Helen Morgan MP: Climate Timeline

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Helen Morgan's Climate-related Tweets, Speeches & Votes

We've found the following climate-related tweets, speeches & votes by Helen Morgan

• 19 Jul 2024: Parliamentary Speech

  Planning is not just about housing. We have many demands on our countryside: housing, renewable energy, nature restoration and, importantly, the growing of food. We need to simplify planning so that all those things can happen. Housing, renewable energy and job creation are incredibly important, but I urge the Government to ensure that when they go ahead, it is not at the expense of food production. The Liberal Democrats have called for the development of a land use strategy so that these important and competing demands can be balanced, and so that we use land in the optimal way, protecting the highest grade arable land for food production and putting the infrastructure of renewable energy and housing in less prime places. I therefore hope that the Government will consider a land use strategy as part of their planning reform.

  Full debate: Planning, the Green Belt and Rural Affairs

• 27 Mar 2024: Tweet

  The equivalent of 63 days non-stop sewage release into the River Morda by Severn Trent last year. Disgraceful. Water companies have failed to plan for housing and climate change they knew would happen. The water industry needs a complete overhaul. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68665335 [Source]

• 08 Mar 2024: Tweet

  It was a pleasure to speak at the Meadows & Verges Conference at Oswestry Memorial Hall earlier today. ???? Very well-attended and interesting discussions about biodiversity, climate change, flooding, farming, and everything rural. Thank you to the organisers for the invite! https://twitter.com/HelenMorganMP/status/1766119179592347891/photo/1 [Source]

• 06 Dec 2023: Tweet

  Fantastic to meet @hadnallprimary in Parliament today to answer their questions about being North Shropshire's MP. Great to see their artwork showcased at the 'Creative for Climate' exhibition, highlighting the impact of climate change too. https://twitter.com/HelenMorganMP/status/1732442637435642193/photo/1 [Source]

• 20 Sep 2023: Tweet

  RT @PolitlcsUK: ???? | BREAKING: Speaker Lindsay Hoyle blasts Rishi Sunak for his failure to make the statement on net zero to Parliament firs… [Source]

• 17 Aug 2023: Tweet

  My pleasure to answer questions from residents at Rhydycroesau Village Hall this afternoon, covering ambulance response times, buses, trains, planning, potholes and climate change! Thank you to all those who came along. Also, the village show tomorrow looks great! https://twitter.com/HelenMorganMP/status/1692233187810795884/photo/1 [Source]

• 23 May 2023: Parliamentary Speech

  I have been contacted by a number of businesses, mostly farms, that want to install renewable energy in the form of a solar array or a wind turbine, but have been advised that they will have to pay thousands of pounds to help to upgrade the grid in their area, making those projects unaffordable. Along with the commitment to phase out oil-fired boilers, that means that there will be huge demand on rural grid capacity. Will the Minister reassure me that he is taking steps to ensure rural networks will be able to cope with that surge in demand?

  Full debate: Oral Answers to Questions

• 24 Apr 2023: Parliamentary Speech

  Turning to the detail of the Bill, there are some steps in the right direction. The increase in the frequency of revaluations, from every five years to every three years, is clearly welcome. It is also right to enable businesses to use business rates improvement relief to encourage businesses to improve and upgrade their properties. We would hope that the relief might encourage businesses to look towards ways in which they can embrace decarbonisation.

  Full debate: Non-Domestic Rating Bill

• 7 Mar 2023: Parliamentary Speech

  I am sure we are all aware that domestic transport is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country. The Department for Transport’s 2022 statistical estimates report that cars emit more greenhouse gases per passenger mile than trains and coaches, for the obvious reason that trains and coaches convey more people, so maximising the number of people in a vehicle for each journey is a really important part of meeting our emissions targets. The example that the Department gives is a long-distance one: on a journey between London and Glasgow, the average petrol car emits over four times more CO 2 than the equivalent journey by coach for each person, or 3.3 times more CO 2 per passenger than an electric car, once it has been taken into account that we do not generate all our electricity in a totally green way.

  In rural areas, it is proving really difficult to get such efficiencies and cut the greenhouse gases that we emit because of the high level of dependency on private cars, which are mostly non-electric. Our bus services are already very poor and have been driven to the verge of extinction by the covid pandemic, and it is well documented that usage has not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels. In Shropshire, services have continued to be cut since 2020 because they are no longer considered commercially viable. Obviously, we are not just talking about the tiny hamlets where everyone accepts it would be uneconomical and unsuitable for a large bus to trundle through; market towns of under 20,000 or 30,000 people are suffering as well.

  Yes, I agree. We have absolutely seen that in North Shropshire and across the rest of the county. It is causing us a number of different issues, in addition to those of climate emissions. Already in my constituency, it is no longer possible to access one of our two key hospitals in Telford from Oswestry without changing services at least twice. There is no direct public transport service at all between Market Drayton, a town of around 12,000 people, and the sizeable town of Telford, where there are all sorts of extra services that people might want to access.

  The lack of a usable service not only means we emit far more greenhouse gases than we used to or, more accurately, than we need to, but there is a social and economic cost. For instance, the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Gobowen, near Oswestry in North Shropshire, is a top-class orthopaedic hospital with a dedicated veterans’ centre that takes patients from all over the country. We are extremely proud of it. Recently, however, the hospital is struggling to recruit and retain its staff and one of the factors in that is the lack of a bus service back into Oswestry for those working early or late shifts because those end-of-day services have been axed from the route. More widely, the issue is driving young people from our towns, increasing the proportion of elderly residents, and harming the economic vibrance of the high streets.

  The focus on active travel is sensible, because it has both an environmental and health benefit. However, there are many reasons that is not a suitable focus for rural communities when it comes to decarbonisation. Does the hon. Member share my concern that while the Government’s active travel strategy seems to acknowledge that, they have yet to set out any further specific guidance?

  We are on the list for the Access for All plan. We have made our bid, which I hope will be successful, but it takes years and years to come through. If we are trying to get to net zero by 2050, the Access for All process really does need to be speeded up and, let’s face it, most places do not have a railway station or a railway line. Many of those stations have been axed from rural market towns and would be totally uneconomic to reinstate, particularly as those towns largely have housing estates over the former track, so we need to have a nationally led bus strategy that addresses people getting out of their cars and on to buses.

  Full debate: Decarbonising Rural Transport

• 07 Dec 2022: Tweet

  RT @LibDems: The decision to approve a new coal mine in Cumbria cancels out all the progress Britain has made on renewable energy. Rishi… [Source]

• 15 Nov 2022: Parliamentary Speech

  Britain cannot produce enough gas from fracking to reduce the global gas price, so it will not reduce our energy bills, especially when electricity from renewable sources is the cheapest form of energy we can produce. Investing in renewables—not only the cheapest, but the cleanest form of energy—is the best way to bring down our bills and our carbon emissions. As COP27 meets in Sharm El Sheikh and the lack of progress on the climate emergency is brought to international attention, it would be disastrous for the UK to start novel types of fossil fuel extraction. We need to find ways to keep fossil fuels in the ground, not waste effort looking for ever more inventive ways of extracting them.

  Local communities affected by fracking have already expressed their opposition to the lifting of the moratorium; so, too, have the vast majority of the British people, who in 2019 voted for parties that opposed fracking in some form or another. Fracking simply will not bring down our energy bills, and if we are to address the energy problems the country faces, we must rapidly invest in renewable energy sources. The science has not changed either, and fracking is just as unsafe and unreliable as it was three years ago. I would welcome the Government’s confirmation of that point.

  Full debate: Fracking: Local Consent

• 7 Nov 2022: Parliamentary Speech

  In 2015, the Conservatives abandoned the Liberal Democrats’ zero- carbon homes policy, as a result of which 1 million homes have been built that cost more to heat and emit more carbon dioxide than they need to. So where are the provisions in the Bill to retrofit our social housing with insulation, and ensure that newly built social housing is warm and affordable? While including energy efficiency in the regulator’s objectives is a welcome step, it is clear that more could be done to reduce fuel poverty and help us achieve our net zero objectives.

  Full debate: Social Housing (Regulation) Bill [Lords]

• 19 Oct 2022: Vote

  Ban on Fracking for Shale Gas Bill - Pro-climate vote: Aye - Their vote: Aye

• 20 Jul 2022: Tweet

  Fuel prices are breaking family budgets, we're in the midst of a climate emergency and people are still forced to fill up their cars to access the basics. Meanwhile the Government has ignored every funding bid Shropshire has put in. Levelling Up? What Levelling Up? [Source]

• 12 Jul 2022: Tweet

  .@uksciencechief’s sobering briefing last night made clear just how serious the climate emergency is. Words are not enough – we need major action from the Government. Yet sadly none of the Conservative leadership hopefuls decided this key briefing was worth their time. [Source]

• 27 Jun 2022: Tweet

  RT @sarahjolney1: Pleased to contribute to this video on #NetZeroDay. We must continue to be ambitious with our climate objectives and pr… [Source]

• 15 Jun 2022: Parliamentary Speech

  In broad terms, I support the idea of encouraging a science-based approach to technologies such as genetic editing for precision breeding. In general terms, I accept that such methods will be helpful in the fight against climate change and excessive antibiotic use, among other things, and that they have the potential to reduce the need for pesticides in farming. I welcome that the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment and the European Food Safety Authority have advised that no more risk is attached to precision-bred foods than to those from traditional breeding methods.

  Full debate: Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill

• 14 Nov 2021: Tweet

  RT @timfarron: How might #cop26 have panned out if the host prime minister hadn’t rendered his government diplomatically impotent having br… [Source]

• 04 Nov 2021: Tweet

  RT @henrymance: calm down everyone, it's not as if the British prime minister took a private jet from a climate summit to a dinner at an al… [Source]

• 03 Nov 2021: Tweet

  To be honest it looked to me as if he'd had enough to drink at COP26! https://t.co/DoSECRwyzb [Source]

• 03 Nov 2021: Tweet

  RT @EdwardJDavey: A private jet to a private party with a climate change denier. The mask slips. https://t.co/HlWIbr9n0S [Source]

• 02 Nov 2021: Tweet

  RT @standardnews: The leader of the Lib Dems, Sir Ed Davey, has led COP talks on three previous occasions and his biggest fear now for the… [Source]

• 31 Oct 2021: Tweet

  RT @LizWebsterLD: The ???? in the room at #COP26 is that Brexit makes Britain a massive hypocrite ???? [Source]

• 31 Oct 2021: Tweet

  RT @paulmasonnews: "We didn't vote for net zero" says S*n columnist... but here's the 2019 Tory manifesto ???????? - the disinformation drive for… [Source]

• 28 Oct 2021: Tweet

  RT @scotlibdems: Last night, the SNP joined together with the Tories to support a third runway at Heathrow On the eve of COP26, the First… [Source]

• 27 Oct 2021: Tweet

  RT @mollycnolan: On the eve of COP26, the SNP have just voted in favour of a third runway at Heathrow and the Tories have announced a tax c… [Source]

• 06 Oct 2021: Tweet

  RT @libdemdaisy: 220,000+ pupils are now missing school due to Covid. I’ve asked the govt - for the nth time - where are the CO2 monitors?… [Source]

• 16 Sep 2021: Tweet

  RT @uk_domain_names: Did you know that the new Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan is a keen climate change denier? Dangerous, given the k… [Source]

• 02 Sep 2021: Tweet

  RT @Haggis_UK: Charlie Stayt - Have the schools got those CO2 monitors today? Gavin Williamson - They are being rolled out during this te… [Source]

• 14 Aug 2021: Tweet

  RT @LibDems: We cannot afford to be dragging our feet and lagging behind as we race to address the climate crisis. As host of the COP26 UN… [Source]

• 13 Jul 2021: Tweet

  RT @LibDems: More children going hungry, more girls without an education and a weaker fight against climate change. The Tories’ broken pr… [Source]

• 10 Jun 2021: Tweet

  RT @LibDems: "At a global summit with climate change at the forefront, the Prime Minister’s choice to fly to Cornwall from London is laugha… [Source]

• 03 Mar 2021: Tweet

  RT @libdemdaisy: Britain should be really angry today. Today’s #ToryBudget has almost: ❌ Nothing to tackle climate emergency ❌ Nothing on… [Source]