'We want Medway to switch to green renewable energy' - say Liberal Democrats

The UK will host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow on 31 October to 12 November. Medway Liberal Democrats have long campaigned on environmental issues which affect our towns and we want to stay active on this issue, this is why we have decided to launch an environmental campaign for Medway to raise awareness of environmental concerns that affect our towns. This also coincides with our national 5 point green recovery plan.

Our campaign will focus on our own Medway 5 point Green Recovery plan

Green energy switch:
This is why Medway Liberal Democrats are calling for Medway to lead the way in the Green energy switch, only half of Britain's energy comes from renewable sources, and we are all feeling the chaotic effects of the fossil fuel market on our energy bills. Switching to green renewable energy is vital to cutting emissions, meeting our climate change targets, and saving the costs of our energy bills

The world faces a huge threat in the form of the climate crisis. The Liberal Democrats will meet it head-on with £12bn worth of investment in renewables to transform the UK into a green economy and a world-leader in clean energy and deliver real change on the climate crisis. It is the Liberal democrat's goal to invest so that Britain gets 80% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Medway Liberal Democrats will do their part by identifying and installing solar panels on all viable council buildings and land. Every panel helps save the planet and our dependency on foreign oil and gas.

Stuart Bourne, spokesperson for Medway Liberal Democrats said "This year alone, the Tories bungled and then scrapped the Green Homes Grant, making heating our homes more pricey and fuel poverty a greater risk. Not only that, they've slashed grants for electric vehicles. That's kept them prohibitively expensive for too many British people, our recovery plan would kickstart the switch to green energy, and we want Medway to be a leader in that switch.

The vitality of our towns and communities is important, we to maximise investment in renewable energy and green infrastructure in our towns, Medway has the potential to develop clean renewable energy and technology-led innovation.

Medway Council recently published it's draft local plan and was an opportunity for them to push Medway to be are the forefront of renewable technology. They could have identified undesirable brownfield sites to be converted into solar farms, or insisted that developments included solar panels on their buildings. Yet the Conservative council chose to sit back and let developers call the shots. Another missed opportunity by an administration only paying lip service to the climate emergency.

We want to promote and enable the setting up of community energy schemes, so that our towns local communities can benefit from the latest in green energy technology, and the power generated on their doorstep. In addition, we want the Council to ensure all Council electricity consumption is from renewable energy sources, and to lead by example by changing energy suppliers for all council property to use green energy"

Over the past year, public interest in the environment has increased. According to YouGov' ' the most important issue facing the country' tracker, the percentage of people citing the Environment as the most important issue facing the country has increased from 23% in September 2020 to 33% in September 2021'. We want to highlight that Medway's environment is local but is also connected to the global.

ENDS