State of Climate and Nature Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Sarah Coombes
Main Page: Sarah Coombes (Labour - West Bromwich)Department Debates - View all Sarah Coombes's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(4 weeks, 2 days ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mary Creagh
I will be travelling to Fylingdales this week to make an announcement about what we are doing to help those brave farmers who are on the frontline of that wildfire.
Sarah Coombes (West Bromwich) (Lab)
Over the past few weeks, the Black Country turned red hot in this intense heatwave, which is most impacting vulnerable people, particularly elderly people. Because of the urban heat island effect, urban areas like mine, West Bromwich, are often much hotter than rural areas, so will the Minister set out what the Government are doing to protect urban areas, and to green them, to protect us from extreme heat in future, in addition to the excellent work we have done already?
Mary Creagh
As I mentioned before, we are more than doubling the funding for tree planting through the trees outside woodland fund. Climate change is sexist: it seems to be that women are particularly affected, and because of our body composition, we are less able to reduce our core heat, so we need to look at specific policies to protect particular members of the community, including the under-fives, the over-65s and those with heart and lung problems. We look to our health service to do that, but it cannot do that if the hospitals are heating up beyond 28°C.