Darlington Green leader slates leading parties over national climate policy failures

Darlington’s Green Party leader has used the publication of a scathing report from the Government’s own advisers into its recent record on climate targets, to launch an attack on both of the country’s major parties.

The Parliamentary Climate Change Committee, which tracks the UK’s journey to net-zero, says that Rishi Sunak is failing on almost every measure – wind, solar, heat-pumps, transport, public education – and has lost its leadership on climate that it had going into COP26.

But while Coun Matthew Snedker, leader of Darlington Green party, says the Government’s climate record is dismal under Sunak, he says the Labour Party’s recent backsliding on green commitments is an almost equal cause for concern.

“What the report from the Government’s own advisers highlights is the Conservative party’s failure to act on all these issues which would benefit people in this country and help save the planet.

“It shows that COP26 was little more than a photo opportunity for the Government and that the people who are least likely to be able to cope with the effects of climate change are those that have been let down the most.

“The Government’s flimsy excuses for inaction – like the cost of living crisis – are all being called out because previous Governments’ failures to act have left us still at the mercy of oil and gas and the dictators and despots who control them.”

Among the failings the Climate Committee spotlights is a lack of urgency on the Government’s part, a lost international leadership role, a missed opportunity when it came to framing influential policies or the pursuit of genuine targets, and the green-lighting of new oil and coal projects on land and sea.

Snedker does not think it is an oversight either, from a Government distracted by other pressing issues.

“I think it’s a symbol of a lame-duck Government in thrall to the oil, fossil fuel and aviation industries which fund it.

“What you see depicted in this report is a lack of leadership and a party following the interests of its paymasters. Many Conservative MPs seem to have lost hope of being re-elected and are probably already eyeing up where their company directorships are coming from once they are voted out.”

Snedker, who saw his party’s number increase in recent local elections from two to seven councillors – at the expense of four Conservative and one Labour candidate – also fears that the Labour Party could be set to become just as much of a disappointment as the Conservatives.

The Labour Party has rowed back in recent weeks on its very ambitious green agenda should they get into Government after next year’s election; pledges which had included the creation of GB Energy, a new publicly-owned clean energy company and a £28billion annual investment in the green transition.

Snedker said: “The only consistency Keir Starmer is showing as Labour leader is a consistency in breaking pledges and the recent watering down of the party’s ambitions on climate matters suggests they are not committed as they should be.

“We’ve seen them flip-flopping so many times and I know the argument might be that they are being cautious while in opposition and might be bolder in Government but they need to face down people doubting their platform.

“If you flip-flop in opposition, people will worry you’ll flip-flop in Government – you have to lead, not follow.”
Although he doesn’t have much optimism, Snedker hopes this latest public rebuke will spur the Government into some form of positive action on climate.

“I doubt they’re going to change but we have to hope they will because each month and year lost is a cause for huge concern in climate terms.”