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Peter Dowd's Speeches In Parliament Related to Climate

We've found 16 Parliamentary debates in which Peter Dowd has spoken about climate-related matters.

Here are the relevant sections of their speeches.

• 25 Jun 2026: Ports and Port Connectivity

  15:48

  Grid capacity and decarbonisation have to be developed in the context of an appropriate planning framework. Liverpool port deals with bulk timber, bulk liquids, bulk cargo and general cargo and with 720,000 passengers a year. It is a huge economic asset to our area and has encouraged growth in our economy for many years.

  [Source]

• 17 Jul 2024: Debate on the Address

  14:42

  As much as I would like to think that the Bootle constituency having the largest majority in the country, so I am told, is down to my character, charm and charisma —[Hon. Members: “Hear, hear!”]—which are well known to my colleagues, I really know that it is down to the ambitious programme trailed in the general election campaign and now formally set out in the Gracious Speech. I welcome a legislative programme based on security, fairness and opportunity for all, on investment, stability and reform—that is not a reference to the Members opposite—and, above all, on service to our communities, our constituencies and our country. It is about securing economic growth, raising living standards and getting Britain building again with planning reform and quality infrastructure, recognising the challenges of climate change and harnessing technology and the clean energy transition. Great British Energy advancing investment into renewable energy is fundamental.

  [Source]

• 25 Jan 2023: Public Procurement Processes

  09:38

  Is my hon. Friend aware that in the other House, Members expressed concern that the Procurement Bill falls short of the Green Paper, in that there is no exact definition of key procurement principles, there are no specific requirements on climate objectives and, as he just said, there is no real emphasis on social value elements?

  [Source]

  I am sorry to interrupt my hon. Friend in mid flow. He has dealt with some specifics, but one of my concerns is that there does not appear to be any real assessment of how the measures in the Procurement Bill will fulfil its principles. For example, the Government want to launch new measures to promote jobs and new skills, but how many, and what sort of skills? They want to encourage economic prosperity and growth—God knows, we need it—but there is no indication of how. They want to tackle climate change and level up, but there are no indicators and no metrics at all to assess that. Does he agree that we need not just words but facts and assessment to back this up?

  [Source]

• 7 Sep 2022: Liverpool Port Access: Rimrose Valley

  16:40

  The road proposal conflicts with the Government’s own policies. Let us take the climate emergency as an example. The transport sector is the single biggest contributor to climate-wrecking CO 2 emissions in the UK. It is the only sector that has seen emissions go up, not down. CO 2 emissions stem from both the construction and subsequent use of roads. In my view and that of many other people, the project would be used to support port-related HGV traffic—the worst polluters on our roads—without a real assessment of alternatives that are as sustainable as they are practical.

  [Source]

  The issue of pollution flies in the face of the climate emergency declaration. It is apposite that my hon. Friend the Member for Sefton Central has noted the public health crisis in air quality. He referred to 40,000 deaths a year and related illnesses. Public Health England has said that that needs to be tackled. Protection of green spaces is seen as vital, and the Government’s own 25-year environment plan sets out targets, yet in certain situations National Highways is, in my view, ignoring those objectives.

  [Source]

  Turning to the conduct of National Highways, to date the organisation has told people that their homes would be safe, then issued the threat of compulsory purchase orders on homes and businesses. It withheld information on the environmental impact of the scheme from the public during the first consultation, thereby making an informed decision impossible. It has created divisions between communities in selecting the options it presented to the public. It ignored the outcome of its own public consultation, often in favour of the route that had the least support. In my view, and that of many other people, National Highways misled the public, claiming that a court ruled in favour of its preferred route, when actually it did not. It ignored the needs of those living alongside Princess Way—the road I referred to earlier, which is an extension of the A5036 and part of that corridor—with absolutely no mitigation. It ignored the Government and Sefton Council’s declaration of climate emergency by promoting yet another polluting road. It gave less than two weeks’ notice for public information events and sent newsletters to our schools, so that pupils could deliver National Highways’ messages. It also refused multiple freedom of information requests on dealing with private companies.

  The campaign calls for action to address the climate emergency, with all transport investment in Sefton contributing to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions to help reach the Government’s own legal targets. The implementation of bold transport policies across Sefton and the wider city region, including proper investment in active travel and clean and affordable public transport, is called for.

  [Source]

• 5 Jul 2022: Energy Security Strategy

  15:08

  I agree with much of what the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare (John Penrose) said on market reform, so I will not go into that. He also raised the issue of tidal power. My constituency is on the Mersey and overlooks a lot of turbines, but for a long time, since I was a member of Merseyside County Council 40 years ago, we have also been trying to get the Mersey barrage. There are lots of examples of barrages working well across the world—I did have a list of them, but I do not have it to hand—and they are priced relatively well. That is also case in other countries that are pushing the green agenda. The Netherlands are using their topography, as are the Spanish. The Japanese are now virtually in the position where they can have 100% efficiency with wind and a variety of other sustainable energy plans. India, Australia, France, Germany, China and the USA are moving ahead. Yes, the UK is doing well, but we are not doing well enough. We have to move on as much as we possibly can.

  The Secretary of State’s letter effectively pooh-poohs the idea of local community enterprises on the grounds that they will distort the market—well, if we do not have a distorted market at the moment, what precisely do we have? We are here today to push the Government to create an energy market that serves the country. I do not want to go into the issue of nationalisation and public ownership of the energy sector, because my hon. Friend the Member for Birkenhead (Mick Whitley) has already done so, but at the very least we have to have a good look at it, because the market is not working. It is as simple as that, and I would challenge anybody who tells me it is. We have to move on, and as the coalition Government said in their July 2011 UK renewable energy road map—we came to a bump in the road somewhere between 2011 and now—

  “The nations of the United Kingdom are endowed with vast and varied renewable energy resources. We have the best wind…and tidal resources in Europe.”

  [Source]

• 30 Jun 2022: Topical Questions

  10:22

  T2.   Transport remains the UK’s biggest generator of climate-wrecking carbon dioxide emissions. Road construction and the traffic that those roads support represents a large proportion of that. Does the Secretary of State agree, therefore, that rather than pursuing an outdated, destructive road project such as the Rimrose Valley Port of Liverpool access scheme in my constituency and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Sefton Central (Bill Esterson), a complete rethink is needed and that imaginative, innovative and sustainable infrastructure is the only credible way forward in the face of a climate emergency?

  [Source]

• 8 Feb 2022: Cost of Living and Food Insecurity

  Some 22 million households will suffer because of the Government’s failure to invest in cheap, green energy generated on our shores—fact. The Chancellor’s announcement that the Government will force people to take loans will do nothing but prolong their financial misery—fact. Both energy insecurity and food insecurity are related to the dramatic increase in inflation over which the Government have presided, which is now a painful concern to millions of people—fact. But it is important that we put these issues in a wider context.

  [Source]

• 1 Feb 2022: Oil and Gas Producers: Windfall Tax

  17:34

  One of our constituents’ most immediate concerns, of course, is the increase in their energy bills, which amounts to an energy crisis for millions of people. As we have heard, rising wholesale gas prices are threatening to drive energy bills up by almost a third—a huge £700 increase to £2,000 a year. As for getting things done, delivering on people’s priorities or levelling up, the situation is worth a perusal. What did the Government get done on energy infrastructure? Not a lot. They have refused to invest in the infrastructure necessary to decarbonise our energy supplies and reduce our reliance on external providers. Instead, the British public have been left at the whim of oil and gas companies.

  Households will continue to struggle unless the Government get a grip. The behaviour of the oil and gas companies only goes to show that we cannot rely on the sector alone to deliver net zero in the time available. We need to take action. The Government really do need to take action. They need to get a grip on this issue, because people out there—our constituents—are struggling and challenged.

  [Source]

• 28 Jan 2021: Topical Questions

  10:33

  I appreciate the Minister’s response to my hon. Friend the Member for Sefton Central (Bill Esterson), my constituency neighbour, but I think he may have missed the substantive point my hon. Friend was making. There is a proposal to rip up Rimrose Valley Park, which is the only substantive green lung in my very small urban constituency, and plough a major road through it. Before he puts his signature to the £300 million-plus cheque to build the road, will he agree to meet me, my hon. Friend, council colleagues and very worried friends of Rimrose Valley Park to listen to our fears about the irreparable and long-term damage to our environment, leisure opportunities, and the health and safety of our community, and hear about alternatives to this road, which does not meet the spirit or aims of the Prime Minister’s 10-point decarbonisation plan?

  [Source]

• 17 Mar 2020: Income tax (charge)

  18:34

  The Budget was disappointing in relation to climate action. The environmental justice commission set up by the Institute for Public Policy Research said that £33 billion of green investment was needed a year to get to the Government’s weak target of net zero emissions by 2050. But there is £27 billion for road building, although nothing for renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. We have heard excuses over the years that they inherited a poor economy, but they have been in power for 10 years and the responsibility for the poor performance of our economy in the past 10 years lies squarely at the Government’s door. They did not believe that public investment could boost the economy. In a speech in 2009, George Osborne said that

  [Source]

• 24 Oct 2019: The Economy

  16:46

  The only threat we face that is equal to the continuation of this Government is the climate emergency. We need a green industrial revolution: a rapid and far-reaching transformation of the UK’s infrastructure, from our homes to our transport and energy systems. That requires investment on a scale that makes the Government’s programme pale into insignificance. Labour is offering—

  [Source]

  16:48

  Labour is offering a national transformation fund and a national investment bank that would invest £500 billion of lending and spending over 10 years, with tackling climate change as a central mission—a concept alien to that lot over there. It will include targeted investment to develop and commercialise new technologies so that they are designed here, assembled here, installed by a well-paid unionised workforce here, and then exported to the rest of the world. It is a far-reaching programme of economic revival that will create the industries of the future here. This is a Government of yesterday. We are the Government of tomorrow.

  With its wind and marine resources, the UK has some of the best potential in the world for renewable energy. Renewable energy should be to the UK what tech has been to California, but the Government’s failure to support these nascent industries has held us back. We should be building on our existing strengths, such as the automotive sector, which could, with the right support, lead the world in electric vehicle and battery production. At the Labour party conference, my hon. Friend the Member for Salford and Eccles (Rebecca Long Bailey), the shadow Business Secretary, announced a multibillion-pound package of investment to kick-start the electric revolution. That is the scale of targeted support that our automotive industry needs—not just green number plates. Today, she announced plans to create a carbon-neutral energy system by the 2030s, including insulation upgrades for every home in the UK and enough new solar panels to cover 22,000 thousand football pitches, including Anfield.

  This is not just about avoiding a climate catastrophe. The green industrial revolution is about building the world we deserve, not the world that the Tories think we deserve. We will ensure that nothing is too good for the working people of this country. We can tackle climate change while transforming our economy so that it works for the many, not just the privileged few.

  [Source]

• 24 Jun 2019: The Value Added Tax (Reduced Rate) (Energy-Saving Materials) Order 2019

  16:40

  On the day we got a climate change denying letter from Lord Lawson, we also have this order before us. The Solar Trade Association, which is deeply concerned, wrote to us, saying that MPs’ actions must match our rhetoric. Today, we have had lots of rhetoric but no actions. I will touch on that a little more. I will also touch on the European Court of Justice judgment, which I know everyone in the room will have read—no doubt several times, to get the nuances of it.

  Just months after the Labour party secured a parliamentary declaration of a climate emergency, introducing high taxes on energy efficiency and low carbon solutions for our homes while retaining a 5% rate on fossil fuels simply does not make sense. To add to the absurdity, a motion to approve a statutory instrument relating to the draft Climate Change Act 2008 (2050 Target Amendment) Order 2019 is being debated on the Floor of the House—if not today, perhaps in the next few days. How on earth can the energy-saving materials instrument fit in with that commitment? How can we understand it as anything other than favouring fossil fuels over renewable technologies?

  Despite the rhetoric, which the Solar Trade Association mentioned, and grandstanding, the instrument makes it clear that, not only do the Government not take the climate crisis seriously, but they continue to support fossil fuels via the tax system. It is okay if they do that and also support renewables, but to do one without the other is a bit odd. Indeed, clauses 36 and 37 and schedule 14 of the Finance Act 2019, which we opposed, create a favourable tax mechanism to allow companies buying equity in UK oil and gas fields to acquire the tax histories of the selling companies. I say that only to juxtapose it with the Government’s position today. It is probably to be expected, given that some Cabinet Ministers have denied the scientific consensus on climate change, and several of the Tory leadership contenders have close links with organisations and individuals who promote climate change denial. I refer, for example, to Lord Lawson and his letter today, which, if anybody has bothered to read it, is bizarre.

  My right hon. Friend also made the point that if we are to be out of the European Union by 31 October—apparently—why not kick the can down the road a little bit further? We have been kicking it down the road for about three years, so another few months will not make much difference. Taking far-reaching action now, only for changes to have to be made shortly, could risk imposing costs on businesses and individuals. A better approach is for the UK to work closely with the Commission to determine what minimal changes ought to be planned for, while still allowing action to tackle the climate emergency. That is the sensible way forward. That is what the Government should do instead of navel gazing with Tory party leadership elections while the country and our climate go to the wall.

  many stakeholders argue that the final price paid by customers for measures that save energy and reduce emissions could be significantly increased. That might discourage the uptake of solutions that are key to making our homes energy efficient and low carbon in order to meet our climate change targets.

  Alternatively, Labour is committed to protecting and safeguarding investment in renewable energy and green infrastructure to help insulate homes. Recently, we announced plans to reduce energy bills by installing solar panels on nearly 2 million homes. Indeed, the shadow Secretary of State for BEIS, my hon. Friend the Member for Salford and Eccles (Rebecca Long Bailey), recently challenged the Government on their climate change actions in Prime Minister’s questions, after they scrapped the subsidies for domestic solar panels in April. The Government have form on this—a big long list of all previous convictions and antecedents, as people used to say.

  Climate change is clearly an existential threat. We owe it to ourselves, our communities and future generations to protect and safeguard the world in which we live. Labour takes those responsibilities seriously, so we cannot support the order.

  [Source]

• 12 Nov 2018: Finance (No. 3) Bill

  16:36

  “this House declines to give the Finance (No. 3) Bill a Second Reading because it derives from the 2018 Budget which confirmed the continuation of austerity and tax cuts for the wealthiest, failed to introduce a fair taxation system which protects middle and low earners but requires a greater contribution from the top 5 per cent of highest income earners, implied real terms per capita cuts for unprotected departments between 2019-20 and 2023-24, failed to halt roll-out of Universal Credit with planned social security cuts still to come, failed to raise the funding needed for mental health services, failed to provide the long-term funding needed for long-term adult social care, failed to provide adequate school funding, failed to address the funding gap that local councils face, failed to end the funding crisis facing public services, with police, teachers, nurses and doctors having no reassurances that the public sector pay squeeze will end in 2019, failed to tackle child poverty and growing inequality across our country, failed to tackle the fact that 87 per cent of the impact of the Government’s tax and benefit changes since 2010 has fallen on the shoulders of women, failed adequately to address climate change and delayed the much-needed reduction in the maximum stake for fixed-odds betting terminals until October 2019, and because the Bill is not based on an amendment of the law resolution, thus restricting the House’s ability to properly scrutinise and improve the Bill.

  [Source]

  17:57

  The Chancellor did not use the phrase “climate change” once during his hour-long speech—it felt longer than an hour, I’ll grant you that—despite the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, which warned that we only have 12 years to avert climate catastrophe. The Government cling to their woeful plastic straws initiative, but the only measure in the Bill addressed to the 100 corporations that produce 71% of our global emissions was yet another tax break. That is the sort of stuff that the Government should be tackling. This is for the oil industry. The Government have really got to get to grips with its approach to climate change. This oversight is catastrophic. History will remember the Government’s failure to tackle the greatest threat to humanity—that does not overstate it.

  [Source]

• 9 May 2018: Economies of the UK Islands

  10:40

  It is important that the Government begin to invest in the UK island economies and engage with their populations. Whether that means the Isle of Wight or a small island off the Scottish coast, that has to happen. It could mean investing to stimulate employment opportunities on UK islands, as the increasingly unpredictable cycle of seasonal work is clearly not enough to sustain island economies. Anglesey and Orkney have demonstrated that investment in renewable energy can deliver sustainable jobs and put the UK on the path to energy security, as the right hon. Gentleman said. The Government have to stop being blinkered; they must look at these issues and at how they can work with communities.

  [Source]

• 16 Jan 2018: Finance (No. 2) Bill (Sixth sitting)

  (13) A review under this subsection shall consider the appropriateness of the use of the New European Driving Cycle methodology for calculating carbon dioxide emissions for the purposes of the provisions amended by this section.

  (14) A review under subsection (13) shall also consider the effects if carbon dioxide emissions were to be calculated for the purposes of the provisions amended by this section using the Worldwide harmonized Light-duty vehicles Test Procedure including

  (c) the effects on progress towards the Government’s targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.”

  This amendment requires a pre-commencement review of the appropriateness of the current regime for calculating carbon dioxide emissions and the effects of a change to the WLTP procedure.

  [Source]

  15:37

  Clause 48 is designed to ensure that a car’s carbon dioxide emissions for the purpose of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 and the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 will remain based on the existing testing regime known as the new European driving cycle. I hope that that is not the cycle we were referring to earlier. This is a Government clarification, following the introduction of a new regime for calculating CO 2 emissions that is called worldwide harmonised light-duty vehicles test procedures, or WLTP.

  My office made contact with the International Council on Clean Transportation Europe, which identified VW’s deception in 2015 and passed the information on to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The council was clear that the type approval carbon dioxide emission values are expected to be about 20% higher under the new WLTP test than under the NEDC testing procedure, which the Government are suggesting that we stick to. The council said that that was due to a more dynamic speed profile, a more realistic vehicle test mass, lower ambient temperature and other conditions that reflect more closely typical real-world driving conditions.

  [Source]

• 11 Jan 2018: Finance (No. 2) Bill (Third sitting)

  11:54

  There is a rightly held concern that as a result of Brexit, the UK risks losing its reputation as a scientific powerhouse. In November, the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee stated that we are “sorely lacking” in leadership from the Government to maintain Britain’s position as a leader in robotics and in research to tackle climate change. She was responding to a National Audit Office report that highlighted that between 2007 and 2013, the UK was a “net recipient” of EU research funding and received more than £7.9 billion. In 2015, the UK Government’s expenditure on research and development was £8.7 billion, so it is almost equal.

  [Source]

See all Parliamentary Speeches Mentioning Climate