Torsten Bell MP: Climate Timeline

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Torsten Bell's Climate-related Tweets, Speeches & Votes

We've found the following climate-related tweets, speeches & votes by Torsten Bell

• 3 Feb 2025: Parliamentary Speech

  I have heard the hon. Gentleman’s comment and will raise it with the responsible Minister in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, but it is important that all pensioners who are entitled to support get it. That is what the Government are focused on.

  Full debate: Oral Answers to Questions

• 22 Jan 2025: Tweet

  First time representing the Government at Treasury Questions yesterday. Looking forward to helping the Tories understand that unless we deliver secure, home-grown renewable energy through cheap renewable generation, there is no energy security ahead. https://x.com/TorstenBell/status/1882028268599357738/video/1 [Source]

• 21 Jan 2025: Parliamentary Speech

  We take very seriously the need to protect communities from flooding and to deliver on our commitments on climate in the years ahead. It is important that we consider both principles and that is what the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero are doing.

  Full debate: Green Infrastructure Investment

• 12 Dec 2024: Tweet

  While we’re on the subject of getting things built… this is great news. The new £70m Greener Grid Park in Swansea is an important part of how we maximise the potential for Welsh renewable energy projects to deliver cheaper and carbon free energy https://twitter.com/prifweinidog/status/1867172056007082383 [Source]

• 28 Aug 2024: Tweet

  We want growth for higher wages, lower absolute poverty, half decent public services, the ability to tackle climate change while protecting household living standards… we won’t solve the huge crises we face by flirting with a degrowth agenda that makes almost everything harder https://twitter.com/carolinelucas/status/1828719450142491110 [Source]

• 17 Jul 2024: Tweet

  You can be pro-net zero or pro-zero building but not both… https://twitter.com/jasongroves1/status/1813454336195702893 [Source]

• 15 Jul 2024: Tweet

  RT @WelshLabour: Today, we have officially launched Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru — our publicly-owned renewable energy developer for Wales. Labour… [Source]

• 12 Jul 2024: Tweet

  Things are going to get built and our energy is going to be decarbonised because the country elected a Labour Government. Ignore the cynics - who you vote for does change things. https://twitter.com/aliciakearns/status/1811812445695963142 [Source]

• 09 Jul 2024: Tweet

  @tim_blandford @RachelReevesMP It really does - if were to decarbonise our electricity amongst other things [Source]

• 08 Jul 2024: Tweet

  Oh, and don’t believe anyone who tells you they are serious about net zero while regularly opposing wind or solar farms, or the networks required for the energy generated to get to where people and industry are. So fed up of this nonsense ???? https://twitter.com/seandsmyth/status/1810205991004172605 [Source]

• 08 Jul 2024: Tweet

  2. If we want net zero to happen, and to happen without higher costs, then things are going to have to be built. Things that not everyone loves. And they will also have to be built if we want our firms to be able to invest, grow and pay higher wages [Source]

• 05 Jul 2024: Tweet

  RT @10DowningStreet: Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP @Ed_Miliband as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero @energygovuk. https://t.co/b… [Source]

• 13 Jun 2024: Tweet

  When Labour’s manifesto is published imminently no-one who actually pays attention can say the parties are the same: - no unfunded tax cuts - invest in net zero not playing politics with it - biggest expansion of workers rights in my lifetime - homes built not blocked [Source]

• 19 Mar 2024: Tweet

  People will say we can't knock anything down for net zero/embedded carbon reasons - but the reason much of Europe has so much more energy efficient homes is their housing stock is just nowhere near as old/knackered. [Source]

• 11 Feb 2024: Tweet

  If we want net zero to happen, and to happen without higher costs, then things are going to have to be built. Things that not everyone loves. https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1756647786701832566 [Source]

• 11 Feb 2024: Tweet

  That was what was refreshing about @EvanHD now famous interview with the Chief Secretary this week - focusing on the substance of how huge tax cuts make sense when 1) debt is rising 2) public services are creaking 3) more not less public investment is needed (hello net zero) [Source]

• 07 Feb 2024: Tweet

  The evidence supports neither campaigners who say net zero is a free lunch, nor the sceptics who simply throw up their hands and say this is all impossible. Like lots of other areas of public policy, parts of it are hard but can, and must, still be done [Source]

• 07 Feb 2024: Tweet

  More important than a headline £ commitment is what either main party has to say on the policy substance. Both are committed (in theory) to a big ramping up of net zero action in the next parliament. That simply wont happen without more public investment, especially on homes [Source]

• 04 Feb 2024: Tweet

  If these fines are dropped it’s the symptom of the problem (no progress on the home heating part of the net zero transition) rather than its cause. We’re installing about 30k heat pumps a year but will need to be installing 1 million a year during 2030s… https://twitter.com/PickardJE/status/1754220154647380095 [Source]

• 22 Jan 2024: Tweet

  Come work @resfoundation on how Britain can deliver net zero while protecting the living standards of those on low and middle incomes. The transition needs you ???? https://twitter.com/resfoundation/status/1749358022659322133 [Source]

• 22 Nov 2023: Tweet

  Despite criticising labour for wanting to borrow for capital spending on green growth, Chancellor announces pot to fund decarbonisation of key manufacturing industries. Sensible and more cross party agreement than either admits [Source]

• 22 Nov 2023: Tweet

  It's lucky we haven't got a net zero transition to fund... [Source]

• 09 Oct 2023: Tweet

  In many ways whether and how we manage that is the political economy task of the next few decades - it's the hard part of the net zero transition and it's what will turn growth aspirations into growth reality. Time we got on with it [Source]

• 09 Oct 2023: Tweet

  On how to raise PRIVATE investment, Labour has two arguments: - crowding in green investment with clear net zero plans/public investment - a platform of political/economic stability generally (ie not being Liz Truss or Boris Johnson) These will help but... [Source]

• 09 Oct 2023: Tweet

  She's not wrong 3. The net zero transition is best thought of as a huge invest to save project (not just saving the planet, saving in terms of cheaper running costs) [Source]

• 27 Sep 2023: Tweet

  The immediate cuts problem. Public investment levels right now are higher than we have seen for some time. But significant cuts lie ahead - from 2.5% of GDP to 2.2% in 2027-28. That is mad when Britain needs to be investing more not less (hello the net zero transition) https://twitter.com/TorstenBell/status/1706970104905228777/photo/1 [Source]

• 20 Sep 2023: Tweet

  Reading this speech you’re left with the impression it’s much more about staking out a new approach to the politics of the election run in than to net zero https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-on-net-zero-20-september-2023 [Source]

• 20 Sep 2023: Tweet

  …obviously announcing changes to those targets is also taking the easy route to signalling a different approach. And saying what you won’t be doing to achieve net zero isn’t the same thing as saying what you actually will do… [Source]

• 20 Sep 2023: Tweet

  So… @RishiSunak isn’t wrong that politicians and campaigners have focused on the announcing of net zero targets rather than the policy required to get us there… https://twitter.com/TorstenBell/status/1704549865735303591/photo/1 [Source]

• 20 Sep 2023: Tweet

  ...ideally net zero policy would mainly be about country/planet https://twitter.com/christopherhope/status/1704486343852618097 [Source]

• 20 Sep 2023: Tweet

  Boiler Upgrade Scheme is the subsidy for installing heat pumps - raising it is what actually matters for getting some actual progress on heat pump installations (currently laughably low). Obviously means a bigger state (despite libertarian rhetoric of net zero sceptics) https://twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1704446969173745671 [Source]

• 19 Sep 2023: Tweet

  This all reflects the real problem with the far too slow transition of net zero targets/discussions into bread and butter normal policy questions - which politicians flippantly announcing ambitious targets (or campaigners pretending everything is easy) are also guilty of [Source]

• 19 Sep 2023: Tweet

  On the substance really important to think about these targets separately. EVs are the part of the net zero transition that actually saves households money - and any ban on petrol/diesel cars was always contingent on delivering charging infrastructure (=the real policy challenge) https://twitter.com/TorstenBell/status/1704186169305489812/photo/1 [Source]

• 19 Sep 2023: Tweet

  People in Westminster are massively overestimating the political salience of tweaking (but keeping) net zero targets for the 2030s https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1704178965731041739 [Source]

• 04 Aug 2023: Tweet

  Latest in "the buying of electric cars is not the hard bit of the net zero transition" news https://twitter.com/DrSimEvans/status/1687395053679874048 [Source]

• 24 Jul 2023: Tweet

  Embarrassing debate on 2030 petrol/diesel car ban in last few days - totally ignoring why this isn't the hard bit of the net zero transition: - electric cars are CHEAPER to run - richer households buy new cars This isn't where net zero gets difficult household finance wise [Source]

• 21 Jul 2023: Tweet

  @kateferguson4 National rows about the pace of heat pump roll out and who pays for installations - if the Conservatives in opposition move into a more overtly anti-net zero measures position than they have in government [Source]

• 02 Jul 2023: Tweet

  IF there’s a change of government in 2024 we are going to see net zero (the specifics/timelines not principle) move out of the cross party consensus bucket and into the politically contested one https://twitter.com/AllieHBNews/status/1675614602183294977 [Source]

• 28 Jun 2023: Tweet

  Lots of great analysis in here - especially highlighting that we're not making enough progress on industrial decarbonisation and the home heating transition https://twitter.com/StarkClimate/status/1673965230500577281 [Source]

• 13 Mar 2023: Tweet

  Fourth: our economic strategy needs to do, but also look well beyond, net zero. With everyone competing for domestic green technology production how about we don't forget the sectors we know we're good at: we're a service-exporting superpower with sides in beverages & aerospace https://twitter.com/TorstenBell/status/1635261847078334464/photo/1 [Source]

• 13 Mar 2023: Tweet

  Second: get on with a net zero industrial strategy but focus our efforts. Not because we don't have the fiscal firepower of the US/EU, but because we don't have the market size. So focus on our clear comparative advantages (wind power) and areas with smaller economies of scale https://twitter.com/TorstenBell/status/1635261841344724994/photo/1 [Source]

• 20 Feb 2023: Tweet

  This is part of a wider problem on perspective - we increasingly talk as if net zero related investments are the beginning and end of economic strategies for advanced economies in the 2020s. They simply can't be scale wise (despite being crucial) https://twitter.com/adam_tooze/status/1627624110737047552 [Source]

• 07 Feb 2023: Tweet

  So confirmed - we've gone back to Gordon Brown's 2007 Whitehall: Department for energy security and net zero = DECC Department for business and trade = DBERR Department for science, innovation and technology = DIUS https://twitter.com/TorstenBell/status/1622724594988638209 [Source]

• 14 Oct 2022: Tweet

  Public investment is where cuts are going to come - science, net zero and transport going to get hit https://twitter.com/PhilAldrick/status/1580926856974708737 [Source]

• 23 Sep 2022: Tweet

  4. Not really discussed at all today, but the government has also at last got going on the new ECO scheme to deliver home energy efficiency improvements. Ramping progress up here is the key challenge facing net zero delivery in the 2020s on the household side of things https://twitter.com/TorstenBell/status/1573339171745570817/photo/1 [Source]

• 18 Sep 2022: Tweet

  @rcolvile @James_BG It’s more the general “we need to tank GDP to have a chance of achieving net zero” brigade I was thinking of, rather than the proponents of specific steps to achieve net zero (which we clearly need, some of which boost growth and others not) [Source]

• 31 Aug 2022: Tweet

  Cut the green cr*p! Can't believe I missed this off the original list. Still keep hearing people saying this problem is being caused by green levies/green energy/green... speaking/thinking. This rather underplays the role of: 1) gas (it's got carbon in it people) 2) PUTIN [Source]

• 26 Aug 2022: Tweet

  While we're on the radical policy moves that are going to have to come in the months ahead - there is no way the reluctance to tackle the windfalls being accrued by renewable energy generators can hold. The choice is just if we windfall tax those profits or regulate them down [Source]

• 25 Jul 2022: Tweet

  Big picture: both candidates happy to avoid rows on almost anything (Boris/Net Zero/NHS) and focus on the “when you cut taxes” dividing line that’s dominated the contest so far [Source]

• 25 Jul 2022: Tweet

  Longer discussion of expensive suits than net zero… on which neither wants a row either [Source]

• 25 Jul 2022: Tweet

  Net Zero - no-one really wants a row or to set out what it will take to deliver the targets we’re theoretically committed to [Source]

• 04 Jul 2022: Tweet

  @danielrportis @ACJSissons @theCCCuk agree EVs are a straight invest to save exercise. On HPs I would be far less confident... Put it this way, if we didn't need to decarbonise we wouldn't be imminently shifting on mass to HPs given our housing stock [Source]

• 04 Jul 2022: Tweet

  @danielrportis @ACJSissons @theCCCuk That's massively too optimistic. Lots of what we're doing is investing to largely maintain the status quo (just with less carbon...). If cheap abundant electricity materialises then we'd be talking, but being confident that'll happen in the near future is... bold [Source]

• 04 Jul 2022: Tweet

  @ACJSissons @danielrportis @theCCCuk People certain there will be a big productivity impact are massively overdoing it (whether they're green campaigners or climate sceptic doomsters) is my unpopular view [Source]

• 04 Jul 2022: Tweet

  @danielrportis @ACJSissons @theCCCuk We're not literally going to spend £28bn on better lofts obviously. Read the next tweet - the basic point is govt is going to be spending to decarbonise our infrastructure more than to transform our economy into a green manufacturing powerhouse [Source]

• 03 Jul 2022: Tweet

  Not just the housing stock, but funding the huge invest to save project that net zero amounts to (houses, energy generation, electric vehicle infrastructure and the rest). Collectivising those up front costs is what social democrats are going to be about in the decades ahead [Source]

• 03 Jul 2022: Tweet

  Labour talks as if the focus of the £28bn they’ve earmarked for green investment will be creating jobs. If they ever ended up in government the reality is it’d go on sorting out our housing stock (or we’d just end up way of track net zero wise) https://twitter.com/jreynoldsMP/status/1543549072312864768 [Source]

• 17 Jun 2022: Tweet

  Chart is courtesy of @JMarshall_3 who you should all be following for our net zero research and more [Source]

• 10 May 2022: Tweet

  If you want one thing to be perky about it should be that the Energy Security Bill partly embodies one of the big positives about our politics (vs the US or even Germany): both main parties are serious about net zero [Source]

• 15 Mar 2022: Tweet

  Conservatives in Government saying much more sensible things on energy than those filling newspaper columns/hoping for relevance by trying (and failing) to turn net zero into a culture war https://t.co/Fz6U3bnvuC [Source]

• 14 Mar 2022: Tweet

  @johnharris1969 There's some overlap with more majoritarian positions ie a cut to fuel duty is really about popular cost of living help now but some fringe elements will be happy to read it as a big net zero rethink [Source]

• 14 Mar 2022: Tweet

  @johnharris1969 Not mad for those who are anti-net zero to try and scare Johnson into diluting progress, but mad for any major party to significantly change tack on the issue. I really don't think the govt will do more than showing a bit of leg to placate the vocal minority [Source]

• 14 Mar 2022: Tweet

  Trying to turn the crisis in Ukraine into an internal UK debate on Net Zero is 1) bonkers on the substance 2) mad politics for any party aiming for more than about 5% of the vote https://twitter.com/johnharris1969/status/1503327182382325765 [Source]

• 07 Mar 2022: Tweet

  You know what's not a good idea before an energy price crisis? Wasting ten crucial years when we should have been insulating the UK's disastrously energy inefficient housing stock. Not sure a referendum on net zero will sort that https://twitter.com/TorstenBell/status/1500765107051237378/photo/1 [Source]

• 20 Feb 2022: Tweet

  The huge gap between rhetoric and reality on economic change matters. It focuses our attention on the wrong problems and drives us to the wrong answers. And because we’re not used to change we’re ill prepared if it arrives in the 2020s as covid, Brexit and net zero combine [Source]

• 10 Feb 2022: Tweet

  The state is getting bigger - the 2020s is all about rising pension, health and net zero spending pressures. The first two alone total £76bn by 2030 https://twitter.com/TorstenBell/status/1491759758134714374/photo/1 [Source]