Nature and Climate Declaration

Robin Walker Excerpts

Wednesday 9th November 2022 Westminster Hall

[Mr Robin Walker (Worcester) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for St Ives (Derek Thomas) on securing this debate. Like him, I have been urged by constituents to show my support for this declaration. Like him, I welcome the strong support from church groups.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I was at Worcester cathedral, meeting the cathedral’s eco-group. It was holding a fantastic green fair at which it showcased ideas for sustainable living, green skills and education, and better ways of dealing with food and energy waste. The declaration mentions, as did my hon. Friend, the importance of education and training. During my all too brief period as Schools Minister, I was proud to put the COP26 Education Ministers meeting on the agenda of the international forum for the teaching profession, thereby ensuring our attendance. I was proud to introduce the natural history GCSE, which had cross-party support in this House. I was strongly urged to do so by pupils in Nunnery Wood High School and Stanley Road Primary School in my constituency. I contributed to the Department for Education’s sustainability and climate change strategy, and it was great to stand alongside my right hon. Friend the Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Nadhim Zahawi) and Bear Grylls at the Natural History Museum for its launch. I took the opportunity to visit schools that were providing strong environmental education, such as North Worcester Primary Academy in my constituency. It is part of The Rivers CofE Multi Academy Trust, which has rewritten its entire curriculum around the sustainable development goals. That is well worth looking at and learning from.

Today we have had the Prime Minister’s statement on COP27, showing that the UK continues to lead actively in this space. I was pleased to hear him say that there is no solution to climate change without protecting and nurturing nature. That has got to be right, and we understand that in the declaration. It is vital that we protect the natural environment, meaning not only the global natural environment—some of the work that the UK has done to protect our oceans is world-leading—but our domestic natural environment, through campaigning against litter in all our constituencies, campaigning to support biodiversity, and ensuring that the UK reaches the highest environment standards.

I was pleased when the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Taunton Deane (Rebecca Pow), announced that the Office for Environmental Protection would be headquartered in my Worcester constituency. In fact, it will be located very close to the Worcester woods, a fantastic area that preserves the natural environment. Although at the time Labour Front Benchers decried the decision to locate this institution in Worcester, I hope that by now they have changed their mind and realise, like Dame Glenys Stacey and me, that Worcester is an excellent location.

We are a city that has its fair share of flood risk, so we are very aware of the impact of climate change on flooding, and of the importance of nature and the natural environment in avoiding flooding. Trees do important work, particularly when planted in the upland areas that affect flooding on the River Severn, as does high-quality soil. On a visit with the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust, I remember discussing the importance of soil porosity, which is supported by healthy, live soil, to avoiding flooding. I urge the Government, as I did at DEFRA questions a couple of weeks ago, to continue to engage with the Wildlife Trusts on the future of environmental land management schemes, and to support biodiversity through a strong British agriculture policy, which should play to some of the unique assets of our country, such as its hedgerows and ancient native woodlands.

I am proud of the work being undertaken in my constituency by the so-called WEG—the Worcester Environmental Group—which works with Worcester City Council and our county to support more biodiverse verges and roundabouts, and to create a fantastic new nature trail, which is linking Worcester’s primary schools with a circuit of green lanes, taking in some of the city’s oases of green space and areas for outdoor activity.

I praise all those in my urban constituency who help to create space for nature and think about how to support biodiversity. I was pleased to hear the Prime Minister talk at today’s PMQs about the opportunities provided by offshore floating wind. Alongside wider investment in renewables, nuclear—which is a low-carbon technology—and hydrogen technology, that can play an important part in our journey to achieve net zero.

I agree with the hon. Member for Wirral West (Margaret Greenwood) that we need to do more on insulation. That was one reason why I supported my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Rishi Sunak) in both of the last two leadership campaigns—because he spoke about the importance of insulation during those debates. I hope that the Government he leads will come forward with more measures on that front.

Finally, as we rightly pursue the green technologies of the future, we need to be careful that we do so in a clear-headed way, which will allow our constituents to afford their energy bills and heat their homes effectively. I am concerned by the Government’s policy to encourage the complete electrification of heating, given that many of our constituents live in homes that are not yet energy efficient enough to be effectively heated by electric heating and heat pumps. I declare a constituency interest in representing one of the largest boiler manufacturers in the country, but I hope that the Government will explore carefully the opportunities for zero-carbon technologies to heat with gas, including the potential use of hydrogen. That could be an important part of the mix if we want both to keep our constituents’ homes warm and to move towards net zero.

--- Later in debate ---

[Patrick Grady]

Yes, indeed, and a lot of local authorities are doing what they can. The city authority in Glasgow, having hosted COP, is determined to be a leader in reaching net zero and for Glasgow to become a net zero city. Many local authorities and devolved institutions have been way ahead of the Government in recognising and declaring a climate emergency. To date, we have not had a Minister accept at the Dispatch Box that the planet is facing climate emergency, and adopt that language. If the Minister were prepared to do that, that would be a helpful step forward.

[Mr Robin Walker]

A moment ago, the hon. Gentleman asked whether Conservative Members could come up with ways in which the private sector and the market can help, and I think that was a fair challenge. One of the positive legacies from Glasgow, which was mentioned in the Prime Minister’s statement earlier today, was the international climate finance pledges, and private sector organisations have got involved in that. Does he agree that that is a better approach to engendering international progress on this issue and supporting developing countries than the suggestion from the right hon. Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband) that we should be paying reparations to countries around the world for climate damage?

[Patrick Grady]

I think it is important that we address loss and damage. It is a question of climate justice, and this is a concept that the Scottish Government have embraced for many years. The reality is that those of us in the developed part of the world—western, liberal economies—have benefited from an industrialisation process that has led to the anthropogenic climate change we are experiencing. The effects of that climate change are being felt first and hardest in developing parts of the world that have done the least to cause climate change. Whether people use the language of reparation, loss and damage or mitigation and adaptation, the reality is that it will have to be paid for.

Climate change is a reality that people have to adapt to. As we said in last week’s debate, there are already significant population flows. The population flows that are coming to these islands are as nothing compared to what is happening with internal displacement of people in Africa and Asia. There are small island states that are simply not going to exist any more, but the people who live on them have to go and live somewhere, and that has to be paid for.

It is not necessarily helpful to get tied up in the language around how the finance is leveraged. There is absolutely a role for the private sector and private funding. I was very interested to attend, at last year’s COP, events organised by the Global Ethical Finance Initiative, which spoke about how the private sector can ethically, effectively and sustainably leverage funding that helps businesses grow and develop but that also tackles precisely these challenges.