Prime Minister Johnson must make Climate Emergency his priority
Responding to the announcement that Boris Johnson has been chosen as leader of the Conservative Party, Friends of the Earth Scotland Head of Campaigns Mary Church commented,
“Boris Johnson’s number one priority as Prime Minister must be tackling the climate emergency. Deep, systemic changes must be delivered to bring down climate emissions significantly within the next 5-10 years, and decisions made in the next two years are key to this.
“The new Prime Minister must work with the Scottish Government to end exploration for new oil and gas in the North Sea and divert subsidies towards a just transition that supports workers and communities as we build a zero carbon economy.
“Johnson’s Prime Ministership will ultimately be judged by how well his Government responds to climate breakdown – the greatest crisis we face.
Notes to Editors
1. The UK Parliament and the Scottish Government have both declared a climate emergency
https://climateemergencydeclaration.org/scotland-worlds-first-government-to-declare-a-climate-emergency/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48126677
2. Our recent report ‘Sea Change: Climate Emergency, Jobs and Managing the Phase-Out of UK Oil and Gas Extraction’ highlights:
• The UK’s 5.7 billion barrels of oil and gas in already operating oil and gas fields will exceed the UK’s share in relation to the Paris climate goals – whereas industry and government aim to extract 20 billion barrels.
• The additional oil and gas extraction enabled by recent subsidies will add twice as much carbon to the atmosphere as the phase-out of coal power saves.
• Given the right policies, clean industries could create more than three jobs for every North Sea oil job at risk, which can enable an “equivalent job guarantee” for every oil worker.
View the report: https://foe.scot/resource/sea-change-climate-report/
3. Friends of the Earth Scotland is
* Scotland’s leading environmental campaigning organisation
* An independent Scottish charity with a network of thousands of supporters and active local groups across Scotland
* Part of the largest grassroots environmental network in the world, uniting over 2 million supporters, 75 national member groups, and some 5,000 local activist groups.