Tackling climate change without harming wildlife

Climate change is a very real threat, but one that the Government has made a commitment to take on. A new plan is being developed for England – can you help by contacting your MP and telling them to make sure that any new policies will help our wonderful wildlife.

With the earlier half of this year set to become the hottest since records began, it’s clear that something needs to be done. The State of Nature report published in September highlighted that climate change is the second biggest driver of change to wildlife, after agriculture. As temperatures rise, nature struggles to adapt and different species respond in different ways.

“For the love of wildlife, let’s do something about Climate change” at the Climate change march to Westminster (November 2015) (c) Nick Cunard (RSPB-images.com)

It is clear that we need tough action on climate change and it was welcome news when the Government committed to continue to bring down our emissions by passing the Fifth Carbon Budget into law in June this year. This is a target for the amount of emissions reductions needed throughout 2028-32 to keep us on track for a safer climate future.

Right now our Government is developing an Emissions Reduction Plan to set out what policies are needed to meet these targets. But there are good and bad ways of doing this, and the RSPB’s 2050 Energy Vision report, launched earlier this year, sets out how we can deliver a low carbon energy system, using high levels of renewable energy, in harmony with nature.

We’re calling on the Government to make sure that their plan is ambitious enough to deliver the tough action needed to reduce climate change, but without harming our wildlife, by...

• Setting a bold target to support high levels of renewable energy.
• Eliminating energy waste, as this will reduce the need for new energy infrastructure that poses risks to wildlife and help keep energy affordable for us all.
• Stopping subsidies for fossil fuels and instead investing in proven clean technologies such as well-sited onshore wind and solar projects, as well as new innovative technologies such as energy storage and floating offshore wind turbines – which could deliver very high levels of clean energy if developed sustainably.
• Investing in plugging data gaps to increase our understanding of the impacts of renewable energy on wildlife plus identifying suitable sites for renewable energy by mapping areas with low risk for wildlife as the RSPB has done in its Energy Vision report. This would help the Government to understand what can be achieved without damaging important areas for nature conservation and steer development towards the best sites, supporting more rapid roll-out of renewable energy.
• Transforming low carbon heat and transport for instance by shifting to electric vehicles and electric heating.
• Ensuring that bioenergy supplies are sustainable and do not impact on important habitats.

Wind farms sited in the right place, can reduce climate emissions whilst ensuring that no harm comes to our wildlife (c) Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)

How you can help

Government officials are developing this plan over the next month. This is our opportunity to ensure that they set out a clear plan to make a future high in clean renewable energy that does not damage wildlife a reality

Baroness Neville Rolfe, the Energy Minister will have the final say on which policies are developed and whether or not the natural environment will be taken into consideration. She will make that decision in the next few months.

This is why we need your help. This is a critical opportunity for the Government to get this right. If they take the wrong decisions now, we could become locked-in to an energy future dependent on dirty fossil fuels, or new energy infrastructure sited in the wrong places causing serious damage to our wildlife.

Please help by contacting your MP and asking them to write to Baroness Neville Rolfe, the Energy Minister in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy about why the UK Government urgently needs to deliver a clean renewable energy future in harmony with wildlife.

Key points you might like to raise:

• The Government’s new Emissions Reduction Plan must be ambitious and robust enough to properly bring emissions down and tackle climate change.
• The Government should identify which areas are sensitive for wildlife and steer development away from these areas so renewable energy can be delivered in harmony with nature and rolled-out smoothly. To help with this, Government should also invest in monitoring and collecting data to enable a better understanding of the wildlife impacts of large scale renewables, especially at sea.

• We need to stop wasting energy and ensure that new policies significantly increase energy efficiency and reduce demand for energy in the first place.
• We need to support proven technologies such as onshore wind and solar energy, and electric vehicles as well as innovative technologies such as floating offshore wind and energy storage.

• Bioenergy can have significant impacts on climate and wildlife: only sustainable sources of bioenergy should be used.

You can find your MP and the various ways to contact them via the Write to Them website https://www.writetothem.com. Also, all MPs can be reached by writing to them at House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA.

Can you send us a quick email at campaigns@rspb.org.uk to let us know that you’ve written to your MP? We can then keep track of who’s been written to.

Even better if you can send a copy of your letters or e-mail, and any replies, to me - Vanessa Amaral-Rogers, Campaigning Communications Officer, RSPB, The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire SG19 2BR.

Nature really needs your help; and we can do it with the help of the UK government. Action is needed now if we want to stop climate change in its tracks.