UNLIKE THIS BAND OF FANATICS, WE DO HAVE A PLAN
IT’S hard to think of a protest movement more misguided than Just Stop Oil. This week, they have been busy inflicting misery on thousands of motorists, climbing gantries above the M25, resulting in gridlock on stretches of London’s orbital motorway.
Deliveries of HGV loads, many essential, were delayed, health and care workers were prevented from reaching hospitals and nursing homes, and children were late for school. While, of course, thousands of gallons of fuel were burned off needlessly in tailbacks. What a mad way to save the environment.
Climate activists have targeted the Department for Business, too. Our maintenance team has been forced to waste time and taxpayers’ money cleaning orange paint off the building. Not as culturally offensive as throwing soup over a Van Gogh or a Da Vinci, perhaps, but equally moronic.
Just Stop Oil is not a mass movement. It is a small band of fanatics who believe democracy is for the other guy.
They know best – even if ‘ best’ is the insane idea that you can simply ditch fossil fuel-powered energy generation overnight in a country of 67million people, without any plan or explanation on how the elderly are supposed to keep warm in winter. Theirs is the mindset of the zealot, unencumbered by stark reality.
Do these self-appointed guardians of the planet think we in Government don’t get it about climate change?
Of course we do. Global warming is the primary threat to our long-term national security and it must be tackled.
This country is leading the way on greening energy and transport, and the UK remains committed to net zero by 2050.
But we are an economy in transition, still reliant on gas for much of our energy generation and oil to feed petrol and diesel engines. Yes, we need to change this, switching to sustainable, carbon-free sources such as offshore wind and nuclear. The thing is, it takes time.
NO amount of protest by so- called eco-warriors is going to hasten the building of more windfarms and electric vehicles. You need business to do that, backed by government investment – and it’s happening.
Just Stop Oil have no plausible alternative to using gas and oil in the near future, and know it takes time to develop renewables. But this is an inconvenient truth they resolutely refuse to hear.
This Government will have no truck with this destructive extremism. That’s why last year, as Transport Secretary, I sought and won wide-ranging injunctions empowering police to stop Insulate Britain protestors gluing themselves to the tarmac on motorways and A-roads.
Some of those who violated them ended up in prison for Christmas – and rightly so.
These destructive antics distract from the real progress being made. I’ve been telling my global ministerial colleagues at Cop27 in Egypt this week that Britain’s renewables sector is thriving. Far from being a drag on our economy, going green opens vistas of opportunity. We can sell our technology and expertise around the world in the fight against climate change.
As Business Secretary, I am heartened to see so many British businesses sign up to the Race to Zero initiative. Thousands of small firms, as well as nearly two thirds of FTSE 100 companies, have already pledged to reach net zero.
This is how real change happens – not by grandstanding on a gantry or fixing yourself to the road with superglue. Just Stop Oil is behind the curve. This country is already alive to the dangers of global warming and is acting, providing leadership in the battle to minimise it. My advice to these misguided people is Just Stop.