GLD International Sustainability Campaigning Speech

Thank you very much for having me here this afternoon to speak

to you not only as one of your 16 new Lib Dem MEPs but also as

an executive member of the Green Lib Dems, an organisation at

the core of my political values and campaigning over the past XX

years.

For me, the environment has always been an extremely

important issue not just in politics but in life I am pleased to see

the recent increase in focus on saving our planet from the

climate emergency from the younger generations, especially

with the work from influential figures such as Greta Thunberg

inspiring millions globally to make a difference.

Alongside our work on Stopping Brexit, our Lib Dem delegation

are committed to combatting the climate emergency and doing

all we can to fight to save our planet with our European

colleagues. We have seen steps taken towards this from the

moment we arrived in the parliament.

In one of our first Renew Europe group meetings, my colleague

Caroline Voaden passionately questioned the presence of 2

plastic water bottles on each MEPs desk. Since then, plastic

bottles in our group meetings have never been seen again...

Caroline is a full member on the Environment, Public Health and

Food Safety Committee in the Parliament, a committee that

myself and my fellow North West colleague, Chris Davies are

proudly substitute members on. This committee has been at the

forefront of some of the most important decisions coming out of

the EU, being influential in setting emissions targets across the

continent and indeed worldwide, and its’ importance will only

grow as the climate emergency becomes more prominent and

the EUs 2050 zero-emissions target approaches.

Last week in the Environment committee, I spoke out and gave

my support to the Environmental Implementation Review

process. This is a way to step up the implementation of

environmental policies across Europe, as without this, there is

no point in having ambitious environmental laws. I raised my

concern in this meeting that not all member states are pulling

their weight to make changes to meet these environmental

goals. The commission must fulfil its’ legal responsibility as the

guardian of EU law and take action against member states who

are in clear of EU law and not implementing these policies. To

tackle the climate emergency, I believe we must work together

and take our targets seriously.

Also in the Environment committee, Karmenu Vella

(Commissioner for Environment) mentioned how forest fires

were burning all over the world not just in the Amazon (the

Arctic, Africa and across Europe), and that at this moment in

time the equivalent of 800 football pitches per hour of forest land
is lost to the world. This is particularly shocking and we cannot

have a situation of massive carbon release from burning fossil

fuels at the same time as destroying the carbon sink that

protects us from run-away climate change.

We are heading for a global catastrophe, but I, along with my

Lib Dem MEP colleagues, are optimistic believers in the positive

spirit of human kind. We can change this but we only have a

short window of perhaps 5-10 years to turn things around.

The shocking events in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest have also been

a key topic of discussion amongst our delegation of MEPs. The

forest fires in Brazil present a very real threat with the lungs of

our planet being burnt away by serious mismanagement and

neglect, threatening rising CO2 levels making our climate

emergency challenge much more prominent. As a member on

the Delegation to Brazil, I have been particularly concerned

about the action of the Brazilian government and wrote a letter,

co-signed by my fellow Lib Dem MEPs and more, to put pressure

on President Bolsonaro to take action and do something to stop

these horrific fires.

In the upcoming weeks MEPs will have the chance to start the

oral questioning of Ursula Von der Leyen’s Commissioner

nominations. In our role as MEPs, we have an important role in

ensuring that the nominees are fit for purpose, and this is

something we will work hard to do. In this questioning process,

we will work hard to get the commissioners to commit to doing

what they can to stop the climate emergency and work to further

advance the EU’s commitments to combatting the climate

emergency.