John Healey MP: Climate-Related Speeches In Parliament

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John Healey's Speeches In Parliament Related to Climate

We've found 18 Parliamentary debates in which John Healey has spoken about climate-related matters.

Here are the relevant sections of their speeches.

• 18 Jul 2023: Defence Command Paper Refresh

  13:48

  I want to start by recognising the Secretary of State’s leadership on Ukraine and the wider threat from Russia. He made reference to the growing range of threats across the globe and how the UK often has to respond to those. May I invite him to go a step further, reflect on how the MOD can work with other Departments in Whitehall and how the UK can work with its international partners on early intervention and prevention, understand the drivers of conflicts—for example, gross human rights abuses, climate change and lack of international aid—and see how we can get ahead of the curve in some situations?

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• 14 Mar 2023: AUKUS Defence Partnership

  15:16

  As somebody who is passionate about UK security and Britain’s place in the world, I could not hide my deep disappointment yesterday when the new integrated review spelled out a deteriorating global threat picture, but offered no new investment in our conventional forces. We are back here today, however, and I welcome this landmark announcement of ever greater collaboration between three trusted allies. Our political relationship with Washington experienced a bumpy patch post Brexit—I say that as a US-UK dual national—so it is good to see it back where it should be. Indeed, landing AUKUS, the Paris agreement and the Windsor framework shows that statecraft has returned to No. 10.

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• 25 Nov 2021: Army Restructuring: Future Soldier

  12:21

  Secondly, we have just come through COP26, where huge commitments were made on the environment. How is future soldier adapting our Army to the environments and theatres that the Army will face, given the threat of instability and crises posed by future climate change across the world?

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• 26 Apr 2021: Carrier Strike Group Deployment

  18:30

  My father served on the carrier HMS Victorious, hunting down the Bismarck, so I welcome the Queen Elizabeth carrier strike group, which will travel 26,000 nautical miles over 28 weeks to 40 countries. However, I ask the Secretary of State: what will the cost of this deployment be? What will the carbon footprint be? What message will it send in relation to COP26? And are there any plans for the Navy overall to try to reduce its carbon footprint and, indeed, the carbon footprint of our trade?

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• 22 Mar 2021: Integrated Review: Defence Command Paper

  17:13

  In the defence review, the Secretary of State was right to set out that grey zone warfare, terrorism, climate change and organised crime mean that the threats to our national security and international stability are becoming less conventional, less predictable and more continuous.

  Our strategic threats are from China, which grows stronger each day from manufacturing trade, and Russia, which is threatened by China and relies on fossil fuel exports. Instead of focusing on cutting one in eight soldiers and stockpiling nuclear weapons, what discussions has the Secretary of State had across Government about using COP26 to put a carbon tax on trade, in order to check Chinese power and to help transition Russia from fossil fuels towards a wood economy for construction, to tackle climate change, so that holistically, we can protect the world without escalating the risk of war and destruction?

  The hon. Gentleman actually raises an important point. At the beginning of the Command Paper is a chapter about the global trends and the direction. Climate change poses a security threat because it could deliver instability, poverty and problems in other parts of the world that would drive migrant flows and increase friction over precious resource. That is absolutely true.

  The hon. Gentleman is also right to point out that one of the ways we are going to tackle our security threats is working together across the whole of Government to deal with them. The direction of travel on climate change will hopefully be set at COP26. Defence will play its part in both trying to solve its own emissions and making sure that it provides stability in some of the poorest countries, such as Sudan, where we recently had people, to make sure that the security threat sometimes delivered by climate change does not boil over and threaten regional stability.

  I welcome the concentration on climate change in the integrated review. The Secretary of State will know very well that the worrying rate of retreating ice in the Arctic presents commercial opportunities as well as threats, yet at the same time, the Russians have increased their submarine and above-surface capabilities in the Arctic very considerably in recent years. What does the Secretary of State intend to do with regard to safeguarding our commercial vehicles, which may well be making use of the northern sea route, in years to come?

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• 12 Mar 2020: Planning for the Future

  11:30

  The built environment and planning professions have a core role to play in tackling the climate emergency, yet in his statement the Secretary of State made only tangential mention of the climate emergency. I gently say to him: he will not achieve a green revolution with one single net-zero development across the whole UK. Can I encourage him to think again about this most urgent of challenges, to enshrine the climate emergency as a core purpose and responsibility of the planning system and to set the highest possible standards for net-zero development across our planning system to ensure we are not building new homes that will need to be retrofitted in the future?

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• 5 Sep 2019: Building Safety

  11:49

  Does the Secretary of State agree that building regulations can allow us a triple opportunity to build zero-energy bill homes—the homes of the future—quickly and affordably, reduce poverty and reduce greenhouse gases?

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• 19 May 2016: Transport and Local Infrastructure

  15:31

  The Secretary of State talked about UK infrastructure and, with a flourish, picked two dates, he said, at random—1997 and 2010. In 2010, Labour’s last year in government, public sector net investment—or infrastructure investment from Government—was 3.4% of GDP. One year later, in the first year of the previous Parliament, after the Chancellor made his cuts, it was down to 2.8%. By the end of that Parliament, it was 1.9% of GDP. This year, it is 1.9%. By the end of this Parliament, it will be 1.5%. That is the reality between the great rhetoric that my hon. Friend the Member for Bradford South talked about and the actions, investment and long-term commitments we see from this Government. Housing investment—part of the picture—was slashed by 60% in 2010, the first year of the previous Government. In the same year, roads investment was slashed by £4 billion. The renewables obligation—Labour’s renewables obligation, which was creating the funding to invest in green energy—was removed entirely. That is the reality of what happens when the Government do, rather than talk about, infrastructure.

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• 10 Sep 2013: Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill

  15:30

  The hon. Gentleman makes a very good point. Of course, it makes it especially difficult when organisations are trying to influence policy both in the devolved Administrations and in the UK Government. So many areas overlap now. It can be big things such as climate change, which was mentioned earlier; it can be things like fuel poverty or it can be much smaller things, which are partly devolved, partly not. A lot of work is done by such groups in influencing both the devolved Administrations and more widely.

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• 20 Mar 2013: Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

  14:48

  It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr Redwood). He has become something of a regular fixture on the first day of the Budget debates during the years I have been in the House. I shall start by agreeing with him about the importance of certain exemptions from the climate change levy. I have the honour of representing a steel area in Rotherham. Steel is one of this country’s strategic industries, and the Chancellor’s announcement today will be very welcome in my constituency. It will help to secure the industry for the future, and I hope that it will also help to secure extra investment from Tata Steel.

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• 15 Oct 2012: Infrastructure (Financial Assistance) Bill

  20:15

  I can confirm that CCS facilities are not excluded from the definition of infrastructure. If a project sponsor wanted to suggest such a project, it would be duly considered by the team under the scheme’s terms.

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• 19 Oct 2011: Energy Prices

  15:57

  They are failing consumers in three ways. First, they are out of touch. People simply cannot believe their ears when they hear the Secretary of State say in answer to the question of high energy prices that consumers are to blame for not shopping around. If people are not online, if they are on prepayment meters, if they do not have full bank accounts, and if they are unfortunate enough to call, according to the recent Which? survey, the one in three energy company advisers who do not give accurate information about their charges, they are simply not able to shop around as the Secretary of State suggests. Even the Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change, the hon. Member for Wealden (Charles Hendry) is not able to do so, as in June he told the Energy and Climate Change Committee:

  The action needed is clear: we should require energy suppliers to recover a far greater proportion of their costs from the unit rate of energy. To make energy bills clearer and fairer, I propose to the Minister a five-point plan—[Hon. Members: “Hooray!”] They are in vogue at the moment. First, we should abolish variable tariffs for the same energy supply. Secondly, we should require all tariffs to have the same format—a daily standing charge plus a clear cost per unit, including all the discounts. Thirdly, we should restrict standing charges only to cover the costs of the gas and electricity network. Fourthly, we should cover all other costs, including the costs of the Government’s climate change or social policies, through the variable charge, not on a per-customer basis, as is currently the case. Fifthly, to make these changes, we should use Ofgem’s current powers to regulate standing charges, under licensed conditions, plus the energy company obligation.

  Those changes would make the system clearer, making it easier for people to compare suppliers’ prices at a glance, and also fairer, so that low-income, low-use households would not have to pay significantly higher prices for the energy that they need. Those changes would be right in practice and right in principle, because climate change and social equity policies are best and most effective when they are more specific and selective in their application rather than having a general application. The costs of climate change should bite more strongly on heavy users, while the cost of supporting poor households should be borne more heavily by higher-using households that earn higher incomes.

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• 29 Mar 2010: Housing: Sustainable Development

  Under the Planning Policy Statement on climate change PPS 1 Local Authorities can specify levels of the Code as a planning condition as long as they have specified local circumstances that warrant and allow any local requirement.

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• 24 Mar 2010: Eco-Towns

  On energy efficiency and carbon, the PPS will require dwellings in eco-towns to demonstrate high levels of energy efficiency in the fabric of the building, having regard to proposals for standards to be incorporated into changes to the Building Regulations between now and 2016, and to meet at least 70 per cent. carbon reduction on site relative to Part L 2006 of the building regulations. This level of onsite carbon reduction is more demanding than Code level 4, is consistent with the zero carbon homes standard announced last year and will take effect significantly earlier than the general zero carbon homes requirement. In addition, over a year, the net carbon dioxide emissions from all energy use within the buildings on the eco-town development as a whole must be zero or below. This too is consistent with (and, depending on policy decisions to be made on allowable solutions for zero-carbon homes, may be more demanding than) the definition of Zero Carbon Homes which the Government have adopted for introduction in 2016.

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• 24 Mar 2010: Energy Performance Certificates

  The Department of Energy and Climate Change has recently published ‘Warm Homes, Greener Homes’, the Government's strategy for Household Energy Management. This Department has recently published a consultation, ‘Making better use of Energy Performance Certificates and Data’. This consultation sets out our proposals for increased access to the data collected through energy performance certificates and display energy certificates.

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• 12 Mar 2010: Zero Carbon and Healthier Buildings

  Part L of the Building Regulations set building standards that are important in delivering our zero carbon policies and will help to further reduce national energy demand, to meet our emission reduction targets in line with the Climate Change Act and to lower people’s fuel bills. We want energy efficient buildings, but we also want them to be healthy places to live and work in, which is why we are changing parts F and J of the Building Regulations at the same time.

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• 9 Mar 2010: Planning

  Moving towards a low-carbon economy requires a revolution in the way we design, heat and power our buildings. Planning must respond to this challenge, and help make low-carbon lifestyles the norm. Whatever is done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the future, past emissions mean that some climate change is already inevitable. As well as planning for a low-carbon future we must therefore also plan for a future with a changing climate—and do this in a way that protects our natural and cultural heritage.

  The draft Planning Policy Statement: “Planning for a Low-Carbon Future in a Changing Climate” updates and brings together in one place existing planning policy on climate change and renewable energy. When finalised, this streamlined policy will be central to our national series of planning policy statements, and operate alongside the new suite of national policy statements for energy infrastructure. It will provide the overarching framework for our planning policies on climate change, both on measures to reduce carbon and to adapt to a changing climate.

  We already have planning policy on climate change (published in 2007) and renewable energy (2004). This consultation brings together this policy into a single document and reflects the ambition to tackle climate change set out in the “Low Carbon Transition Plan”. This Government’s determination to transform how we use energy was underlined when we published on 2 March 2010 “Warm Homes, Greener Homes” www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/what_we_do/consumers/saving_energy/hem/hem.aspx. This strategy sets out the key role of local government and planning in driving the development of renewable heat networks.

  To help introduce and operate this new planning policy, I am making available a package worth £9.75 million to develop the new skills and improve capacity across the range of local authority responsibilities needed to tackle climate change. This will help strengthen the skills and knowledge needed by planners, including in planning for increased renewable energy supply and encouraging local communities to take positive action on climate change.

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• 25 Feb 2010: Sustainable Development

  Towns and cities can play a big role in tackling climate change. Many local authorities in towns and cities have set themselves targets to reduce emissions in response to National Indicator 186. We have set out our expectation of how planning authorities in towns and cities can plan new development to ensure carbon emissions are reduced in our Climate Change Planning Policy Statement (PPS) and we will shortly be consulting on a revision to the PPS. As part of the Eco-towns Programme we have set out sustainability standards for eco-towns in our eco-towns PPS. These include the requirement that the developments as a whole must be zero-carbon. We are working with nine groups of local authorities and individual local authorities to pilot the concept of local carbon frameworks, a new approach for local authorities to set themselves ambitious targets and plans for reducing carbon emissions.

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