NEWS: Environment Bill Second Reading October 28, 2019
Caroline Lucas MP, sees “fundamental problem” with the Environment Bill
Caroline Lucas MP, in the second reading of the Environment Bill “there is, however, an even more fundamental problem with the Bill—a glaring omission. I refer to the economy, because if we are to truly turn around our relationship with nature, we must confront this elephant in the room: the current economic system, where the environment is too often just an afterthought, and the wellbeing of people and nature comes second to the pursuit of economic growth.
”The Bill exempts “taxation, spending and the allocation of resources within government” from the environmental principles and from the scrutiny of the Office for Environmental Protection. We see the results of this already at a local level, where the prioritisation of economic growth means that projects such as the Oxford-Cambridge expressway are strongly supported, even though they mean the destruction of stunning wildflower meadows, ancient woodlands, hedgerows and so forth.”
She also notes that the UN report on the declining state of world nature from Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services published in 2019, “is unambiguous about the need to move away from endless consumption and GDP as a key measure of economic success”, stating that we must shift beyond standard economic indicators such as GDP.
We agree that that endless growth is not sustainable. We need to think differently. The scale and pace of growth planned across the Ox-Cam Arc is vast and unnecessary!
To see the full transcript of Caroline Lucas’s comments click here.
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No Expressway Group believes there is no need for an Oxford-Cambridge Expressway, nor the over-inflated housing targets associated with it, and we will actively campaign against it and support other organisations with the same objectives.
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