"Getting Cornwall Council to declare a Climate Emergency and commit to 2030 carbon neutrality, was a high profile Labour victory."
A FAIRER, GREENER FUTURE FOR CORNWALL
Labour will deliver the fairer, greener future this country deserves. Our central mission is to deliver growth that makes all parts of our country better off.
For 12 years, the UK has underperformed economically. We lag behind on business investment and productivity, whilst we are forecast to have the worst economic growth
of any G7 economy in 2023.
Labour will invest for the long term, forging a partnership with businesses around the UK to tackle key challenges.
"We need to keep the pressure on to complete the transition from fossil fuels to renewables."
The next Labour Government will launch an urgent mission for a fossil fuel free electricity system by 2030, making the UK a clean energy superpower, exporting clean power to the rest of the world. This would save UK households £93 billion over the rest of this decade.
To achieve this target, by 2030 a Labour government would:
Quadruple offshore wind with an ambition of 55GW by 2030;
Accelerate the pioneering floating offshore wind technology;
More than triple solar power;
More than double our onshore wind capacity
And Labour will create a National Wealth Fund so that when we invest in new industries, in partnership with business, the British people will own a share of that wealth and the taxpayer will get a return on that investment.
Cornwall became the first large rural authority in the country to declare a Climate Emergency and a 2030 Carbon Neutral target back in January 2019.
I pushed that through by working cross-party with other councillors and environmental groups. But we know Conservatives drop promises when they become difficult or inconvenient. We need to keep the pressure on so we complete the transition from fossil fuels to renewables. With our plentiful stock of wind, sun and geothermal energy, Cornwall should be the heart of renewables in the UK.
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The Labour Party has committed £28 billion a year to build a Green Economy. As MP, I would make sure that a fair share of that investment comes to Cornwall to create high quality, green, unionised jobs in the renewables sector and retrofitting our housing stock.
I hadn’t been a councillor long when this happened in January 2019.
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Another councillor had a motion on the Climate Emergency that Labour supported. Unfortunately the LibDems didn’t and they watered the motion down to writing a Climate Change ‘report’.
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We knew that Cornwall could do better and so I proposed an amendment to that motion to declare a Climate Emergency and put in a 2030 target for Carbon neutrality, with support from environmental campaigners and Martyn Alvey.
This is the 8 minutes where I made my summing up speech, the amendment was voted through and Cornwall became the first large rural authority to declare a Climate Emergency. We became a trailblazer! It’s a moment I will never forget.
Since then the report has been published and although it has been a hard push, there HAS been progress in Cornwall.
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I’m proud of Cornwall’s Climate Emergency Declaration and our ambitious 2030 target and I’m very proud that it was me, a Labour councillor, that proposed it.
Pressing Cornwall Council to keep it local
A new emphasis on local suppliers
Getting Cornwall Council to invest pension funds in local housing and renewables