Andy Burnham writes that his determination to tackle the climate crisis is “unwavering” and that the transition must not leave communities behind (We will make the net-zero transition work for Britain – approving the Jackdaw gasfield is part of the plan, 22 October). Whatever one thinks of Jackdaw, the test of that pledge is whether people are also protected from climate impacts that are already here.
The research that you reported on last week attributed two-thirds of the heat deaths that it estimated – 4,354 of them in the UK – to climate change.
The numbers from that study were not available when the health secretary took questions in the Commons last Tuesday, but the signs were – stretched ambulance services, cancelled operations and overheated wards. Heat was barely mentioned.
The prime minister says that he will not be “so careless with people’s lives” as oil and gas workers face the transition. He is right, and the same care is owed to older people in care homes, pregnant women, patients on hospital wards and outdoor workers facing the next heatwave.
So the government must commit to practical action before next summer. That means effective cooling and heatwave plans in hospitals, maternity units and care homes, stronger early warnings, welfare checks for isolated older people, and protections for workers in dangerous temperatures. The Climate Change Committee has shown that the investment needed is manageable and the cost of inaction far greater.
Net zero and adaptation are not alternatives. Mr Burnham should say what he will deliver, and when.
Emma Howard Boyd
Chair, National Heat Risk Commission
The idea of using fossil fuels as a “bridge” to green energy has been touted by polluters and politicians since the 1980s. It’s mind-boggling that we’re still at this point.
Energy security, national security and avoiding climate catastrophe all come with rapidly expanding green technologies such as heat pumps and renewables. The benefits there far outweigh those produced by gas drilling, and it’s these that should be Andy Burnham’s full focus when he talks of a green transition. After decades of delay, the world’s transition now needs to be fast.
Thanks to the failure of the politicians who came before, we need heaps of gas to heat our homes this winter, but the idea of baking that in for more decades isn’t just stupid – to myself and my peers who look ahead with fear at an increasingly precarious future, this decision is an insult.
Gwydion Elliott
Sheffield
Andy Burnham – “not a climate guy”, according to one of his MPs – argues in his opinion article that an increase in CO2 emissions is required to bring down CO2 emissions. George Orwell would appreciate that.
Douglas Currie
Edinburgh
