‘Time to wrest back control from the fossil fuel industry’

IN 2019, Prime Minister Theresa May said there was a ‘moral duty to leave this world in a better condition than what we inherited.’

Rightly said and we would surely expect everybody in the UK to be acting in a moral fashion. Unfortunately they do not.

I am of course delighted that electric power generation is becoming decarbonised, although I would like to inform Councillor

Porter (Post & Times, February 3) that this has nothing to do with current Government policy and much more to do with the policy made many years ago.

I am also pleased this Government has made a commitment to the UK’S Nationally Determined Contribution to the Paris Agreement.

However, without any policy that will achieve the contribution they have promised to make, commitment is meaningless. In practice, their stated policy is to leave difficult decisions to future generations, i.e. our children and grandchildren, rather than take decisive action now.

The UK Climate Change Committee, which was set up by the Climate Change Act in 2008 to advise the Government, has made it clear in numerous reports that the UK is NOT on target to meet its obligations under the Act for the years 2023-2032.

This became inevitable when the Government withdrew the feed-intariff for solar panels, making them uneconomic on domestic roofs and increasing the rates on commercial buildings.

In addition, they delayed the implementation of national building codes for good insulation, partly because they were unwilling to properly fund the building construction industry for the necessary training.

SMDC planning policy, as recently confirmed by the local plan, is to prevent community-wide initiatives such as solar farms and wind turbines.

Onshore wind is the cheapest option for fossil-free energy but the fossil fuel industry has lobbied against it for years.

It’s now time for local communities to wrest back control of their own energy needs from the fossil fuel industry.

The technology is well established to build better homes, construct community wind and solar farms and use the many energy storage solutions now available to get to Net Zero Carbon but we need ALL levels of government to be committed to action, as well as all citizens.

Moorlands Climate Action is keen to help, on a voluntary basis, any organisation, business or community group that aims to become carbon neutral

Nigel Williams. Chair of MCA