Letter To My MP
By Paul Homewood
I have written to my MP, Angela Smith as follows:
Dear Angela
With regard to the Climate Change Act and decarbonisation targets, can I start by asking if you are aware of the following:
1) Legislation has already been passed for the Fourth Carbon Budget period of 2023-27, which commits the UK to reduce GHG emissions by 52% from 1990 levels.
2) The Committee on Climate Change is now recommending this be increased to a cut of 57% for 2028-32.
3) On the other hand, the EU’s commitment, included in its INDC (Intended Nationally Determined Contribution), is only for a cut of 40% from 1990 by 2030. This pledge will be the EU’s specific commitment to the Paris Climate Treaty.
4) The Paris Agreement specifically acknowledges that the various INDCs submitted will lead to a projected GHG annual level of 55 GtCO2e by 2030. This is an increase on the latest estimate available, which was 49 Gt in 2010, and a huge increase over the 2005 figure of 37 Gt
5) UK emissions of GHG amount to little more then 1% of global emissions, and therefore any reductions made in the UK will have virtually no effect globally.
6) The cost, ultimately payable by householders, for this decarbonisation is massive. The OBR project a cost of £13.6bn for 2020/21. This is an increase on the current year’s cost of £3.6bn.
7) The Committee on Climate Change forecast that these costs will increase by another £4.8bn by 2030, if their targets are to be achieved.
8) The UK has already achieved a cut of 32% in GHG since 1990. Latest projections from DECC suggest that we will have cut by 40% by 2017.
Bearing the above points in mind, what is the justification making bigger cuts than our EU partners, never mind the rest of the world which will be increasing emissions?
Do you agree that we should revise legislation to reflect a cut of 40% by 2030 and thereby avoid the massive extra costs projected?
Many thanks
Paul Homewood
As she is Labour, I will probably get more sense out of a brick wall! But you never know.
It may be useful though if others wrote similarly to their MPs. There are, I suspect, more than a few Tories who are sceptical of the Climate Change Act, and it might just trigger a few reactions. If nothing else, I doubt very much whether most MPs are familiar with all of the above facts.
Others have tried a different tack in the past, attacking the science. Unfortunately these came straight up against the brick wall, with a pretty much stock reply, penned by DECC, containing the usual rubbish about 97%s, settled science, blah blah.
So perhaps it is time to concentrate efforts on the economics and politics.
Contact details for MPs are here:
http://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-your-mp/contacting-your-mp/
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
is it ok to use your letter as a template, as there is no way I could write it as well and succinctly?
If it’s twigged that a template is used, then the various MPs will have a standard response which will be sent out.
If individuals slightly amend the basic template, and ask slightly different questions, then each will require an individual response.
The fun starts when the MPs differing responses offer alternative or conflicting excuses. 😉
Please do
x2
Whats better a letter or an Email ?
I contact my MP via
https://www.writetothem.com/
and have had replies from her. You can also contact MEPs and councillors from the site, with the same content if you like.
I’ve emailed, which seems as good as anything
I email my MP (peter.heatonjones.mp@parliament.uk) and his agent and attach my letter as a pdf file. I always get a formal letter back by post.
I confess that I have used your letter as a template to email my MP. I too couldn’t put the position better than you have.
Thanks Paul, have written to my MP, Sir Alan Duncan.
An additional point to mention, is that because the target is EU wide, if we do more than the EU target, the rest of the EU needs to do less. Thus UK consumers are in effect subsidising the rest of the EU’s commercial and residential users.
We need to LEAVE!
You can’t really blame the EU for the stupidity of UK politicians and civil servants.
I can’t take anyone who talks of cuts seriously as they are gormless about both the science and the economic implication of the cuts, and the economic benefits for rising CO2 (as we see record harvests).
I hope you cc’d my mate George Osborne. He has in the past stated that he would not go faster on climate change than the rest of Europe, so now would be a good opportunity for him to rein in our subsidy hungry renewables.
Em pathetic, did you draft another one to your neighbourhood fox or your cat warning them of their hunting habits, ?
These animals (MPs) don’t function on reading and you know they can’t do maths, rather they rely on basic emotional instincts.
… To get them to change their habits you have to do some training that involves taking away their food bowls ..or locking them out of society with a big fence.
..
I have always said that anyone who wants to be a politician should be barred from the process Stew.
Details, details. The MPs are interested in making declarations of orthodoxy. Just because it’s already done doesn’t matter.
I always email my MP and find, like others, that I get a written reply. I try to be sparing in the messages I send, or I am sure you get classified as a crank.
I wrote last on the subject of the lack of dredging causing flooding in the UK – I am pleased to say that I got a wholly supportive reply. He also told me that he had lobbied the minister and said that he knew that a good number of other MPs had as well.
I don’t think that MPs as a job lot have much interest in what we say except where we put the cross when they want their sinecure renewing.
I will be very interested in the reply you get Paul.