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Brian Mathew's Climate-related Tweets, Speeches & Votes

We've found the following climate-related tweets, speeches & votes by Brian Mathew

• 10 Jun 2026: Parliamentary Speech

  If the Government are committed to sustainable housing growth, town centre regeneration, access to jobs, education and decarbonisation, the Bill must go much further in enabling local rail. Metroisation of our railways is not just for large cities; counties such as Cornwall and Northumberland are already demonstrating how more frequent and reliable rail can transform rural economies. The Government need to ensure that market towns such as Melksham and Devizes are not left behind in economic development and can benefit from the rail network.

  Full debate: Railways Bill

• 3 Jun 2026: Parliamentary Speech

  With the world on fire, with war and climate change and with diseases such as Ebola stalking Africa again, will the Government reconfirm their commitment to returning aid spending to 0.7% of GNI and to not cutting it below 0.3% of GNI?

  Full debate: Lebanon: Israel Defence Forces Operations

• 20 May 2026: Parliamentary Speech

  Today, I am wearing a WaterAid tie that I was given 35 years ago when I started working with it in Tanzania. Aid is a major part of our soft power. It not only helps to save lives and helps people withstand climate change, but it allows us to stand tall for all the good things that we do around the world. I would be grateful if the Secretary of State confirmed that UK aid will not be cut further to just 0.1% of gross national income. This is doubly important now that the spectre of Ebola is haunting Africa.

  Full debate: Defence Readiness

• 19 Mar 2026: Parliamentary Speech

  Yesterday, I and my colleagues on the International Development Committee met staff from Action Against Hunger, who had just returned from Lebanon, to hear about the horrors they have seen on the ground there. I am grateful for the added support that has been talked about, but when we and the people of our country see, in real time on our phones and our TV sets, a world on fire in Sudan, Yemen, Iran, Palestine, and across the Gulf and elsewhere, it is surely madness to cut our aid budget—our soft power of hope and help—at this time of conflict and climate change. Does the Foreign Secretary agree that we would gain respect by doing the right thing and restoring the 0.7% now, which would be worth its weight in gold not just for the people of those troubled places but for ourselves in the months, years and decades ahead?

  Full debate: International Development

• 4 Mar 2026: Parliamentary Speech

  A number of sectors have been assisted by UK aid—from girls’ education, health, nutrition and climate finance to disaster and war mitigation in places such as Gaza and Sudan. Since I was elected, I have had the privilege of serving on the International Development Committee, so I have had a chance to hear about the results and implications of the cuts to our aid programme, and indeed to USAID, which has been virtually destroyed, to the shame of the US Administration and the President.

  Full debate: Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

• 10 Jun 2025: Parliamentary Speech

  According to WaterAid, the UK’s annual budget for WASH has already been cut by approximately 82%, from a high of £206 million per year down to a critical low of just £37 million a year in 2022. Further cuts are likely to this most vital of sectors. Such cuts will hardly dissuade potential refugees from coming to our shores; they may even drive those refugees towards us if life becomes increasingly intolerable as a result of climate change, war and famine.

  Full debate: USAID Funding Pause

• 22 Apr 2025: Parliamentary Speech

  Giving children the opportunity to safely walk or cycle to school is vital. It not only ingrains healthy habits in children from a young age, bringing them closer to the nature and scenery that can be found in areas such as my constituency of Melksham and Devizes, but it teaches them road safety lessons, fosters independence and helps prevent climate change. Active travel practices in schools can also reduce traffic volume in our towns and villages as the number of cars around schools are reduced, thus minimising both pollution and the risk of road accidents.

  Full debate: Road Safety and Active Travel to School

• 1 Apr 2025: Parliamentary Speech

  In the light of the Prime Minister’s announcement of the impending official development assistance cuts, how will the UK Government be a global leader on water security and climate-affected communities, to adapt and build WASH—water, sanitation and hygiene—systems that are resilient to climate change?

  Full debate: Topical Questions

• 6 Feb 2025: Parliamentary Speech

  We must act now to end the vicious cycle that these countries are trapped in. Without being able to invest in development, countries are unable to grow their economies or fully escape debt. Furthermore, while in debt distress, countries may look to quick solutions that involve exploiting or exporting their natural resources to do so—extracting fossil fuels, mining or logging—and, in the process, worsening climate change. That disproportionately affects those in the global south, but also affects us here at home.

  Full debate: Low-income Countries: Debt Cancellation

• 16 Jan 2025: Parliamentary Speech

  In 2010, when the current Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero was Secretary of State for the then Department of Energy and Climate Change, he announced funding for investigations of embryonic tidal technologies. Rolls-Royce and Atkins won the contract to do the study, and their work showed that a tidal scheme on the Aberthaw to Minehead route would generate per year 30.4 TW hours of electricity, significantly more than the Cardiff to Weston-super-Mare line, which was in the region of 20 TW hours per annum.

  Full debate: Marine Renewables Industry

• 7 Oct 2024: Parliamentary Speech

  I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement, but carbon capture can be done in a number of ways. Anaerobic digestion plants, for example, produce as much CO2 as methane, which can be ducted into greenhouses to produce bigger tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuces. Will such natural carbon capture be included in the project, thereby helping to enhance our food security?

  Full debate: Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage

• 02 Jul 2024: Tweet

  @helen_essery @MVTFWD Climate change... you better believe it [Source]

• 29 Jun 2024: Tweet

  RT @LibDems: Tackling the climate crisis doesn't have to just be a cost. We can build the green jobs of the future, upgrade homes and bri… [Source]

• 04 May 2023: Tweet

  World leaders have failed to do enough for people facing climate change, conflict and the cost of living crisis. Across East Africa, over 28 million people are already facing extreme hunger. Join me and urge the PM to act before famine is declared. https://www.oxfam.org.uk/ [Source]

• 06 Apr 2023: Tweet

  World leaders have failed to do enough for people facing climate change, conflict and the cost of living crisis. Across East Africa, over 28 million people are already facing extreme hunger. Join me and urge the PM to act before famine is declared. https://www.oxfam.org.uk/ [Source]

• 01 Dec 2022: Tweet

  @PercyBlakeney63 Giving a talk about it tonight in Malmesbury if your interested Andy.... Well it's on the climate emergency and various ways we are working on to solve it. Starts 7.30pm opposite the Kings Arms [Source]

• 16 Aug 2022: Tweet

  To help solve the cost of energy & climate crisis change billing so that the first 5mwh of heat and 1mwh of electricity is charged at a subsidised rate which is paid for by those who consume more. This way the poorest can consume affordably up to this amount. Thoughts? [Source]

• 14 Jul 2022: Tweet

  @NicolaDiamond @CarolineLucas And her acknowledgement of climate change... she was a scientist .... [Source]

• 31 Mar 2022: Tweet

  Absolutely disgraceful, not only will this incinerator pump 250,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each year, poison the air we breathe with microparticulates and will likely put Arla foods out of Westbury losing 250 local jobs. Disgraceful cowardice from Wiltshire Council. https://twitter.com/SWWiltsLibDems/status/1509578533995225089 [Source]

• 01 Nov 2021: Tweet

  #globalclimatedebate good discussion but no mention of synthetic fuels created with renewable energy. Most vehicles in the world today are fueled by petrol and diesel, they are not going to go away anytime soon, but we could fuel them sustainably with synthetic fuels. [Source]

• 18 Sep 2021: Tweet

  Good point being made by Ed Davey in the Q &A session that tackling climate change is not only about reducing CO2 but empowerment for the rural poor across the world, by providing them with micro grids powered by renewable energy. [Source]

• 18 Sep 2021: Tweet

  Pleased to be taking part at the virtual Lib Dem Conference this weekend. A good standard of debate on important motions on the Climate Emergency and ways to tackle it. Currently in the debate on the Uyghur genocide. [Source]

• 05 Mar 2021: Tweet

  MAKE THE POLLUTER PAY! Petition: Introduce charges on carbon emissions to tackle climate crisis and air pollution https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/574678 [Source]

• 16 Jan 2021: Tweet

  Cabinet member criticised for sharing article questioning the climate emergency https://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/19016318.cabinet-member-criticised-ross-mckitrick-tweet/?ref=twtrec [Source]

• 04 Jan 2021: Tweet

  @GeorgeMonbiot @dpcarrington Air and into the ground. It seemed like a wonderful solution to climate change and the continued farming if cattle. I am a Wiltshire County Councillor and I am on the task group looking to how we can make Wilts carbon neutral. Help! Please email me Brian.mathew@wiltshire.gov.uk [Source]

• 08 Dec 2020: Tweet

  Humanity can achieve great things, next to end the pandemic then take on the climate emergency... https://twitter.com/vicderbyshire/status/1336205656144089088 [Source]

• 02 Nov 2020: Tweet

  @CarolineLucas Absolutely right Caroline, but why not connect it to a carbon tax as suggested by the Citizens Climate Lobby? [Source]

• 27 Feb 2020: Tweet

  As the only Wiltshire Councillor to speak out against the Stonhenge tunnel when it was first discussed at Cabinet I continue my opposition, to a plan depriving travellers this view of their history, cost over a £bn cause damage to the environment and generate more CO2. https://twitter.com/SaveStonehenge/status/1232822840799453184 [Source]

• 07 Feb 2020: Tweet

  @MFausingSmith Martin we need electric cars and hydrogen cars, but we also need to move quickly, and synthetic fuels produced using renewable energy may well be the bridge we need for the speed we need to carbon zero. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the possible... have a good weekend! [Source]

• 02 Dec 2019: Tweet

  I've taken @friends_earth's #ClimateActionPledge. If elected I'll put the climate first when I vote in parliament. We're in a #ClimateEmergency and must rapidly cut greenhouse gas emissions for a greener and fairer society. #ClimateElection https://twitter.com/friends_earth/status/1197909254277095426/photo/1 [Source]

• 02 Dec 2019: Tweet

  Tories sold off the Green investment bank, closed the Dep of Energy & Climate Change ... says it all... https://twitter.com/LibDems/status/1201243793850322945 [Source]

• 09 Nov 2019: Tweet

  Time is running out to stop catastrophic #climatechange. Our leaders have let us down - but people worldwide are taking action, from community energy to #schoolstrikes. Join me & @friends_earth to demand that the UK Government takes urgent #climateaction. https://act.friendsoftheearth.uk/petition/climate [Source]

• 16 Sep 2019: Tweet

  Thanks Jo! Great to get our point across in support of a Carbon Dividend to protect the poorest as we get to Net Zero Carbon! https://twitter.com/JoWaltham/status/1173613767747342341 [Source]

• 30 Aug 2019: Tweet

  Global farmers can take on climate change. Here's how https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/07/agriculture-climate-change-solution/ via @wef [Source]

• 05 Aug 2019: Tweet

  The terrible truth of climate change https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2019/august/1566136800/jo-lle-gergis/terrible-truth-climate-change [Source]

• 24 Jun 2019: Tweet

  "About 10% emit more CO2 than half the rest of the world population, people like you in the Audience" https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1142829435504254977 [Source]

• 22 Jun 2019: Tweet

  This is what the Climate Emergency looks like.... https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/06/20/india/chennai-water-crisis-intl-hnk/index.html?fbclid=IwAR3jc_r8sWvRgdJ0wI9ypZnKjy7J3wLDiPmkeSe7QgpxMV-kuIwKOdLMGg0 [Source]

• 13 Jun 2019: Tweet

  acknowledging a Climate Emergency.... Now the work begins... https://twitter.com/SWWiltsLibDems/status/1138559250588950529 [Source]

• 08 May 2019: Tweet

  Yesterday Liberal Democrat Councillors from Wiltshire were in Reading meeting with other Councils who are working on stopping the Climate Emergency. We are taking action Greta! https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1125810296621281281 [Source]

• 27 Mar 2019: Tweet

  An excellent talk on the Climate Emergency by Prof David Waltham at the Lansdown Hotel in Calne last night with the Calne & North Wiltshire Liberal Democrats. Thank you David https://twitter.com/BrianMathew4NW/status/1110812988821463040/photo/1 [Source]

• 12 Mar 2019: Tweet

  @SFWcomms Still feeling chuffed about the Climate Emergency motion... having meetings about how we can make it happen. Are you still doing any solar work? it could be useful to involve you as a witness if you have time... [Source]

• 18 Feb 2019: Tweet

  Schools strike for the climate and a motion on a climate emergency is to be presented to Wiltshire Council for Debate (February 18, 2019) http://northwiltslibdems.org.uk/e0N3 [Source]

• 24 Jan 2019: Tweet

  We must all play our part, do our bit, make our efforts work to stop climate change and resist... https://twitter.com/GeorgeMonbiot/status/1088029154522660864 [Source]

• 23 Nov 2018: Tweet

  Germany can do better, come on Germany Quit Coal Now! prevent climate breakdown and to keep warming below 1.5°C #Germany needs to #quitcoal now. Add your name to the petition >> https://act.350.org/sign/germany-quit-coal_fC?akid=s794336..JO_gjp [Source]

• 12 Oct 2018: Tweet

  Unacceptable when life on earth is threatened by climate change https://twitter.com/CarolineLucas/status/1050717315455754245 [Source]

• 12 Oct 2018: Tweet

  @CarolineLucas Unacceptable when life on earth is threatened by climate change [Source]

• 31 Jul 2018: Tweet

  A terrifying vision of the future that makes me think we should be doing one hell of a lot more to prevent climate change, to stop our precious planet becoming a living hell for our children and grandchildren... https://twitter.com/BrianMathew4NW/status/1024415368650125312/photo/1 [Source]

• 06 Aug 2014: Tweet

  With Nick Clegg & Duncan Hames MP. The Deputy PM was visiting Good Energy our local green energy provider https://twitter.com/BrianMathew4NW/status/497145820450684928/photo/1 [Source]