Energy Bill: What MPs need to do
It’s time Parliament started taking our Green Economy seriously
SCC members queue outside the treasury for a 'Green is Working' stunt (c) Alex Green/ SCC
Our Government has an opportunity right now to clean up the UK’s energy supply for decades to come: There’s an Energy Bill being debated in Parliament, but it's lacking a crucial target.
We need MPs to support amendments to the Energy Bill to include a target to take the carbon out of our energy supply by 2030 (a ‘decarbonisation’ target)
Keeping the pressure up for a carbon free energy target
To meet the targets in our Climate Act we need the UK’s energy sector to be almost carbon free by 2030. The best way to do this, and support our growing green economy, is to include in the Energy Bill a target to ‘decarbonise’ the energy sector by 2030, as recommended by the Committee on Climate Change.
In Autumn 2012, we campaigned for this target to be included in the Energy Bill, which would give business the certainty it needs to invest in the UK's green economy. Untimately the Government announced that a decision on this target would be put off until 2016 – after the next General Election.
But the fight is not over! Conservative MP Tim Yeo has teamed up with other MPs to table a number of cross party amendments that would ensure the Energy Bill includes a decarbonisation target.
What happens next?
MPs will be asked to vote on Tim Yeo's amendments at at the next stage of the Bill: Report Stage on 3rd June. Labour MPs are expected to support this amendment, but to be successful it needs Liberal Democrat and Conservative backbench MPs to support it - and rebel against the Government.
This is a big challenge! So people around the country are meeting, writing to, and organising events with their MPs to persuade them to support this crucial decarbonisation target, and take the opportunity to clean up our energy sector.
Get involved!
2. Add to the pressure by meeting your MP or getting active in your constituency.
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Campaigning to include Aviation and Shipping in the Climate Act.
You may remember in the Autumn we were also campaigning for the government to include Aviation and Shipping emissions in the Climate Act. See an update on this campaign.
