Labour Party Conference: shadow environment secretary promises to tackle air pollution

Labour’s environment secretary Maria Eagle will deliver her party’s promises on improving air quality, tackling climate change and ending the badger cull at the Labour’s annual conference.

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Speaking at the conference, Eagle is set to attack the current government over inaction to avoid 29,000 premature deaths partly caused by air pollution and failure on flood protection.

She will promise a long-term strategy on flood investment and the creation of an Independent National Infrastructure Commission to deal with the issue.

Eagle will state, “Labour will introduce a national framework of low emission zones to encourage cleaner, greener, less-polluting vehicles to deliver the cleaner air people need to breathe.

“The Committee on Climate Change – the government’s own independent advisers have warned that the UK under David Cameron and Nick Clegg are likely to miss the carbon targets the last Labour Government committed us to meeting.

“On climate change we’ll introduce a new adaptation programme and reinstate flood protection as a priority of the Environment Department.”

In September, Eagle spoke to a London primary school, criticising the government and London mayor Boris Johnson and saying her party wants to encourage sustainable mobility.

Eagle also pledged to put an end to “unscientific and discredited badger culls”, promoted by the Conservative government to tackle bovine TB, a measure that has been criticised for both its inhumanity and its ineffectiveness.

Speaking about the economy, shadow chancellor Ed Balls promised “proper competition in banking and energy markets” and a renewed commitment to freeze energy prices if Labour wins the next general election.

Shadow secretary of energy and climate change Caroline Flint added she would make it easier for schools to install solar panels through more accessible finance.

Commenting on the news, Friends of the Earth renewable energy campaigner Alasdair Cameron said, “Labour is right to support changing the rules to help schools run on sun. The government should follow suit and live up to its promise to make it easier for schools to go solar.”

Photo: Riley Kaminer  via flickr

Further reading:

Labour promises air pollution crackdown

Green Party prepares to challenge Labour in battle for the left

Greens push Lib Dems into fifth place ahead of European election

Government policy failing to support community energy groups

The Guide to Sustainable Democracy 2014