DURHAM City MP Mary Foy led a Day of Protest in the centre of Durham at the weekend - part of an international effort from environmental organisations, political and non-political, drawing attention to the real and present danger of global warming.
Ms Foy attended the protest in Durham city centre on Saturday and described the ongoing climate crisis as “the greatest crisis in human history".
“Extreme rainfall, wind, and summer heat waves will hit this country hard, devastating agriculture and greatly impacting the way in which we live," she said.
“If Covid-19 has forced us to adapt to a ‘new normal’, climate disaster will force us to adapt to a reality even more detached from anything we know.
“And in a world where 100 corporations produce 70 per cent of all of our emissions, it’s the least well off who will be hit hardest by climate change.
“This isn’t something we can ignore.”
Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of the UK demanding stronger climate action from leaders in the midst of the Cop26 talks.
Addressing dozens of listeners in the city’s Market Place, she added: “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report published earlier this year provided us with a stark reminder that we are set to fail to meet our target of keeping global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees C.
“When I was elected, I promised that I didn’t plan on just pointing out problems, I want to be part of the solution and we need bold action - a Green Industrial Revolution to create hundreds of thousands of well-paid and secure green jobs and provide a just transition for workers.
“We should be incentivising companies to divest from fossil fuels, taxing them proportionately to the emissions they produce, and reinvest that money in improving the infrastructure of the country.
“We need better trains, better buses, better roads for electric vehicles.
"We know that a more integrated public transport system lowers emissions and improves the quality of life of all and we know that green jobs are better jobs, and that green energy is cheaper energy.
“I know how important it is to people in Durham that they have an MP who who’s serious about climate action.
“It’s why I’m proud to back the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill which would require the Government to take action to reduce our contributions to global greenhouse gas levels, fulfilling the obligations we signed up to in the Paris Agreement, and protect nature in this country.
“We must keep demanding that climate is at the forefront of the agenda.
“The climate emergency is here and our future depends on the action that we take now - we can’t afford to mess this up.
“If we don’t act now, there’ll be little left to save - we simply cannot go far enough fast enough.”
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