Words matter. These are the best Barry Gardiner Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
As the oceans get hotter, corals also become heat-stressed and expel the algae that live on their skeletons, resulting in coral bleaching events that can wipe out entire reefs. This destroys the habitat that supports a quarter of all marine life.
In the Labour Party we are absolutely united in our belief that shipping must define its ‘fair share’ of tackling climate change, and develop an emissions reduction plan for the sector.
As we pump greenhouse gases into our atmosphere, the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide, making the seawater acidic and hostile for shellfish and corals.
Acidisation isn’t benign – like fracking, it can pose risks to groundwater sources, and runs counter to the urgency with which we must shift away from fossil fuels.
U.K. aid spending in India is that it ensures that we are able to work with our partners to develop their markets, business and enterprise, to boost labour standards and rights and, ultimately, to boost the incomes of the poorest which, in the long term, boosts demand for British goods and services.
We must commit to a positive programme of ocean recovery to combat the effects of climate breakdown, and boost our oceans’ capacity to tackle climate change.
The problem with climate change has always been that whilst political timeframes and economic investment timeframes work on a 3-5year cycle, the planet needs a rather longer term view.
The unpopularity of raising corporate or personal income tax has been a straight jacket constraining Labour’s thinking on how best to invest and grow the economy.
If government is so keen to let local people have a veto in stopping wind farms, why does it not allow local people to say no to fracking?
World leaders need to work together through the rules-based system of the WTO to tackle unfair practices, including the widespread dumping of steel on world markets at less than market price.
Most people are surprised to find out that the myth of the crowded little island is just that – a myth.
Labour believes that every trade deal should come before parliament for a full debate on the floor of the House of Commons, with a vote at the end of that debate.
Like air pollution, flood risk is a threat that government should be protecting us against.
The shipping industry plays a fundamental role in boosting global trade and prosperity. Maritime leaders have rightly recognised the need to invest in more energy-efficient vessels and to apply measures like slow-steaming. But to ensure a level playing field, collective action is urgently needed across the sector.
Pluralism has been the driving fact behind political theory now since the Copernican revolution and the wars of religion that were spawned from it.
Most trade agreements arise from a desire to liberalise trade – making it easier to sell goods and services into one another’s markets. Brexit will not.
The most important thing to understand about Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Change agreement is, whilst it undeniably damages the rest of the world, it does most damage to America itself.
MPs should be able to debate, amend and approve a mandate for the negotiation of any trade agreement before talks start, based on an independent impact assessment of what social, economic and environmental risks might be expected.
We need robust sustainability regulations for shipping that are internationally recognised and respected. This will ensure shipping plays its part in the global transition to carbon neutrality.
Nafta has been responsible for a race to the bottom in standards across North America, with working conditions declining along with wages.
It is hard to imagine a world without bees. It would be even harder to live in it.
Years of government inaction on air pollution has got people thinking that the state cannot even protect basic public goods like clean air.
Dictators have an old trick to assess the strength of their opposition: they say something patently untrue, and then look to see who mindlessly repeats it. Those who do, they recognise as their true supporters.
The future can be just and green – not corruption-mired and polluted.
We have never believed that any potential future benefits from fracking make it acceptable for the government to bulldoze over the concerns of local communities or the very real environmental dangers that can occur as a result of weak safeguards controlling the technical process.
The basis for securing preferential future trade terms with India begins in that recognition of essential equality. Indeed it begins in recognising that India is now an emerging global superpower whose primary interests are regional in South East Asia and who needs a deal with the U.K. less than we need one with her.
We recognise the link between environmental failure and social injustice. When the energy sector is privatised and deregulated, it not only tends to pollute more, it also charges the poorest more per unit!
You cannot send battleships in to stop the destruction of a rainforest. But you can spend money on clean technology transfer that enables countries to bring their people out of poverty without polluting their future.
Climate change brings pressures that will influence resource competition between nations and place additional burdens on economies, societies and governance institutions around the globe. These effects are threat multipliers.
Trade policy can be a tool for change and progress.
Making the most of global trade opportunities does not mean transitioning to a low-tax, deregulatory, ‘Bargain Basement’ economy. It means developing a robust Industrial Strategy intertwined with a strong trade agenda.
Climate change is a threat to the conditions in which our economy can function at all.
Trade agreements influence the standards, protections and regulations that shape the kind of society we live in.
Treaties negotiated with foreign powers create binding obligations on future generations that cannot be repealed in the way that domestic law can. As a consequence, the most rigorous process should be in place to scrutinise such treaties before they ever come to be ratified.
We’re fighting for community energy initiatives, warmer homes and crucial flood defences – and fiercely opposing the Government’s assault on renewables.
Climate change must be approached as an opportunity to transition our economy to a zero carbon future. Business understands this even when governments don’t.
Public demand for better services requires increased revenue, but international market competition for capital and labour drives down the ability of any one country to raise either corporate or personal income tax.
Fracking locks the U.K. into an industry that is based on fossil fuels long after our country needs to have moved to renewables.
The road to the Paris climate talks has been paved across decades.
We as politicians have to understand that the greatest threats to our security are no longer conventional military ones. You cannot nuke a famine.
