COULD I please challenge our MP and all those lining up to compete with him at the next election to stand up and say: “Yes, actually climate change is the biggest danger affecting all humanity and it will take more than we are currently doing to avoid its consequences — including here in the Wyre Forest district.”

On May 13 our Prime Minister gave a speech about the dangers facing the nation which, in the politically-redacted version, amounted to 3,685 words, only 1.5 per cent of which were directed at climate change.

The main climate reference was preceded by: “When I stood for the leadership of my party and my opponent’s policies imperilled our financial strength, I was sooner prepared to lose than abandon what I believe so deeply is right for our country.”

“I feel the same conviction about Net Zero. In a more unstable world, where dictators like Putin have held us to ransom over energy prices, I reject the ideological zeal of those who want us to adopt policies that go further, faster than any other country, no matter the cost or disruption to people’s lives.”

Evidently, ‘ideological zeal’ is not the preserve of so-called environmentalists!

Despite our national progress on decarbonisation, on May 3 the High Court ruled the government breached its duty under section 13 of the Climate Change Act 2008 (reported in The Shuttle, May 9).

This requires the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero to adopt policies and proposals which they consider will enable our legally-binding carbon reduction targets to be met.

This means the government’s approach to climate change is flawed and not just according to the alleged zealots unless the same epithet now extends to the High Court.

On January 18 the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), an official watchdog set up under the Environment Act of 2021, said: “Government remains largely off-track to meets its environmental ambitions and must speed up and scale up its efforts in order to achieve them.”

Does Mr Sunak know better than his own advisers?

Other politicians say our future financial strength lies in green technology with great economic rewards provided we can develop it ‘faster than any other country’.

If we sit back and let Mr Sunak’s analysis prevail, who will be the biggest losers?

Just how much more will our lives have to change and the costs spiral upwards with the climate?

After all, its impact is only just starting to bite with hotter summers and more frequent winter flooding along the River Severn.

Roger Meade
Wyre Forest Friends of the Earth co-ordinator
Bewdley 

What do you think? Please send your letters to letters@kidderminstershuttle.co.uk.