The ‘triple C’, or Climate Change Committee, describes itself, and its purposes, as follows:

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) is an independent, statutory body established under the Climate Change Act 2008. Our purpose is to advise the UK and devolved governments on emissions targets and to report to Parliament on progress made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preparing for and adapting to the impacts of climate change.

In other words, the CCC is established by law and required, by law, to deliver a report every summer on how the government is doing with regard to climate change. The government is required, by law, to read and understand this report and then act upon it. Mostly, it does neither. Robert Courts votes with this look-the-other-way government on climate issues. 

The Chief Executive of the CCC is Chris Stark. He knows his stuff backwards and never makes a statement which isn’t based on reliable fact. So it’s alarming when he says: "We have two challenges in climate. One is reducing emissions; the other is adaptation and I'm afraid governments across the UK are just not stepping up to that. So we have various plans for adaptation, but they don't really amount to a hill of beans.” (21st January 2023, Sky News)

At a time when we can expect more dangerously extreme weather to happen more often, we have plans for adaptation and protection which don’t really amount to a hill of beans! 

Climate change is already here. It’s unpleasant at best, dangerous at worst. The 10 warmest years on record have been since 2002. Extreme weather hits us much more frequently. Wildfires are getting much more common. (The year 2022 even saw several big ones in London! Houses were burned out and the fire service had its busiest day since WWII.) We’ve seen severe, damaging drought twice in the last 5 years. We’ve had a series of nasty floods, normally expected every century or so but happening every few years these days. Heatwaves are more frequent, hotter and more dangerous. (In July 2022, rail tracks buckled and roads melted!) And 2023 is forecast to be even hotter…

Can we do anything about any of this? Well, yes, we can. It’s up to our government in Westminster to deal with these things better, and they could. They really could, easily and quickly. Our link with Westminster is Robert Courts, so we need to write to him - all of us, all the time. We need him to know about us – to know that we know what’s what and we want more done about it, starting now. Letters from constituents are powerful and effective. Robert needs to know what we think. He needs to know we’re extremely worried about climate change and about our protections from it. And that a hill of beans is no use to us.

So:  Write to Robert Courts. (Do it today!) Tell him you’re troubled about climate change. Tell him you’re anxious for the children. If you don’t think our government is doing enough to counter climate change, or to protect us from it, tell him. If you don’t tell him, he won’t know, but when you write to him, he will. Ask your friends and family, your colleagues at work, to write. Ask everyone you know! If enough of us write to Robert often enough, he’ll act. 

You can reach him as The Rt. Hon. Robert Courts MP, House of Commons, London, SWIA 1AA, or at Conservative Association offices in Witney at Waterloo House, 58-60 High St., Witney, OX28 6HJ or you can email him via robert@robertcourts.co.uk.   (NB. You must provide an address and state that you are a constituent.)