Zarah Sultana MP: Climate Timeline

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Zarah Sultana's Climate-related Tweets, Speeches & Votes

We've found the following climate-related tweets, speeches & votes by Zarah Sultana

• 25 Nov 2024: Tweet

  My thoughts are with those affected by Storm Bert & I thank our emergency services on the frontline. With extreme weather rising due to climate change, fire services need urgent funding. England is the only part of the UK without a statutory duty for flooding. This must change. https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/1861168870565810606/video/1 [Source]

• 18 Nov 2024: Tweet

  The cost-of-living crisis is far from over, yet the government’s 50% increase to the bus fare cap is a political choice, adding hundreds to annual costs. To address hardship & the climate crisis, the government must keep the £2 cap & make public transport accessible for all. https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/1858598986040680829/video/1 [Source]

• 5 Nov 2024: Parliamentary Speech

  Ending austerity is not just about stopping cuts; it is about real action to lift people out of poverty. The critical first step must be to scrap the two-child benefit cap, which unfairly punishes families for having more than two children. If it remains, according to the Resolution Foundation an additional 63,000 children will be in poverty by 2025. We must scrap it immediately. We must also reverse the means-testing of winter fuel payments. No pensioner should have to choose between heating and eating in a cost of living crisis. Providing warmth to those at risk should be non-negotiable for a Labour Government. The 50% rise in bus fare cap is equally unacceptable. Affordable public transport is vital for low-income families, students and those without cars. Increasing fares deepens and entrenches inequality, and hinders our climate goals.

  Finally, we need a bold economic plan to secure our future, with a worker-led just transition to renewable energy, creating thousands of unionised jobs and ensuring that no one is left behind. My constituents in Coventry South and communities across the UK deserve a Budget that marks the end of austerity with action not just words, and with a true commitment to ending poverty.

  Full debate: Income Tax (Charge)

• 24 Oct 2024: Tweet

  Taxpayers compensated descendants of slave owners until 2015. It’s time for the UK government to apologise & pay reparations for its role in the Caribbean slave trade. Addressing historical injustices is crucial in tackling the climate crisis & supporting those most impacted. [Source]

• 25 Sep 2024: Tweet

  Google provided £10,000 of hospitality to senior Labour figures & the party ditched plans to raise the Digital Services Tax. Quadrature, a Cayman Islands hedge-fund which invests in fossil fuels, donated £4m & its climate advisory board co-chair is now Climate Envoy. It stinks. [Source]

• 23 Jan 2024: Tweet

  The transition to net zero will require low carbon steel – and we could be making more of that here in Britain. That's why today I joined @unitetheunion to call on the government to bring forward a plan to create jobs, not cut them. https://twitter.com/zarahsultana/status/1749818382491464040/photo/1 [Source]

• 22 Jan 2024: Parliamentary Speech

  to energy security. That is no surprise, since fossil fuel companies are given ownership of what they extract and then sell it on the world market. The Bill is the very opposite of tackling the climate crisis. That is a blatant truth recognised by the Government’s own Climate Change Committee, which said the Bill is not in line with net zero.

  If the Bill is not about energy bills, energy security or tackling the climate crisis, what is it about? The answer is simple. It is about maximising profit for fossil fuel giants, guaranteeing that they can extract every last bit of oil and gas, no matter the consequence for people and planet. These companies are the last that need our support. As energy bills soared last year—our constituents know that reality far too well—BP’s global profits hit £23 billion. Shell reported its highest ever profits: a whopping £32 billion. This year, the world’s five biggest oil companies are expected to hand investors more than £80 billion. Record bills for my Coventry South constituents have meant record profits for fossil fuel giants.

  More oil and gas extraction may be good for fossil fuel companies and their shareholders, but it spells disaster for the rest of us. If we continue to let the climate crisis deteriorate, we condemn our constituents to a world where extreme weather patterns become more common and more severe; where there are more Storm Henks and more Storm Ishas, and where their winds blow harder and their floods get deeper. We condemn young people across the country to a world where droughts destroy crops and food systems break down, where sea levels rise and millions are displaced.

  Full debate: Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill

• 27 Sep 2023: Tweet

  The Tory government's approval of Rosebank is climate vandalism. It's not about cutting energy bills (it won't). It's about boosting obscene fossil fuel profits – even if that means accelerating the climate crisis. #StopRosebank and put people and planet before profit. [Source]

• 25 Jul 2023: Tweet

  With deadly forest fires, devastating floods and record-breaking temperatures recorded, remember: Just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions. Only bold state-led policy – beginning with a Green New Deal – can avert climate catastrophe. [Source]

• 16 May 2023: Parliamentary Speech

  Let me be clear: wages have been lagging well below price rises, so they cannot be their fundamental cause. This is not wage-price inflation. It is something else, and that something else is greed inflation—inflation driven not by workers’ wages but by corporate greed. Big businesses are exploiting droughts and wars, post-pandemic demand and supply-side shocks from climate breakdown. That is, in effect, what even the likes of the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank have said. They both asked whether wages were driving higher prices, and both found that explanation wanting. Instead, the ECB found that profits contributed to two thirds of the rise in inflation in 2022 alone, having been responsible for just one third in the previous two decades.

  Full debate: Corporate Profit and Inflation

• 24 Jan 2023: Tweet

  There's no bigger threat than the climate catastrophe, but the school curriculum is leaving pupils unprepared for the challenges ahead. That's why I am pleased to co-sponsor @NadiaWhittomeMP's Climate Education Bill, which she brought back to Parliament today ???????????? https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/1617950924907110400/photo/1 [Source]

• 22 Nov 2022: Tweet

  Young people are growing up with a world in crisis: From the cost-of-living to the climate emergency. That's why I find it so important to visit schools in my constituency and speak about politics, as I did last week at Earlsdon & Willenhall primaries & Meadow Park secondary ???? https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/1595106368633159681/photo/1 [Source]

• 19 Oct 2022: Vote

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

• 30 Aug 2022: Tweet

  RT @lewis_goodall: Numbers behind the Pakistan flooding crisis are stunning/deeply disturbing. ????????The Climate Change Minister says one thir… [Source]

• 03 Aug 2022: Tweet

  RT @TWT_NOW: ???? First TWT22 lineup announcements are here! ???? In the face of soaring living costs, attacks on workers & climate breakdown -… [Source]

• 20 Jun 2022: Tweet

  The climate crisis is displacing people across the globe and even more will be forced to move if it's allowed to get worse. That's why climate justice is migrant justice and it's why I joined @GNDRising as they prepared to demonstrate against the hostile environment in Coventry. https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/1538927728921034755/photo/1 [Source]

• 30 May 2022: Tweet

  Aged 16-35 and want to tackle the climate emergency? Join me and @GNDRising in Coventry on 17-19th June! Sign-up here: https://www.gndrising.org/campaigns/coventry-canvas-weekender/ https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/1531313113034809346/video/1 [Source]

• 19 May 2022: Tweet

  RT @ApsanaBegumMP: Instead of taking action to address the cost-of-living crisis and injustices like racism and climate breakdown, the gove… [Source]

• 07 Apr 2022: Tweet

  The climate crisis is already wreaking havoc across the globe, but young people's futures are most at risk. That's why youth groups like @GNDRising are leading the fight for climate and social justice. Earlier this week I joined them at Coventry University to speak about this. https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/1512093544063852550/photo/1 [Source]

• 15 Feb 2022: Tweet

  RT @StopCambo: We urgently need a #JustTransition to address the climate crisis, provide affordable energy to British homes and reliable jo… [Source]

• 13 Dec 2021: Vote

  Subsidy Control Bill — Schedule 1 - The subsidy control principles - Pro-climate vote: Aye - Their vote: Aye

• 08 Nov 2021: Tweet

  Boris Johnson says "when it comes to tackling climate change, words without action are absolutely pointless." So why didn't you sign my letter calling for the MPs' Pension Fund to divest from fossil fuel companies, @BorisJohnson? ???? https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/08/climate-130-mps-call-pension-fund-divest-fossil-fuels [Source]

• 03 Nov 2021: Tweet

  The Conservatives talk-the-talk on the climate emergency, but look at what they're actually doing: From backing a new North Sea oil field to slashing taxes on domestic flights, they're not serious about this crisis. Me on #PoliticsLive today: https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/1456017894488354818/video/1 [Source]

• 02 Nov 2021: Tweet

  It was great to talk about COP26, his government's drive to eliminate poverty, and the time he spent in Coventry while studying Economics at the University of Warwick. The university can be very proud of what he's gone on to do! ???????? [Source]

• 02 Nov 2021: Tweet

  Boris Johnson says that "when it comes to tackling climate change, words without action are absolutely pointless." I agree. So will you back my call for the MPs' Pension Fund to divest from fossil fuel companies, @BorisJohnson? https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/1455498097912688645/video/1 [Source]

• 02 Nov 2021: Tweet

  Last week I stood with young people outside Parliament, demanding they're taught the truth about the climate emergency and are equipped with the skills to tackle it ???????? https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/1455484036248444928/photo/1 [Source]

• 01 Nov 2021: Tweet

  Boris Johnson says he wants Britain to be a “world leader” on tackling the climate crisis. He also will be flying from Glasgow to London tomorrow, one week after slashing taxes on domestic flights. He’s taking the p*ss. [Source]

• 01 Nov 2021: Tweet

  When Boris Johnson says he's serious about the climate emergency, remember he backs: - New North Sea oil field - New Cumbria coal mine - New Mozambique gas project (funded with £835 million of public money) - Slashing tax on domestic flights - Subsidies for fossil fuel industry [Source]

• 29 Oct 2021: Tweet

  The Green New Deal Bill is a plan to avert climate catastrophe by taking on the fossil fuel industry and putting people and planet before profit. To show leadership on climate, Labour should wholeheartedly support it. Me for @LabourList: https://labourlist.org/2021/10/labour-must-go-bold-on-the-climate-with-the-green-new-deal/ [Source]

• 28 Oct 2021: Tweet

  To avert climate catastrophe, we need to rapidly transition from deadly fossil fuels to renewables like wind, tidal and solar. Last night I chaired an event in Coventry about we can do this locally, working to make the city's energy sustainable and fit for the future ???? https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/1453748607514038274/photo/1 [Source]

• 27 Oct 2021: Parliamentary Speech

  Q5. This week, it was revealed that fossil-fuel companies, interest groups and climate denialists had donated £1.3 million to the Conservative party and its MPs since 2019. So, a simple question, no waffling or dodging the issue: on the eve of COP26, will the Prime Minister demonstrate that he is serious about tackling the climate emergency by paying back that money and pledging that his party will never again take money and donations from the fossil-fuel companies that are burning our planet? Yes or no? ( 903886 )

  Full debate: Oral Answers to Questions

• 27 Oct 2021: Tweet

  You don't slash taxes on domestic flights if you're serious about the climate emergency @RishiSunak. [Source]

• 27 Oct 2021: Tweet

  If Boris Johnson was serious about the climate crisis, he wouldn't take money from the fossil fuel companies burning our planet. https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/1453345547822288904/video/1 [Source]

• 19 Oct 2021: Parliamentary Speech

  In 1998, a PR consultant was working with big fossil fuel companies. He was grappling with a problem: the Kyoto protocol had just been signed. This landmark agreement reflected the scientific consensus that human-made carbon dioxide emissions were driving global warming and threatening climate catastrophe. It committed Governments to cutting carbon to avert this calamity. But for the PR consultant and fossil fuel companies, this was not a step forward—it was an existential problem. If Governments cut carbon, that would mean less oil bought and sold. It would mean smaller dividends for big oil’s shareholders and smaller bonuses for executives. Profits for fossil fuel companies were under threat, and they could not have that.

  So the PR consultant devised a plan. In a memo to the trade association of the fossil fuel companies, he outlined a plan: a comprehensive, international campaign to change public opinion on the climate emergency. The plan aimed to cast doubt on the scientific consensus, by funding think tanks and media campaigns, and buying off a tiny minority of scientists. The campaign aimed to manufacture doubt about the science of the climate emergency. The PR consultant wrote that the goal of the project was for the public to “recognise that significant uncertainties exist in climate science.”

  A few years later, another memo warned of the “potentially catastrophic” consequences of a refusal to cut emissions. In 1982, an internal document admitted that the science was “unanimous”. But because their profits were threatened, fossil fuel companies buried the truth. Just as the PR consultant advised, the companies poured millions into think-tanks, scientists and politicians who spread climate denial. In 2001, when President George W. Bush rejected the Kyoto protocol and its ambition to cut emissions, he told a fossil fuel-funded lobby group that his decision was

  Next month, Britain hosts COP26. We have a responsibility to show leadership on the world stage, demonstrating that we will rise to this historic challenge with the bold actions needed to avert climate catastrophe, taking on fossil fuel executives and transforming our economy for people and planet. Here is how the House must contribute to this historic task. First, Members of this House past and present are automatically members of a pension fund—a fund that invests in climate-destroying fossil fuel companies. Put simply, our pensions fund environmental destruction. For younger Members like me, on current trajectories, by the time I am old enough for my pension, temperatures will have soared well above the 1.5°C required by the Paris agreement, collapsing food systems, melting ice caps and causing extreme weather to become the norm.

  With the world’s eyes now on us, we in this House can demonstrate real leadership by divesting Parliament from fossil fuels, and showing public commitment to taking our money out of the deadly fossil fuel industry and instead putting it to the public good and investing in the green technologies of the future. More than 360 current and former MPs from all parties in the House have pledged to support the Divest Parliament campaign. Under that pressure, and after letters from myself and colleagues, investments in the fossil fuel industry have fallen, but they have not been eliminated. There is still no plan to align our pensions with the 1.5°C global heating limit, and the full portfolio of investments remains a secret. So, as we prepare to host COP26 we in this House are still funding climate destruction. Here is my message to the pension fund trustees today: reveal the fund’s full investment; divest fully from fossil fuels; and show that this House will lead the fight to save our planet.

  Back-Bench Members can do only so much. Real change must come from those on the Government Front Bench, because while the Government hide behind empty slogans and meagre promises, they back investment in new fossil fuel projects—from the Cambo oilfield where 170 million barrels of oil are set to be extracted, which will emit more than 10 times Scotland’s annual carbon output, pouring fuel on the fire of a burning planet, to investments abroad such as the Mozambique liquid natural gas project, to which the Government pledged more than $1 billion in financial support, fuelling not just climate breakdown, but human rights abuses, too.

  Then there is the role of British banks. The Government like to boast about London being the heart of the global financial system, but forget to mention that British banks are world leaders in funding fossil fuel companies. UK banks Barclays and HSBC rank among the worst in the world, having provided £158 billion in fossil fuel finance since the Paris agreement was signed, handing the likes of Shell and BP the fortunes they need to extract the fuels that are setting our world alight.

  If we are to avert climate catastrophe, in place of a financial system that puts fossil fuel profits before people and planet we need a wholesale rewiring of financial institutions, putting capital to work for the public good, not private greed. We need a much wider economic transformation, too. We need a programme of change to avert climate catastrophe and to transform our economy and society in the interests of the many. That is the green new deal. I am proud to be co-sponsoring the Green New Deal Bill, alongside colleagues including the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas) and my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich South (Clive Lewis).

  The green new deal recognises the urgency of tackling climate breakdown, with a 2030 net zero target—not the 2050 target that condemns us to climate catastrophe—and it would reach that target through decarbonisation with the interests of working people front and centre. Yes, it means rapidly winding down and repurposing the fossil fuel industry by taking majority public stakes in fossil fuel companies, but doing so while every worker impacted gets a Government-backed jobs guarantee, ensuring that they get a well-paid, unionised job and are not left on the scrapheap as has happened in past industrial transitions.

  So long as this Government and this House—us MPs—fund the fossil fuel industry, backing new projects such as the Cambo oilfield and pipelines across southern Africa, they can speak with no authority at COP26. They are not part of the answer to the climate emergency; they are simply part of the problem. Instead of investing in fossil fuels, it is time to invest in a green new deal. There is no time to waste.

  Full debate: Fossil Fuel Industry: Regulation of Investments

• 09 Oct 2021: Tweet

  Today I marched for the climate in Coventry, demanding the government uses @COP26 to bring about the change we need to save our future ???????? https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/1446878411964796936/photo/1 [Source]

• 26 Sep 2021: Tweet

  There’s no bigger challenge than the climate crisis. It’s the issue that will define our future. This afternoon I joined a fantastic @TWT_NOW panel to speak about how we must rise to this challenge, matching it in scale & ambition. Now is no time to back away from bold answers. https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/1442165931644370951/photo/1 [Source]

• 23 Sep 2021: Tweet

  Capitalism is driving us to climate catastrophe. The political establishment is fiddling while the planet burns. My generation won't stand for this. Tomorrow, outside Parliament, I'm joining the #ClimateStrike to say we need system change, not climate change. #UprootTheSystem https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/1441079171841728514/photo/1 [Source]

• 16 Sep 2021: Tweet

  My generation will be particularly unimpressed by attempts to block the policies needed to avert climate catastrophe. This outrageous, anti-democratic and frankly embarrassing decision must be reversed. https://twitter.com/LabGND/status/1438521004070891531 [Source]

• 10 Sep 2021: Tweet

  The climate crisis is with us. Floods & forest fires are wreaking havoc. My generation & the young will feel its worst effects: a future on an unliveable planet. This morning I met Coventry @GNDRising, talking about how we avert climate catastrophe & build a more equal world ???? https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/1436383565701332995/photo/1 [Source]

• 27 Aug 2021: Tweet

  RT @TWT_NOW: ????#TWT21 PROGRAMME NOW LIVE???? From sessions on the climate crisis and racial justice, to future of the Labour Party - plus par… [Source]

• 15 Aug 2021: Tweet

  As tens of millions of people flee war, persecution and the effects of climate breakdown in the coming years, one principle will be non-negotiable if we want to live in a humane society: Refugees are welcome here. [Source]

• 12 Aug 2021: Tweet

  Decarbonisation will be costly for the billionaire press barons & polluters, so they ignore: ????The huge improvements a just transition away from fossil fuels will make to the lives of billions ???? The consequences of inaction: permanent catastrophe & an uninhabitable planet [Source]

• 12 Aug 2021: Tweet

  It’s no surprise that The Spectator is scaremongering about action on climate change. Billionaires use the newspapers & magazines they own to defend the interests of fellow oligarchs. That includes the big polluters who are burning the planet & threatening our survival. https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/1425938777265029120/photo/1 [Source]

• 10 Aug 2021: Tweet

  Climate breakdown isn’t a crime of humanity. It’s a crime against humanity, perpetrated by fossil fuel executives and the politicians they bankroll. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/09/ipcc-reports-verdict-on-climate-crimes-of-humanity-guilty-as-hell?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1628496756 [Source]

• 09 Aug 2021: Tweet

  Just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions. The climate crisis is a capitalist crisis. We need system change to avert climate catastrophe. [Source]

• 05 Aug 2021: Tweet

  From rising rents & insecure work, to climate breakdown & a planet on fire, young people are being failed by politics. That's not going to change unless we change it, getting active & demanding better. That was my message at @PositiveYouth96's Hear Us event in Coventry today ???????? https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/1423285260276551682/photo/1 [Source]

• 03 Aug 2021: Tweet

  The wildfires razing Turkey & spreading across southern Europe are a reminder that the climate crisis isn’t a looming threat. It’s here. Unless we act urgently to wind down the fossil fuel industry & build green infrastructure, these fires & floods will become the new normal. [Source]

• 16 Jul 2021: Tweet

  The flooding in Europe shows we need to rapidly decarbonise. That means switching carbon-emitting cars with electric vehicles (mainly buses) & publicly owned trains. That's what the Coventry gigafactory could do – at the same time as creating 6000 jobs ????????https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/huge-gigafactory-plan-coventry-airport-21051309 [Source]

• 09 Jun 2021: Tweet

  This is how serious Boris Johnson is about combating the climate emergency: He flew to Cornwall. https://t.co/Yitlocr1zl [Source]

• 07 Jun 2021: Vote

  Advanced Research and Invention Agency Bill — New Clause 1 - Human Rights Abuses - Pro-climate vote: Aye - Their vote: Aye

• 26 May 2021: Vote

  Environment Bill — New Clause 24 - Prohibition on burning of peat in upland areas - Pro-climate vote: Aye - Their vote: Aye

• 11 May 2021: Parliamentary Speech

  Today, as we emerge from the pandemic, we, too, face crises like no other. We face a crisis of public health, with a Government who let bodies pile high in their thousands and underfunded the NHS for a decade. We face a crisis of poverty, inequality and unemployment, with a Government who hand out billions in dodgy contracts to wealthy Tory donors but refuse to give working-class kids food in the holidays. And looming over us is a climate crisis that threatens the future of us all. This is not a time to tinker around the edges or return to the old, unfair and unequal society and economic model that got us here in the first place. It is time to match the scale of the challenges we face with an ambition like that which the Labour Government had in 1945.

  That is why at the heart of this Queen’s Speech should be a people’s green new deal, a state-led programme of economic transformation to build a country that can not only avert the climate emergency, but truly be one that works for the 99%, not just the 1%. It is a programme designed and discussed by trade unionists, think tanks, activists and policy experts that would create millions of well-paid, unionised, skilled green jobs. It would do so by mass investment in green technologies; expanding and electrifying public transport; building electric vehicles, with investments in gigafactories in places such as Coventry; creating a national care service; and retrofitting the country’s homes, cutting both costs and carbon. We would go from an economy controlled and run for profit to a society that is working for all of us. To do that, we need to bring industries into public ownership—rail, mail, water, energy and more—and we need to empower workers, which means repealing anti-trade union laws, so that the needs of many come before the greed of the few.

  That is not what I am saying; it is what the president of the Royal Institute of British Architects has warned about the White Paper. Today, a Campaign to Protect Rural England branch has called the plans a disaster. Health academics have described the NHS White Paper as consolidating the “market paradigm” in the NHS. Although the Queen’s Speech contains promised new laws for property developers and private healthcare companies, there is absolutely nothing about workers’ rights. There is not a sight of the promised employment Bill. There is no ban on fire and rehire and no end to zero-hours contracts. There is nothing for more than 5.7 million people in low-paid or precarious work, nothing for the 4.2 million children growing up in poverty, nothing for the one in seven adults without access to the social care they need and absolutely nothing that comes close to tackling the climate emergency.

  Full debate: Debate on the Address

• 27 Apr 2021: Parliamentary Speech

  My constituency is home to Liberty Pressing Solutions, part of the Liberty Steel Group. The threat of the company’s collapse risks losing good, skilled, unionised jobs in Coventry and across the country. This would be a disaster for the city and for British manufacturing, so rather than waiting for the company to go bust before taking action, risking workers’ jobs, terms and conditions, will the Government step in now, with all options on the table, including bringing the business into public ownership, guaranteeing its future and retaining the skills we need to rebuild and to tackle the climate emergency?

  Full debate: Steel Industry and Green Manufacturing Jobs

• 22 Apr 2021: Tweet

  The climate crisis is a capitalist crisis. The profits of the super-rich are put before people and planet. That's why the answer to climate change isn't paper straws or reusable bags. The answer is system change. Me for @tribunemagazine: https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/04/paper-straws-are-not-enough [Source]

• 20 Mar 2021: Tweet

  We cannot talk about the climate crisis without recognising that it’s also an issue of race, class, gender and imperialism. @UnionOJ is a brilliant initiative by @MagicMagid & I'm so excited to join its board alongside changemakers from across Europe! ???????? https://x.com/UnionOJ/status/1372110604857704448/video/1 [Source]

• 09 Mar 2021: Tweet

  The climate crisis is already with us. From more flooding in the UK, to wildfires in Australia & droughts in East Africa. For @WarwickSU Green Week, I joined a great discussion on the climate crisis & why we need a Green New Deal to tackle social injustice & climate disaster. https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/1369281795225686018/photo/1 [Source]

• 23 Feb 2021: Parliamentary Speech

  The pandemic is not the only crisis we face: we have a crisis of poverty, a crisis of inequality and a climate crisis that overshadows it all. This is not a time for tinkering around the edges; it is 40 years of neoliberalism that got us here in the first place and we cannot go back to that. So let this be our 1945 moment. Then, from the rubble of war, we saw people refusing to go back to the society of old—an unfair society. They created the NHS and built the welfare state and millions of council homes.

  Let us have the same level of ambition today, with a people’s green new deal—a programme of economic transformation that combats social injustice and the climate emergency by investing in green technology, infrastructure and services and creating more than a million well-paid jobs. Let us give key workers a pay rise and make the super-rich pay their fair share. Instead of returning to the rigged economy of the past, with a people’s green new deal let us build a fairer future.

  Full debate: Government's Management of the Economy

• 29 Jan 2021: Tweet

  Labour for a Green New Deal have done amazing work pushing for a just, socialist response to the climate emergency. Give them a follow, get involved, and together let's fight for our future ???????????? https://twitter.com/LabGND/status/1355079412325224449 [Source]

• 13 Jan 2021: Vote

  Financial Services Bill — Schedule 2 - Prudential regulation of FCA investment firms - Pro-climate vote: Aye - Their vote: Aye

• 16 Dec 2020: Tweet

  To avert climate catastrophe, we must radically cut emissions. That's why today's Supreme Court verdict to lift a ban on building a third runway at Heathrow is utterly irresponsible. The runway must not be built. [Source]

• 23 Nov 2020: Tweet

  My generation is fed up with the status quo. Rents are too high, work is insecure & the threat of climate crisis looms. We get into politics to change things, not to watch from the sidelines. Young members must be able to freely organise. They shouldn't be treated like this. https://twitter.com/JessicaLBarnard/status/1330964928803565569 [Source]

• 18 Nov 2020: Parliamentary Speech

  It is through trade unions that working people advance our collective interests, from winning rights and better pay at work to building up our skills and talents. That is what the union learning fund is all about. Every year it supports 200,000 workers, enhancing literacy, numeracy, ICT skills and professional development, amongst much else. As hon. Friends have said, it is a proven success. A 2018 evaluation found that for every £1 spent on the scheme, workers gained £7.60 in better pay, employers gained £4.70 through higher productivity and the Government gained £3.57 from social security savings and revenue gains. That is why it is not only workers who back it, but businesses like Tata Steel. The fund pays for itself and enriches everyone else. It was needed in normal times, never mind times like these, when Britain has entered the worst recession on record, unemployment is surging to levels not seen in decades and the climate emergency is already with us. While people are losing their jobs in record numbers, work needs to be done. Our public services are in ruin: 10 years of Tory cuts have brought them to their knees. We need to build them up, skilling workers along the way, from the care sector to education to the NHS.

  Our society is hooked on deadly fossil fuels. We need to break that addiction, decarbonising our economy with a green new deal, training and investing in our young people, so that instead of being trapped in unemployment, they are building the wind turbines that we need to power our country forward, building the clean public transport that is fit for the future, and retrofitting our country’s homes to reduce energy bills and emissions. There is work to be done, and it is the Government’s job to see that it is done. That is why, instead of scrapping the union learning fund, we should be investing in and expanding it.

  Full debate: Union Learning Fund

• 16 Nov 2020: Vote

  Pension Schemes Bill [Lords] — Clause 124 - Climate change risk - Pro-climate vote: Aye - Their vote: Aye

• 12 Oct 2020: Vote

  Agriculture Bill — After Clause 42 - Contribution of agriculture and associated land use to climate change targets - Pro-climate vote: No - Their vote: No

• 29 Sep 2020: Vote

  United Kingdom Internal Market Bill — New Clause 6 - Economic development: climate and nature emergency impact statement - Pro-climate vote: Aye - Their vote: Aye

• 8 Jul 2020: Parliamentary Speech

  Key workers, from shop assistants to delivery drivers and refuse collectors to hospital porters, are on poverty pay. They kept our country running through this crisis, but this country has not been running for them, because while working people have faced a decade of public service cuts, stagnating wages and rising rents, the super-rich and big businesses have enjoyed a decade of tax cuts and corporate giveaways. Their wealth has soared while the majority have suffered. This was the economy before coronavirus hit—rigged, unfair and unsustainable, and charging us towards climate catastrophe, with the Government on course to miss their carbon neutral target by 49 years. We cannot go back to that: it is broken, it is rotten and it has failed.

  Full debate: The Economy

• 1 Jul 2020: Parliamentary Speech

  The challenge before us is not simply recovering from coronavirus, but combating the climate emergency as well, because the danger of ignoring warnings and delaying actions is now all too clear. We simply cannot afford to make the same mistakes with the climate. There is no planet B to fall back on. We do need a new deal, but it must be a green new deal—one that is bold and ambitious, that hardwires lasting change in our society, and that works for working people. It should be a new deal that creates 1 million green jobs, as the TUC has proposed; one that invests in green industries, renewable energy and home insulation, and builds a resilient health and care service. It should be a new deal that harnesses the skills and industry that we have in Coventry to make the city a world leader in the automotive industry once again, but now building the electric cars of the future. It should be a new deal that builds green public transport, with railways and bus networks expanded, owned and run for public benefit, not private profit.

  In this crisis, we have seen the best of society, from the mutual aid groups that sprang up to the outpouring of love for the NHS and its heroic workers. We have seen how deeply we care for one another. Across divides and differences, we pulled together, so let us pull together again and build back better and greener with a green new deal, tackling social injustices and the climate crisis and building a Britain fit for our key workers and for the future.

  We ask that the Government show their commitment to industrial renewal and to tackling the climate emergency by investing in wave, hydro and tidal power in the most beautiful but—let us be honest—wettest part of Britain. Why is it that the UK, with the highest tidal range on the planet after Canada, spends so little on the reliable power that water offers? We are proud to have Gilkes in Kendal, beacon to the hydro energy industry. Let us back it, and others like it, so that we can get Britain working, sustainably.

  I understand that the Prime Minister has this week indicated that 1.5 billion trees will be planted between now and 2050. That will raise forest cover across the United Kingdom of Great Britain from 15% to 17%. I would have liked more than that, of course, but I welcome it; we should welcome that very positive announcement. It is clear to me that Government initiatives on the environment make a difference. I am not talking about ceasing production of diesel cars or other preventive measures; I am talking about initiatives from which the constituent feels the benefit. Constituents knew that they could get money for scrapping their old carbon-emitting guzzler car, and could put that towards a more environmentally friendly car that cost them less in road tax, and they did it. They knew that they could get a grant to help install solar panels on their roof and for insulation, so that they did not have to use as much oil, and they did it. Battery storage is one of the projects in my constituency. We hope to see it going forward as one of our very positive green energy projects. I understand that my hon. Friend the Member for North Antrim (Ian Paisley) is in discussions with the Government about hydrogen vehicles. He also asked a question of the Prime Minister today about buses.

  Full debate: Finance Bill

• 12 Mar 2020: Parliamentary Speech

  Under the Conservatives, rail fares have rocketed by 40%. An annual season ticket from Coventry to London is now £5,760, to Birmingham it is £1,400 and to Nuneaton it is £1,200. That unfairly puts rail travel beyond the reach of many of my constituents and it discourages green travel. Privatisation has failed, so will the Government bring our railways into public ownership to slash fares and combat the climate emergency?

  Full debate: Rail Fares

• 25 Feb 2020: Parliamentary Speech

  There are a lot of things that I found very surprising on becoming an MP. I do not think I will ever find it normal being called “ma’am” or having doors opened for me. But some of it is unnerving as well. Before I was elected, I did not know that big businesses sent gifts to MPs—gifts that always seemed to be accompanied by requests. The other week, Heathrow sent me a food hamper, along with an ask. It wanted me to support its third runway—as if some shortbread biscuits would drown out the warnings of the climate emergency. Google recently sent me a gift as well. It was not much, but it got me thinking about corporate lobbying. It reminded me that, according to the Tax Justice Network, in 2018 Google avoided £1.5 billion in tax, and in 2016 it reached a deal with the Government, after dozens of meetings with Ministers, to secure an effective tax rate of just 3% on profits estimated to be more than £7 billion.

  Full debate: Tax Avoidance and Evasion

• 05 Feb 2020: Vote

  Transport - Pro-climate vote: Aye - Their vote: Aye

• 4 Feb 2020: Parliamentary Speech

  My generation grew up to the sound of climate warnings. Before I was even born, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had said that human activity was to blame for a planet that was quickly getting hotter, and every few years since, it has warned that we are on course to do “irreversible damage” to ecosystems and species. Two years ago, it said that preventing climate catastrophe would require

  The effects are with us now. This winter, Australia burned and Indonesia drowned. Twenty-nine people died in the fires and 66 people drowned in the floods. Across the world, we see it again and again. The Solomon Islands are disappearing beneath the Pacific, forcing people to flee. Mozambique was battered by two of the worst storms in the continent’s history last year, which claimed the lives of more than 1,300 people. The Amazon rainforest—the lungs of our planet—was set alight by warmer, drier weather and reckless profiteers. Here in Britain, floods are hitting us harder and more often. Climate breakdown is with us already, but still the powerful ignore the warnings.

  There was a time when many denied the science, but today there is a different kind of denialism. They do not deny the science—they deny the politics. They pretend that business as usual can combat the climate emergency, and that banning plastic straws, using bags for life or tweaking the system is enough. I am sorry—it is not, because the problems are not individual. They are collective. It is the same politicians who tell us to ban plastic straws who have left MPs’ pensions invested in deadly fossil fuels, so hon. Members will understand why we do not have high hopes for COP26 later this year and why we expect more platitudes and more hypocrisy. I ask hon. Members to take a lead from the students who have forced their universities to divest, and to divest now.

  To prevent the climate emergency from becoming a climate catastrophe, we have to face up to what is driving the crisis. The answer is clear. It is a capitalist crisis, driven by capitalism’s need for expansion and exploitation. It is not the fault of a few bad apples; the entire system is rotten. It is a system that rose with the coalmines and steam mills that powered Britain to global dominance, and trashed the world’s climate to win wealth for colonial powers. Today, the global south still pays the price. If the climate crisis is a capitalist crisis, it is a neocolonial crisis too. Those least to blame—the global south and the global working class—will be hardest hit. While the world burns, the rich will build higher walls to protect themselves. They will let climate refugees drown and the dispossessed starve.

  Full debate: Climate Justice

• 15 Jan 2020: Parliamentary Speech

  The prospect of five more years of this Government is almost enough to make me despair, but my generation and I cannot afford to despair. If we do, by the time I reach middle age it will be too late, and the climate emergency will have become the climate catastrophe. I come here with a message from my generation and my constituents: we have no intention of letting that happen. We have seen Australia burn and Indonesia drown. We have seen our Earth teeter on the brink of ruin. We have heard the warnings of scientists. We know where the blame lies: it is with the 100 companies that are responsible for 70% of global pollution. It is with the billionaires who got rich polluting our rivers and pumping out carbon. It is with an economic system that puts the profits of the rich above the needs of the people.

  Make no mistake: the climate crisis is a capitalist crisis, and the climate struggle is a class struggle across borders. Whether you are in Coventry or Canberra, Doncaster or Delhi, if you are working class you will suffer the worst effects of floods, fires, droughts and devastation while the rich build ever-higher walls to protect themselves. That is what is coming unless we take bold action. That is what will happen unless we unite working people across borders to say that our lives are more important than anyone’s profits. It is what will happen unless we put the power in the hands of the working class to put people and planet first.

  Full debate: A Green Industrial Revolution