Shortly before the 2010 election I wrote in our local paper about climate change. Looking back at it now (http://damianhinds.blogspot.com/2010/02/climate-change-measured-approach-27-feb.html) despite all that has changed, I find most of it just as salient today. Here is what I wrote to the Alton Climate Action Network at the 2024 election campaign:
Damian Hinds – submission to ACAN, the Alton Climate Action Network
In its 2019 report, the CCC described Net Zero in 2050 as “the latest date for the UK credibly to maintain its status as a climate leader and the earliest to be credibly deliverable alongside other government objectives.” The Conservative manifesto, on which I as a Conservative candidate stand, is just out, and reconfirms our commitment to 2050. A candidate’s Election Address is our own personal statement; as I say in mine, “Climate change remains the great challenge of our age”.
There needs to be focus on the big levers that make the most difference. Our reliance on coal as a fuel source has reduced over 80% since 2010, and we have become a world leader in offshore wind deployment; it will be battery development especially that will enable much further progress in renewables. In the meantime, there is a need for ‘diallable’ sources (for when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun not shining); nuclear is important here, but in the near term, oil and gas will remain part of the energy mix; since Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in particular, we have been reminded of the importance of energy security.
The much further progress we need to make does involve difficult challenges, and as I say in my Election Address, it “needs to be done sustainably, without imposing excessive costs.” I support the increasing % requirement of new cars and vans sold to be zero emission, in line with countries like France, Germany and Sweden. We need to go much further too in buildings, industry and agriculture. Research & Development will be key.
I commend the excellent local groups, including ACAN, who do vital work. I support our local councils’ commitments: our area can contribute especially with ambitious tree-planting. Along with EHDC I convened a local ‘COP-26 East Hampshire’ as a forum to consider what everyone – families, businesses, the public sector – can do.
We are the first of the major economies to have halved emissions since 1990, for the majority of which time we have had Conservative-led governments. In the time I have been a minister I have been involved in government action in a number of ways, from my responsibility for the fiscal aspects of energy policy at the Treasury, to the drive to decarbonise the secure estate. Much of my work in government and Parliament has been on Education, which is key to so much, including tackling climate change. Important topics on climate change are embedded in the national curriculum, in Key Stage 3 and KS4 Science, and KS3 and KS4 Geography. The Department for Education has continued to bring forward important initiatives, such as the Climate Ambassador programme, and the National Education Nature Park in which some of our local schools are also participating.
