Act now on climate change or we will live to regret it, says Shropshire MP

Ludlow MP Philip Dunne chairs Parliament's influential environmental audit committee and he's penned a hard hitting article for The House magazine.

The publication is written primarily by Parliamentarians, with a cross-party editorial board, and is read across the political spectrum and by all levels.

Calling this Parliamentary term "make or break" for effective climate leadership and global action he has called for substance to be put behind the bold and ambitious climate statements of intent.

Mr Dunne says that with only weeks to go to the crucial COP26 world climate summit in Glasgow, the MP is calling on the government to reveal its climate strategy.

He says other countries are looking to the UK to champion decarbonisation policies but the "depth of the UK’s climate leadership, beyond summitry and headline announcements, is in many aspects yet to be revealed."

Concentration on the pandemic has meant a backlog of key strategies. This is "doing little to instil confidence across the numerous sectors, where new skills have to be developed and innovations brought forward."

Despite his frustration at having to wait for key policy papers he says he will not join the "naysayers of doom and gloom."

He claims the Conservative Government of which he is a backbench part, has "no shortage of ambition."

As for his part as chair of the environmental audit committee he says it has done its bit on issues including enabling more wind farms to get up and running.

With a tax rise in National Insurance proposed to deal with another major issue, social care, Mr Dunne warns that becoming green will be expensive, and disruptive.

But he added: "The cost and inconvenience pale into insignificance when we reflect on the potential repercussions from doing nothing, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently indicated: continued sea level rise, heatwaves, more intense rainfall, coastal erosion, damage to ecosystems."

And calling for action now he said: "If we don’t take the necessary action now, and put some substance behind the bold and ambitious statements of intent, I have no doubt that we will live to regret it in years to come."