Climate Change Act 2008 (International Aviation and International Shipping) Regulations 2026

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb Excerpts

Monday 29th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP)]

I am very annoyed that the Government and the Opposition keep talking about sustainable aviation fuel. That is a nonsense; it does not exist and it never will. However, I will direct most of my remarks at the regret amendment, which is ludicrous. I cannot even believe we are debating something like this. It is climate-denying nonsense. It is time that everybody understood and read up on the science. We have just had record temperatures for June and could easily be into the hottest year ever recorded. We cannot sit and talk about the economy being more important than the human ecosystem that the economy is destroying. We have to make the economy different.

Here is a better suggestion for debate. We could start naming those heat domes that sit over Europe in the way that we name hurricanes and storms. We could call them “Exxon”, “Texaco”, “BP”, or after any other highly polluting fossil fuel company that created them. We talk about the economy—what do you think will happen when we have the consequences of flooding, heatwaves and droughts? Do you seriously think that will benefit the economy? It absolutely will not. Insurance companies will be hit hard, food supplies will devastated and I will still be calling you clods.

Today, we heard a really anodyne, supercilious answer from Defra about the dangers to our food supply and food security—“No, it’s fine; it’s all sorted out. You don’t have to worry your pretty little heads about it”. That is absolute nonsense. Our food supplies are threatened. If we do not do something about it, we will be very hard hit. The Government are not warning the public about food supplies and food security; they are not moving fast enough. I spoke today to Tim Lang, a professor of food policy who wrote a report for the National Preparedness Commission that has still not been implemented. I suggest that the Government get on it very fast, as well as the Opposition so that they can attack the Government when they do not move fast enough.

I despair that, next year, climate deniers will be saying exactly what this regret amendment says and I will be standing here saying the same thing I am saying now. We will not have moved forward. We will not have made ourselves safer. We will have an economy that is slowly disintegrating because of the impacts of climate change. If we do vote on this ridiculous amendment, can we please all vote against it?