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Simon Opher's Speeches In Parliament Related to Climate

We've found 5 Parliamentary debates in which Simon Opher has spoken about climate-related matters.

Here are the relevant sections of their speeches.

• 2 Dec 2025: Domestic Energy Efficiency (Call for Evidence)

  14:39

  The Sustainable Energy Association has developed a proposal for an energy efficiency incentive that can unlock greater investment by rewarding in-use performance of energy efficiency measures over several years through a revenue-based mechanism. The proposal would lower fuel bills across the country, keeping money in people’s pockets. In-use performance can be measured through technologies such as smart meter-enabled thermal efficiency ratings. Measuring performance is likely to drive up the quality of measures, as the financiers of those measures will have a strong financial interest in ensuring quality of product and installation.

  A call for evidence would certainly invite other innovative proposals to be brought the table. Although I hope the Bill will be unnecessary, what it proposes is a no-brainer that would provide solutions to problems that unite us as a House: soaring energy bills, energy security and the health of the UK population. I invite the Minister for Energy Consumers—the Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, my hon. Friend the Member for Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West (Martin McCluskey)—to back my campaign and issue a call for evidence.

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• 7 Jul 2025: Fossil Fuel Advertising and Sponsorship

  16:52

  I am an MP and a practising GP, and I chair the all-party health group for health and co-chair the net zero all-party parliamentary group. I therefore bring a dual perspective to this question—and, to be honest, from both positions I think the time has come: we must end all fossil fuel advertising and sponsorship.

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• 31 Mar 2025: Political Donations

  I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that point. The lack of transparency is a key issue. In 2023, oil and gas lobbyists spoke to Tory MPs on average 1.4 times per day, so is it really any wonder that they are now stepping back from their commitment to net zero? We must stop that sort of influence in Parliament. We must take the evidence and respond in the right way.

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• 20 Nov 2024: Global Plastics Treaty

  11:00

  Plastic pollution is putting the Earth’s ecosystems and natural processes under serious strain, worsening climate change, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification and land use—and if you think the situation is bad now, it could be much worse in decades to come. Plastic production, which is already far too high for our planet’s systems to cope with, is set to triple by 2050. The impact on climate change will be monumental. In its current state and with its current growth trajectory, plastic production will make achieving net zero impossible.

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  11:02

  Earlier this year, over 220,000 people decided to take part in the Big Plastic Count—a massive citizen science project where individuals count every piece of plastic waste that they dispose of for a week. The results showed that the UK throws away 1.7 billion pieces of plastic each week, with 58% of that being incinerated, producing toxic fumes and greenhouse gases. Incineration is the UK’s dirtiest form of power generation, and incinerators are three times more likely to be placed in poorer neighbourhoods, as was the case with the one built recently in the Stroud area.

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  11:06

  As I was saying, the Environment Secretary has made zero waste one of the Department’s core missions, and has set up a circular economy taskforce. This is a good move and will create jobs in repair, rental and recycling, as well as will significantly reducing CO2 emissions. The reuse of plastics, and not just recycling, is also incredibly important. It has perhaps dropped down the agenda a little, and we need to emphasise the point, so I thank the hon. Member for Glastonbury and Somerton for her intervention.

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  11:07

  The plastics treaty is the third time in quick succession that this Government’s international climate and nature leadership has been tested. The UK demonstrated our ambitions at the biodiversity COP in Cali, Colombia, and was one of the only countries to announce a genuinely ambitious nationally determined contribution at the COP29 in Baku. The plastics treaty is another vital opportunity for the UK to demonstrate once again that it is a progressive actor on the world stage, prepared to face down polluting industries and to put the brakes on the climate and nature emergency. That leadership role is needed now more than ever, particularly in sustainable energy and in recycling.

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• 5 Sep 2024: Great British Energy Bill

  15:14

  Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I thank the hon. Member for Waveney Valley (Adrian Ramsay) for his support for this really exciting piece of legislation—one of the most exciting in our manifesto. I am delighted to be making my maiden speech during a debate on renewable energy. Stroud has been a centre for sustainability and the environment for many years.

  Stroud is also home to cutting-edge companies, including Renishaw in the engineering industry. Ecotricity, owned by Dale Vince, has been at the cutting edge of sustainable energy for many years.

  My father is 90. He was going to be here today, but he could not make it, which is really sad. He has been a lifelong socialist and Labour party member. He said in 2019, “I will probably never see another Labour Government,” but he has got to see one. Let us make this work and work hard to deliver renewable energy, so we can bring down the cost of power and change the whole environment of the country.

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See all Parliamentary Speeches Mentioning Climate