Liberal Democrat councillors have successfully engaged Mole Valley Council to actively resist the funding cut of up to 58% that Surrey County Council is planning for our Children's Centres. At the July Council meeting, the Council agreed a Lib Dem motion calling for opposition to the cuts and mitigating action to reduce their impact.
Introduction by Wera Hobhouse, MP. Wera first met Vince at Green conference in Rochdale in 2005 so she was clear Vince has the skill of explaining complicated things to us and that he has a long track record on Environmental issues.
Local MP Tim Farron has been working to alleviate the problems caused by the closure of the Windermere Ferry.
A new report from researchers at Oxford University and the Swiss agricultural research institute Agroscope provide a comprehensive database on the environmental impacts of almost 40,000 farms and 1,600 processing plants and retailers. The database is design to inform policy makers on how production practices and local geographies lead to different environmental impacts for 40 major foods. Producers have a profound impact on CO2 equivalent of the same product. For example, high-impact beef producers create 105kg of CO2 equivalent and use 370m2 of land per 100grams of protein while low-impact producers can use 12 to 50 time fewer resources to obtain the same result. By way of comparison, low-impact plant-based proteins such as beans and peas can create just 0.3kg of CO2 equivalents (including processing, packaging and transport) to produce the same 100grams of protein. On just one square meter of land!
Scotland now produces more than twice as much renewable energy as it consumes. Between 2016 and 2017 the amount of power produced by the industry grew by 26%.
The Togo government has launched an energy policy to provide universal access to electricity by 2030. The strategy which will transform lives in nearly 1,000 communities, relies heavily on solar energy.
Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath and spokesperson for Energy Security and Net Zero, called on the government to provide incentives for energy providers to develop solar power in the UK.
Mrs Hobhouse slammed the government for falling behind on meeting the UK’s renewable targets for solar energy capacity. The government plans to deploy 70 GW of solar power across the country by 2035. However, as of 2022, the UK had only installed 14.3 GW of solar pv.
Following a visit to a rooftop solar system installed by Bath & West Community Energy (BWCE) at Beechen Cliff School last year, Wera Hobhouse is keen to encourage the development of similar solar projects across Bath. The solar system is predicted to significantly cut the school’s fuel costs and reduce their carbon emissions by 52 tonnes a year.
In the House of Commons on the 27th February, the Bath MP noted that the UK is lagging behind the rest of the world in renewable energy investment, she urged the government to offer incentives to energy providers to improve solar capacity.
However, Andrew Bowie, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Energy Security and Net Zero, ignored Hobhouse’s proposals, failing to describe the ways in which the government could incentivise solar energy. Instead, Bowie said that the government’s Solar Taskforce would publish recommendations for solar power and reiterated the government’s target to deploy 70 GW by 2035.
Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath and spokesperson for Energy Security and Net Zero, commented:
“The Conservatives are falling dangerously behind on meeting our targets for renewable energy production. It is no good the government setting an ambitious 70 GW solar target if they are nowhere near reaching it.
“It is clear that they have no plan to get us back on track to reach Net Zero. Evidently, they are more than happy to dismiss perfectly good proposals like incentivising solar power. That is why I am so proud that Bath is home to many community energy projects like the solar system at Beechen Cliff School, so that we can lead the way in renewables.”
“It is not just our climate targets harmed by the Conservatives’ delay. Families in Bath and across the country are struggling to pay soaring energy bills which investment in renewables could curb. That is why we Liberal Democrats would build significantly more renewable energy, aiming to generate 80% of our electricity from renewables by 2030.”
Peter Capener, Managing Director of Bath & West Community Energy said:
“Our work with schools is really demonstrating the value of community energy in both addressing the climate crisis and reducing fuel bills. Rooftop solar installed last year has already saved local schools a combined total of £134,209 and has reduced carbon emissions by 224.3 tonnes, which is equivalent to 12,173 journeys from Bath to Edinburgh by train!”
