Brent Friends of the Earth have issued the following account of their meeting with Dawn Butler, Labour, Brent Central, when they lobbied her over Climate Change.
Six members of Brent Friends of the Earth
(Brent FoE) met with Brent Central MP Dawn Butler at the House of
Commons this Wednesday 17th
June as part of a climate change lobby of Parliament.
The campaigners joined thousands
of concerned people from all
around the country to take part in 'For the Love of' – a mass lobby
to urge MPs to take urgent action on climate change. The Brent group
focussed
their views on
fracking, solar schools, fuel poverty, and airport expansion, and
found much
common ground with their
newly-elected MP.
On fracking, Dawn is now as signatory to Labour
MP Geraint Davies' “Fracking (Measurement and Regulation of
Impacts) (Air, Water and Greenhouse Gas Emissions) Bill”, which
hopes to stop fracking through making the contamination of water used
and the emissions created by the process illegal. Fracking uses vast
quantities of water along with toxic chemicals to extract shale gas.
Forcing companies to clean this up would make extraction too
expensive. She supports Labour leadership candidate Andy Burnham MP
in calling for a moratorium on this controversial technology in order
to concentrate efforts on supporting renewables. Both Wales and
Scotland already have moratoriums in place.
Viv Stein, Spokesperson for Brent FoE says,
“With a decision due next week on whether to approve the UK's first
fracking site in Lancashire, it is vital that we put a stop to
fracking now. Giving the go ahead to this dirty fossil fuel there
could pave the way for more fracking up and down the country,
including a proposed site at Park Royal in Brent. It would also
reduce the chance of preventing irreversible climate change. We need
to leave shale gas in the ground and invest in renewable energy
instead.”
“Fracking companies and the Government need
to know they will find huge opposition wherever they plan to drill.
We were pleased that Dawn Butler agrees that we should put a stop to
fracking now, and that renewable energy is the way forward to secure
our energy needs.”
On renewable energy, Brent FoE have been
instrumental in setting up a local community energy co-operative,
'Brent Pure Energy', to put solar panels on schools and public
buildings. Dawn favours extending the scheme to local churches and a
mosque in Willesden Green, and she is also setting up a 'Green
Cabinet' to focus attention on sustainability in Brent.
Dawn this week was voted Vice Chair of PRASEG,
the All Party Parliamentary Renewable and Sustainable Energy Group -
a group of MPs and senior industry stakeholders working together to
promote issues around sustainable and renewable energy in Parliament.
As Vice Chair Dawn will play a leading role in helping PRASEG hold
the government to account and ensuring the UK plays a leading role
worldwide on energy and climate change.
Ensuring warmer homes and ending fuel poverty
is also a particular concern for both Brent FoE and Dawn. As a
Magistrate she sees many people in court penalised for defaulting on
energy bills. She wants to end the high tariffs charged by
pre-payment meters, and to encourage landlords to insulate homes.
NHS budgets will also benefit as cold homes mean poor health.
Dawn Butler, Labour MP for Brent Central says,
“Ending
fuel poverty and protecting tenants against excessive fuel bills are
high on my agenda. I'm on board - Friends of the Earth are pushing
on an open door with me on this, but it's not so open it's letting
all the energy out!”
On airport expansion Dawn opposes the proposed
expansion at Heathrow, but is not convinced that future expansion
might be needed based on 'the business case'. She supports London
Mayoral candidate Sadiq
Khan, who has come out against
Heathrow. FoE believe airports should not be allowed to expand, and
that most of the extra capacity is for transfers so would not make
much impact on UK business. The group did not agree with Dawn's
belief that there are 'greener' planes. We believe the only 'green'
plane is the 'solar impulse' a solar powered plane, which recently
paused its round the world flight.
Flying still remains the most carbon-intensive form of travel.
The lobby of Parliament is was organised by the
Climate Coalition – the UK's largest group of people dedicated to
action on climate change. For more details see
http://fortheloveof.org.uk/.
Brent FoE has a website at www.brentfoe.com.
To sign FoE's urgent petition to keep Lancashire frack free go to
https://www.foe.co.uk/act/psfl.
