After Greta Thunberg, a Swedish school girl and climate change
activist, visited Parliament last month and in response to
environmental protests on the streets of London, the Lib Dems
have coordinated a cross-party letter to the Government to demand
an end to shale gas exploration.
Carshalton and Wallington MP said:
“A ban is Liberal Democrat policy and I am pleased that we have
reached cross-party consensus. Climate change is happening too
quickly to simply reduce carbon emissions. Instead, we must fully
commit to zero-carbon energy.
“For the sake of present and future generations, we cannot allow
yet more burning of fossil fuels which contribute to the biggest
environmental crisis the world has ever seen. It is time
the Government took responsibility for safeguarding the
environment seriously and stopped fracking.”
ENDS
Notes:
Full text of the letter
Rt Hon MP
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
Dear Prime Minister,
Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish campaigner, came to Parliament
last Tuesday to speak to parliamentarians and to remind us all
that climate change is an emergency and climate action the most
important call for all political decision makers. We must not
just reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, we must completely stop
them. The IPCC stated that there is only 12 years for global
warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C.
It is therefore incomprehensible that the Government continues to
support the exploration of shale gas in the UK. Fracked fuel is a
fossil fuel and the development of a new fossil fuel industry of
any kind is unacceptable. That fracked fuel is acceptable as a
transition fuel because it is a little less damaging than coal
and oil is a false argument. The CCC have set 3 tests for
Shale Gas Extraction to be compatible with the UK’s carbon
budgets, budgets which are now too weak to meet the 1.5C warming,
however these 3 tests cannot be met so an immediate moratorium on
all Shale Gas must be implemented. The climate emergency calls on
us to concentrate entirely on carbon zero energy.
We call on you to stop immediately any further support for the
exploration of shale gas.
Sincerely,
MP
MP
MP
MP
MP
MP
MP
MP
MP
MP
MP
MP
Rachel Maskell MP
MP
