I believe the Government’s plan to double down on fossil fuels with new exploration in the North Sea is the wrong answer to the fossil fuel crisis we face. New exploration there will have no effect on energy bills and would take a long time to come on stream – with an average of 28 years from exploration to production. Furthermore, it would not create good jobs and, as hundreds of leading UK scientists warned the Prime Minister in March, would be completely wrong for the climate.

The UN has warned that countries are on course to produce more than double the amount of fossil fuels by 2030 than would be consistent with limiting average global temperature increases to 1.5°C. The International Energy Agency, meanwhile, has made clear that the pathway the world needs to take to get to a net zero energy system by 2050 involves no new oil and gas fields being approved for development beyond projects already committed to as of 2021. So, while we need a phased and just transition that ensures we protect the interests of oil and gas workers in the North Sea, that does not mean carrying on with a business-as-usual approach or pretending that the climate emergency does not exist.

The quickest, cheapest and best answer for our national energy security is a green energy sprint. New renewables are nine times cheaper than gas. They would not only help fight the climate crisis, but also increase our energy security and sovereignty, bring down bills and create jobs. It is for this reason I support calls to make our electricity system fossil fuel free by 2030, including by quadrupling offshore wind, doubling onshore wind and more than tripling solar. We should also make energy efficiency a national mission, insulating 19 million homes across the UK.

Last year, the Climate Change Committee set out that the Government was failing in its implementation of climate policies and that its strategy would not deliver net zero emissions. Indeed, the High Court ruled that the net zero strategy was in breach of the Climate Change Act. Yet, when the Government delivered another energy relaunch on 30 March this year, its update was most notable for what it left out: there was no removal of the ban on onshore wind, no new money to insulate homes, no net zero mandate for the energy regulator and no proper response to the US Inflation Reduction Act that is accelerating investment in the green industries of the future in the rest of the world. Furthermore, the Government continues to double down on fossil fuels, with new exploration in the North Sea.

Continuing with this approach, in my view, risks continuing with higher energy bills, energy insecurity, lost jobs and climate delay. I therefore believe we need urgent action to put climate at the heart of the agenda for a fairer, greener future. I support calls for a green prosperity plan to ramp up investment to reach £28 billion per year for tackling climate change, growing the green economy and creating good, green secure local jobs across the country. This would include delivering zero-carbon power by 2030, insulating 19 million homes and establishing a national wealth fund to invest in green industries like hydrogen, giga-factories, green steel and renewable energy manufacturing.

The government needs to take seriously this responsibility, and importantly, provide local authorities with the funding necessary to make these changes. I can assure you that I will continue to push for bold action to tackle the climate and ecological emergency.