Roger Mortlock, chief executive of the countryside charity CPRE, comments on a commitment by UK opposition leader Keir Starmer that any future Labour government will spend 28bn annually on low-carbon efforts to tackle Climate Change.
Sirs,
Keir Starmer is right to describe action on climate change as this country’s ‘single biggest opportunity’.
Climate Change is the single biggest threat to the countryside and is already impacting on our farmland and food security.
Nobody is more aware of this than rural communities.
We are asking our countryside to work harder than ever, to restore nature, provide food, sustain rural communities, provide landscapes that inspire us, as well as tackle the climate emergency.
The countryside can support all this, but the next government needs a spatial strategy to make sure changes in the countryside happen in the right place.
Solar energy is a good example.
Before our best farmland is used for solar panels, we need a rooftop solar revolution and make solar panels a requirement of planning permission for major refurbishment and new residential, commercial and industrial buildings.
Roger Mortlock
Chief Executive, CPRE
