Green Prosperity Plan involving an additional £28 billion of capital investment in our country’s green transition for every year of this decade. As part of this plan, Labour have committed to a achieving the substantial majority of our emissions reductions by 2030, making climate justice a priority, and taking action to accelerate the benefits of nature restoration and recovery. The policy would, for example, make it a national mission to upgrade the energy efficiency of every home that needs it, lowering bills, cutting emissions and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. We should also invest up to £3 billion in greening our steel industry, alongside investment in factories to build batteries for electric vehicles, a thriving hydrogen industry and manufacturing of offshore wind turbines here in the UK.

An integral element of the Green Prosperity Plan is Labour’s commitment to make the UK a world-leading clean energy superpower by 2030.

Labour will deliver a zero-carbon electricity system by 2030, an ambitious but achievable target that would make the UK the world’s first major economy to do so.

This landmark plan would slash energy bills for good, create hundreds of thousands of good jobs, and make the UK energy secure, while providing global leadership in tackling the climate crisis.

Labour’s plan will:

Cut energy bills for good, saving UK households £93 billion over the rest of this decade;
Make the UK energy independent, freeing the UK from exposure to the fluctuations of the global gas market, which has been too-easily manipulated by Vladimir Putin and petrostates;
Reindustrialise the UK, supporting the creation of over 200,000 direct jobs and up to 260,000-300,000 indirect jobs over the decade;
Tackle the climate crisis to leave a better world for our children by making the UK the first major economy to have a zero-emission power system.

Labour will build an energy system powered entirely by cheap, home-grown renewables and nuclear by the end of this decade. Working with businesses, we will invest to quadruple offshore wind, triple solar, and double onshore wind by the end of this decade, while backing nuclear, hydrogen, and tidal power.

From a world-leading offshore wind industry in Scotland and the East Coast, hydrogen in the North-West and Teesside, nuclear power in the South-East, and solar power in the South and Midlands, this truly national enterprise will unleash Britain’s potential with thousands of good, well-paid jobs across our country.

This world-leading commitment will give the UK energy independence and security, tackle the climate crisis to leave a better world for our children, and cut thousands of pounds off energy bills for good.

This is a pro-worker, pro-business agenda that will deliver economic growth for every region of the United Kingdom, winning the global race for industries that will power our future.

Tinkering around the edges will not be enough to meet the defining challenges of our time. The next Labour Government will deliver a Green Prosperity Plan to transform our economy, tackle the climate emergency, and create good, unionised jobs in every region of the country.

My Actions to Address the Climate Crisis:

On a personal note, taking action on the Climate Emergency was one of the reasons I became an MP and one of the first things I did was to set up the Putney Environment Commission. This is a group of local people wanting to take action locally, nationally and internationally. We have had several meetings and ran the Clean Air Fair last September. Please email me if you would like to link to join the Environment Commission WhatsApp Group.

We recently had a meeting on the attack on nature with speakers from the Green Alliance and RSPB, please also see a link to a video of this meeting below:

I have recently led a national campaign to ban plastics in wet wipes, involving a parliamentary bill and widespread coverage in the national press. Addressing this issue is crucial because whether wet wipes are flushed or binned, the plastic in them enters the environment and causes huge levels of environmental damage. More information can be found about my campaign here: https://www.fleuranderson.co.uk/ban-plastic-in-wet-wipes/

I have recently re-launched my Parliamentary Bill to ban plastics in wet wipes. Please see a twitter thread below which outlines a few recent exciting developments and actions in this campaign: https://twitter.com/PutneyFleur/status/1582749634824241152?s=20&t=s7w4WeCAgyhyRgYplCyKG

I recently handed 25,000 climate messages from the UK public to 10 Downing Street to urge the Government to act at COP27 to ensure everyone has clean water they can rely on to protect themselves against the impacts of extreme weather, wherever they live. Please see details of this in the link below:https://www.wateraid.org/uk/media/wateraid-and-celebrities-call-on-the-government-to-prioritise-clean-water-for-people-living

I also served on the Bill Committee for the Environment Bill last year, at which I pushed the Government to adopt more robust protections for the environment. The Environment Bill has been the Government’s flagship Environment Bill – they won’t pass another – but was a huge missed opportunity to take real action. I was on the Bill Committee of 17 MPs to and proposed nearly 200 amendments. All of these were defeated by the Conservative members. This demonstrates the Governments complete lack of urgency and seriousness in its approach to the climate crisis. I spoke on this Bill 15 times, you can see my speeches online on many different aspects of the Bill which should have been stronger or which are just missing. Here was my last speech on the Environment Bill:

https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2021-11-08/debates/40159A3F-2511-43B9-A7A1-F11748671DF7/EnvironmentBill#contribution-349216D3-CD4E-4802-B56E-C2331184F78A

I have also been leading the campaign to reform and bring back the Green Homes Grant. Please see a letter I previously wrote to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy regarding this campaign below:

https://www.fleuranderson.co.uk/2021/09/24/letter-green-homes-grant/

I am a proud campaigner against the Heathrow expansion because in our constituency, we feel a direct impact of the Governments lack of climate action. We live under a major global flight path, so we know what it is like to have thousands of tonnes of carbon particulates dumped on us every day from above, and to have to suffer the noise from the aircraft. I recently asked an oral question regarding Heathrow night flights to the Secretary of State for transport. Please see a link to the letter below:

https://www.fleuranderson.co.uk/2022/10/13/letter-night-flights-at-heathrow/

Recently in Parliament I spoke against fracking and against the attack on nature. I have also followed these interventions up with ministerial letters.

The newly elected Labour Council in Wandsworth have placed the environment as a top priority and have already taken action to address the climate emergency and protect our environment locally, I am working with them closely on these issues. The Labour Council have laid out an ambitious set of plans to tackle climate change and achieve its target to become carbon neutral by 2030. Please see a link below which provides details of this:

https://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/news/july-2022/councillors-back-ambitious-new-plans-to-achieve-climate-change-targets/

Please see a below a recent Op-Ed I wrote for Huffington Post on the desperate need for an effective national resilience strategy in this new age of crises (climate, environmental, energy, and many more):

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/britain-burns-government-asleep_uk_62d4ef63e4b0e6fc1a989190

I have also written a letter to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy urging him to stop all new oil, coal and gas expansion in the UK: https://www.fleuranderson.co.uk/2022/12/23/letter-stop-new-uk-oil-fields/

Please also see below some links to some recent Parliamentary Questions I have asked regarding the environment and the climate crisis: