In 2019, Tynwald declared a Climate Emergency, set up a Climate Emergency Transformation Team and commissioned James Curran to produce a report on the way forward for the Island. The Curran report was presented to Tynwald at the end of 2019. So far, so good.
However, the Climate Change Bill now going through Tynwald, with its second reading this week, instead of building on the emergency momentum of 2019, is now effectively delaying decisions for the next Tynwald.
Liberal Vannin says that this is not good enough.
Lawrie Hooper, MHK for Ramsey and Liberal Vannin Leader tabled several amendments to the Climate Change Bill this week, attempting to drive Tynwald to be more ambitious in its aims and deliver change more urgently, in line with the declared Emergency in 2019.
The Government’s actions in the House of Keys led to the debate being described as a “farce” by several MHK’s and Liberal Vannin is extremely concerned that the Government is simply using the Climate Bill as an attempt to greenwash over their almost complete lack of action on climate change since the climate emergency was declared.
- We need to see action, not just promises.
- We need sensible and robust targets to ensure the actions taken are having the right impact
- We need independent monitoring of Government’s actions to ensure the process is open and transparent so we can hold government progress to account
The Covid pandemic has shown the Island to be resilient and determined to prosper through adversity. We call on the present Tynwald and future MHKs to recognise that this same determination can be harnessed to drive a new Green Economy to meet the Island’s climate change targets and provide new jobs and opportunities for businesses to thrive.