Thank you to everyone who contacted me about yesterday’s opposition day debate calling on the Government to declare a climate emergency.

It is absolutely vital that Parliament begins by recognising the magnitude of the crisis we face and I am delighted that Labour’s important motion passed without dissent. However, it is now time to follow this declaration with the actions required to match the urgency of the climate crisis the planet is facing.

We are currently not doing nearly enough as a country to tackle climate change and that needs to change. I would like to see the Government match Labour’s commitment to a green industrial revolution; recognising that tackling global warming will require transformative changes to our society and our economy. I raised this recently in Parliament, following Lewisham Council’s declaration of a climate emergency: https://twitter.com/vickyfoxcroft/status/1108050294338961410

Rebecca Long Bailey MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, summarised Labour’s position in her closing remarks to the debate. It is working people who will have the most to gain from a green industrial revolution – and it is the poorest around the world who will suffer most from a climate catastrophe. A Labour government would tackle climate change while transforming our economy, creating hundreds of thousands of good, green jobs in renewable energy and sustainable industries to meet our aim of reaching net zero carbon emissions before 2050. You can read the full transcript from the debate here: http://bit.ly/2GOzuoJ

As you may be aware, Parliament recently welcomed Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who kick-started the school strike for climate change movement. My frontbench colleagues praised the recent action taken by Extinction Rebellion and the school climate strikers to ensure that climate change sits at the top of the political agenda.

I remain frustrated by the Government’s inaction on climate change and I am glad that Labour’s manifesto at the last election included strong commitments around renewable energy. I will continue to support our shadow frontbench in pushing the Government take climate change seriously. I appreciate that much more must be done to meet the Paris agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, which ought to be seen as the bare minimum at this stage.