I would like to thank you all for this warm welcome and for allowing me to speak to you all today on our environment and climate change policy.

Our planet is, very literally on fire: for example, earlier this month a pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico ruptured and leaked gas into the sea, which then caught fire on the surface of the sea. In addition, it was only 2 years ago in 2019 when the Amazon rainforest was home to terrifying forest fires which devastated local ecosystems.

Our capitalist economic system is to blame for much of the situation we find ourselves in, with the oil industry serving as the perfect example of this. Oil companies like Exxon and Shell employed scientists who studied the climate and had concluded that climate change is very real and that the oil industry is contributing to it. For example, according to a 1982 internal Exxon memo, “fossil fuel combustion and the clearing of virgin forests (deforestation)” are the primary contributors to the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Exxon predicted that this could lead to the average temperature at the poles rising by 10 degrees and the global average temperature rising by around 3 degrees compared to pre-industrial levels. Exxon predicted that climate change would have a “dramatic impact” on agriculture; and the memo suggests that the Midwestern USA could become a desert, with the East Coast and Florida experiencing catastrophic flooding due to rises in the sea level. A 1988 confidential report authored by Shell acknowledged Shell’s role in contributing to global heating and the catastrophic consequences it could have. To quote their report, climate change could have “significant changes in sea level, ocean currents, precipitation patterns, regional temperature and weather”, with these changes impacting “the human environment, future living standards and food supplies, and could have major social, economic and political consequences”. The report concluded that these changes could be the “greatest in human history.” This report also had a stark warning: that “by the time the global warming becomes detectable it could be too late to take effective countermeasures to reduce the effects or even to stabilize the situation.”

Oil companies could have paid attention to this warning and acted responsibly by supporting the move to renewable energy. Had they done so, I likely would not be making this speech today as we likely would not be finding ourselves in a climate crisis. However, they realised that continuing to drill for oil could make them lots of money and their greed for money and short-term profit convinced them against taking action to guarantee our future. Oil companies have instead turned to disinformation to undermine climate science and to make people doubt what the science was saying; as well as trying to shift the blame and responsibility for the climate crisis away from the oil industry and onto individuals like you and me.

There is still time to take the necessary action to prevent catastrophic global warming. The Rose Coalition budget which me and the party worked together with the government to write has proposed many good policies to tackle climate change. For example, the budget will fund a 3 billion pound jobs program to support green jobs and to support the transition of workers away from the fossil fuel industry. It also includes 7.5 billion pounds of funding for a Green Housing Fund to retrofit our homes and ensure that they are as energy-efficient and eco-friendly as possible, 550 million pounds in funding to support rewilding and tree-planting, and other policies which will contribute greatly to the fight against the climate crisis.

I believe that the PWP needs to continue to support action like this by campaigning for a Green New Deal in the upcoming election and striving to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible. As part of this, we need a Green Industrial Revolution which ensures that Britain’s green future is made here in Britain in communities like Teesside, the West Midlands, Merseyside, Humberside, Wales, Scotland and others. This Green Industrial Revolution would support the domestic manufacture of electric vehicles, trains, batteries, green fuels, and the protection of the natural environment. It will level up deprived communities by creating many jobs and supporting economic development as well as helping the UK decrease its greenhouse gas emissions.

I would therefore like to propose a motion at this conference that we support a Green New Deal in our manifesto for the election later this month. Thank you all for listening to my speech!