Dr Rupa Huq MP: Climate Timeline

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Rupa Huq's Climate-related Tweets, Speeches & Votes

We've found the following climate-related tweets, speeches & votes by Rupa Huq in the last 90 days

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• 10 Dec 2024: Parliamentary Speech

  As I speak about this huge solar installation in my constituency, hon. Members should make no mistake: I recognise climate change as one of the greatest threats to our planet and way of life. I want us to continue our shift to renewable energy, reduce our carbon footprint and improve our energy security, and that includes solar. I welcome solar on factory and warehouse roofs, housing developments, brownfield sites and even out-of-the-way pockets of poor-quality land. But Cleve Hill is altogether different. When complete, the solar park will cover more than 700 acres—an area larger than the town of Faversham itself. It will have not far off 1 million solar panels, each the height of a double-decker bus. No amount of natural screening can prevent this huge installation from dominating the landscape.

  On all three counts, I seek the Minister’s assurance and action. To be clear, I am not advocating more red tape. This is about doing something better, not making it harder. If we get this right, we can improve how we build energy infrastructure in this country. That is important because we need more renewable energy generation capacity to meet our future energy needs, in a world where economic growth is likely to be dependent on energy-intensive computing power. All our futures depend on that, so let us ensure that we get it right, starting right here, right now, with Cleve Hill solar.

  Full debate: Cleve Hill Solar Park

• 20 Nov 2024: Parliamentary Speech

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

  Full debate: Global Plastics Treaty

• 14 Nov 2024: Tweet

  Excited about my constituent tv's @Konnie_Huq's edited kid's climate change guide, lavishly illustrated with @jamieoliver and @Baddiel amongst contributors. I asked if ministers can help get it in primary schools to spread the word young https://x.com/RupaHuq/status/1857094247549161894/video/1 [Source]

• 14 Nov 2024: Tweet

  On the occasion of his 76th birthday here’s the King back in 1989 in a climate change feature in Smash Hits, along with Mrs Thatcher @tanita_tikaram and Simon Le Bon! @smashhitsbot https://x.com/RupaHuq/status/1857019951497846987/photo/1 [Source]

• 13 Nov 2024: Tweet

  RT @McrWritingSchl: Konnie Huq launches free #climatecrisis ebook for UK primary schools: the Guardian covers “Children for Change”, a proj… [Source]