Dear constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about a green new deal and the Decarbonisation and Economic Strategy Bill.

I agree that we need urgent action to avoid climate catastrophe. In recent weeks and months, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has provided the starkest warning to humanity so far, with scientists setting out a clear picture of the disaster that lies ahead if we continue with business as usual. At the same time, it makes clear that there is still time to act, if we do so urgently.

I therefore share your concern that the Government is not meeting this situation with the speed and scale of action it demands. While it published its net zero strategy in October last year, I am afraid that it continues to fail to invest in the green transition at the scale needed.

I believe we need a transformative green new deal that delivers an ambitious agenda of climate and economic justice. It is for this reason that I support plans for a climate investment pledge of an additional £28 billion of capital investment in our country’s green transition for every year of this decade. We should, for example, make it a national mission to upgrade the energy efficiency of every home that needs it, lowering bills, increasing our energy security, cutting emissions and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. We should greatly increase our onshore and offshore wind, solar and other renewable power capacity. And 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.

Tinkering around the edges will not be enough to meet the defining challenges of our time. I therefore support many of the aims of the Decarbonisation and Economic Strategy Bill. So while the current Bill will not receive a debate or a vote in Parliament before it falls at the close of the current parliamentary session, I can nevertheless assure you that I will continue to support calls for a green new deal and efforts to press the Government to deliver the scale of response we need to address the climate crisis.

Thank you once again for contacting me about this issue.

Peter Dowd MP