Tory MP Chris Skidmore has said he will resign the Conservative whip and stand down as an MP “as soon as possible” as he blasted Rishi Sunak’s record on climate change.
The former energy minister triggers a by-election for his Kingswood seat in Gloucestershire as he quit in protest at plans to issue more oil and gas licences,
Advertisement
Skidmore, who led the government’s net zero review, argued new legislation called the offshore petroleum licensing bill “would in effect allow more frequent new oil and gas licences and the increased production of new fossil fuels in the North Sea”.
He was not planning to stand as an MP in the next election, expected later this year, as his constituency will be abolished under boundary changes.
“I can no longer stand by,” he said on X. “The climate crisis that we face is too important to politicise or to ignore.”
Advertisement
He added: “I can also no longer condone nor continue to support a government that is committed to a course of action that I know is wrong and will cause future harm. To fail to act, rather than merely speak out, is to tolerate a status quo that cannot be sustained. I am therefore resigning my party whip and instead intend to be free from any party-political allegiance.”
Skidmore continued: “The climate crisis that we face is too important to politicise or to ignore. We all have a responsibility to act when and where we can to protect the future: I look forward to devoting my time in 2024 and beyond to making the future a better place, in whatever capacity I can.”
A Tory party source said: “Self-regarding claptrap from a man more interested in burnishing his credentials as an eco-lobbyist than his constituents.”
This is a breaking news story and will be updated. Follow HuffPost UK on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
The National Trust has warned that an iconic English tree is already struggling due to climate change.
Yes, the English oak, which pops up repeatedly throughout our national history, is said to support more life than any other native tree species in the UK and creates one of the hardest timbers on the planet, is under strain due to our shifting climate.
Advertisement
In fact, climate change is exacerbating a phenomenon already known as acute oat decline, caused by a non-native pest.
The oak processionary moth damages the tree’s foliage and increases its susceptibility to other diseases – and climate change means the pest is sticking around for much longer these days, due to shorter winters.
John Deakin, head of trees and woodland at the National Trust “cold snaps [are] just not long enough to kill off diseases such as oak processionary moth, whose caterpillars infest oak trees, leaving them vulnerable to other threats.”
And the moth’s spread northwards through Europe away from their traditional home in the Mediterranean “is a tangible consequence of our warming climate,” Deakin added.
Advertisement
Deakin explained that growing any new trees – not just oak – is especially difficult in periods of drought, too, with up to 80% of saplings dying in some areas of the country.
While experts have devised techniques using wood mulching and sheep fleeces to help keep moisture in the soil and prevent grass growth, they are now looking at how trees will need different environments in the next 50 years.
For instance, beech trees and woodlands – typically found in the south – may soon only suit the north of England.
Deakin explained: “Our traditional thinking of where certain species like English oak and Sessile oak may thrive geographically is also likely to change as we are already seeing the huge impact of Acute Oak Decline on English oak in the south east and midlands, previously their stronghold, now being compromised.”
Ben McCarthy, head of the Trust’s nature and restoration ecology, also noted that shifting weather patterns in the UK mean many trees were constantly under stress.
Advertisement
Sometimes they can end up producing too much berries and nuts, without the chance to “rest”.
And while these are “incremental shifts”, these changes build up over a decade to cause serious changes in our wildlife.
McCarthy said: “It’s these baseline changes that we’re seeing that are really worrying and what we should be taking more notice of, particularly when combined with extreme weather events, which makes things even more challenging.”
Meanwhile, the national climate change consultant at the Trust, Keith Jones, said the UK must not be “lulled into any sense of false security” when it comes to our weather.
“We are likely to experience a combination of drought and high temperatures as well as high rainfall and floods – and we need to get ready for this new ‘norm’,” Jones explained.
The largest climate summit of the year began this week amid hope that world leaders may actually agree to an effective deal to target the environmental crisis.
The 28th Conference Of Parties – COP28 – is being held in Dubai, UAE, this year, and will run from November 30 to December 12.
Advertisement
Activists are looking for governments to agree for a more equitable management of the environment this year, as extreme weather hit almost every part of the planet over the last 12 months.
What’s decided at COP28 could therefore be very consequential – but it can be hard to understand what’s happening through all of the jargon.
So here’s a breakdown of some of the phrases we can expect to see this year.
It pops up regularly in climate commitment plans – it turned up seven times in the April G7 summit’s final statement – but the exact definition has not been spelt out by governments.
Critics see that as a means for the fossil fuel companies to continue selling the product, and it has been widely described as a delay tactic which stops companies from having to phase out fuels.
Supporters of abatement argue that this is needed for the foreseeable future, as the planet is not even close to phasing out fossil fuels altogether.
2. Climate finance
The UN describes climate finance as “local, national or transnational financing—drawn from public, private and alternative sources of financing—that seeks to support mitigation and adaptation actions that will address climate change”.
Effectively, developed nations promise to pass some funds onto developing countries that have fewer resources to defend against the climate crisis.
Advertisement
COPs have repeatedly agreed to pass more finances onto other countries since 1992.
Back in 2009, the parties agreed to share $100 billion a year from developed countries to developing countries by 2020, but this target was missed.
This year’s COP will see countries debate several controversial elements of climate financing: how the finance is allocated; how much goes to adaptation; and how much goes to loss and damage.
3. Carbon pricing
Carbon pricing ties the cost the public ends up paying for greenhouse gas emissions – from crop damage to sea level rise – to their sources through a price, according to the World Bank Group.
This usually means putting a price on the amount of CO2 emitted, in an effort to put the carbon burden back onto the producers of the fossil fuels, while also boosting revenue to help the environment.
President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in her opening remarks that there must be a “price on carbon”.
Advertisement
She said: “Carbon pricing nudges the private sector towards innovation. It makes heavy polluters pay a fair price. And the revenues can be reinvested in the fight against climate change, in innovation and in a just transition.”
Activists march with a Just Stop Oil banner during a demonstration in Trafalgar Square.
SOPA Images via Getty Images
4. The UN Global Stocktake (GST)
This is a measure for countries (and other stakeholders) to see where they’re collectively making progress toward meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement, according to the UN.
It describes this as a “critical turning point” when it comes to addressing climate change, and akin to “taking inventory”.
The first ever global stocktake is going to conclude at the end of COP28, and will take place every five years after that.
Advertisement
It’s likely to be pretty damning considering scientists have warned we are still a long way off limiting global temperature change to 1.5C compared to pre-industrial levels.
“Governments will take a decision on the global stocktake at COP28, which can be leveraged to accelerate ambition in their next round of climate action plans due in 2025,” the UN said.
The GST is also meant to inform future NDCs.
5. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)
These are the pledges at the centre of the Paris Agreement, and they’re unique to each country. They are submitted every five years to the UN – so the next ones will be due in 2025.
Each nation tries to see how it can reduce national emissions and adapt to climate change by taking these actions.
The UN understands these targets will be harder for developing countries to achieve, so emission reduction is “undertaken on the basis of equity, and in the context of sustainable development as well as efforts to eradicate poverty”.
Rishi Sunak’s sudden U-turn on the UK’s climate pledges has caused deep alarm on social media – not least because of the policies he said he plans to “stop”.
The prime minister called a last-minute conference on Wednesday afternoon – just after parliament went on recess – to announce he was pivoting to a more “pragmatic, proportionate and realistic” approach to net zero by 2050.
Advertisement
He promised: “We will never impose unnecessary and heavy-handed measures on you, the British people.
“We will still meet our international commitments and hit net zero by 2050.”
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), he listed five policies which he planned to “stop”: taxes on eating meat, new taxes to discourage flying, sorting your rubbish into seven different bins, compulsory car sharing and expensive insulation upgrades.
He did also announce five new policies which he would be pushing for – including lifting the ban on onshore wind and new carbon capture storage – but that did not get as much engagement as his first post.
That’s probably because the policies he plans on stopping are not well-known government strategies.
We will never impose unnecessary and heavy-handed measures on you, the British people.
In the old days seven Mirror reporters would have been made to dress up as bins & follow the PM around asking what he had against then & I regret that Fleet Street no longer has the resources for this frankly
So just to recap, Rishi Sunak’s premiership is going so well that he felt forced to completely relaunch it, by scrapping a load of policies that don’t exist and by burning the planet a little bit more quickly. The clock is ticking. Bin Day is coming.
According to this tweet, Rishi Sunak’s green policy U-turn is designed to save us from “heavy handed” measures, no one has ever heard of, that were probably invented by his team pic.twitter.com/hVIvFk6Vd6
And, although it was (alarmingly) the hottest Northern Hemisphere summer ever recorded, according to the World Meteorological Organisation, the UK was overcast and grey for much of August.
Advertisement
So why has it suddenly all changed?
Well, it comes down to a weather phenomenon called an omega block.
This is a weather block which is shaped much like the Greek letter of omega (Ω).
Weather front usually bring rain from west to east across the UK, propelled by the jet stream, the strong winds high above the Earth.
However, a block (like an omega) can disrupt this.
As the Met Office explained: “This just means that a big area of high pressure is remaining almost stationary over the same area for a long time.
“The high pressure can stop weather fronts moving past it, so that they skirt around the edges, or stay where they are for an extended period.”
Advertisement
At the moment, high pressure just to the east of the UK and centred over Scandinavia means hot and humid air from the south can sweep in and hover over the country.
Higher pressure means warmer and more settled conditions normally.
But, the block means there’s more unsettled weather on either side of the UK.
At the moment, there’s a tropical storm looming in the North Atlantic and storms in Europe, which has pushed the jet stream down – causing the omega shape.
Blocks can also create a heat dome, where high pressure stops it hot air from escaping, meaning it sinks, warming the ground, and in turn heating up the environment.
simarik via Getty Images
Overheated little child is sitting in front of electric fan trying to cool down.
The block could linger for an indefinite amount of time
Weather blocks can hang about for anywhere between a few days to a few months. Once they’re established, they’re pretty hard to move.
Advertisement
The Met Office noted: “Exceptionally they can persist for months around mid-summer, like in 1976, or mid-winter, like in 1963.”
The UK is no stranger to having a warm September, although it’s only gone above 30C a few times. So far this year, the highest temperature is 32.2C – and forecasters expect it stay above 20C at night in many areas.
But thundery downpours will move in from the west on Wednesday, according to Sky News.
Why we might be experiencing more of these in the years to come
Sky weather producer Kirsty McCabe told SkyNews that blocked weather patterns “seem to be happening more frequently in recent decades, and that could be linked to the effects of climate change on the jet stream.”
She added that the jet stream which flows over the UK may be changing because there’s less of a temperature contrast between the Earth’s equator and the Arctic.
The jet stream is driven by temperature difference. If the stream flow breaks, an area “can become separated and almost break off, taking low pressure with it and weakening its west to east movement’, the Met Office said.
Tens of thousands were without power in Southern California on Sunday night after Tropical Storm Hilary brought damaging winds and the threat of “life-threatening flooding” to the region, prompting warnings across the state and as far north as Oregon and Idaho.
The centre of the storm made landfall in Southern California near Palm Springs on Sunday night after passing through Mexico. Emergency officials urged residents across the state to stay indoors and off flooded roads, and schools in Los Angeles and San Diego cancelled classes on Monday.
“THIS IS LIFE THREATENING FLOODING!!!!!!” the Los Angeles office of the National Weather Service wrote on Sunday night. The agency declared a flash flood warning for parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties into early Monday morning.
“You do not want to be out driving around, trying to cross flooded roads on vehicle or on foot,” Michael Brennan, the director of the National Hurricane Center, said during a news briefing, per The Associated Press. “Rainfall flooding has been the biggest killer in tropical storms and hurricanes in the United States in the past 10 years, and you don’t want to become a statistic.”
Maximum sustained winds were near 45 mph, but weather officials expected the storm to weaken into a post-tropical cyclone by early Monday. Large parts of California and Nevada were expected to see 3 to 6 inches of rain, with some areas experiencing up to 10 inches in total.
The intensity of the storm and the fact that a hurricane was heading toward California at all has already sparked concerns from climate scientists who have long warned such events will only become more frequent and more severe as climate change continues. It’s too soon to say if Hilary was made more severe by our warmer world, but researchers released a shocking report in 2020 that found climate change is already making hurricanes stronger.
Liz Truss’s response to the Pakistan floods has been described as “risible” by a Commons committee.
In a letter to the foreign secretary, international development committee chair Sarah Champion said she was “embarrassed” by the UK’s pledge to provide up to £1.5 million in aid to the country.
The Labour MP said: “Even if the full £1.5 million were delivered, it would amount to less than 5p for each person affected.
“Furthermore, that pathetically small sum will be subtracted from “existing support to Pakistan”.
“The UK government’s risible response to this humanitarian disaster arguably amounts to nothing.”
Devastating floods have swept across Pakistan in recent weeks, causing more than 1,000 deaths and affecting around 33 million people.
The heavy rains have caused a historic level of devastation, isolating villages and trapping many in mountainous areas.
It is the most rain Pakistan has seen in a decade, leaving one-third of the country underwater and around 1,860 miles of road reportedly washed away.
“It’s all one big ocean, there’s no dry land to pump the water out,” Pakistan’s climate minister Sherry Rehman said.
Champion accused the government of adopting “a policy of sustained indifference to Pakistan” in recent years.
She added: “Parliament returns from summer recess on Monday 5 September.
“Bearing in mind the humanitarian and economic catastrophe, I earnestly counsel you to make a statement to parliament at the first available opportunity to deliver your latest assessment of the extent and effect of the flooding and to explain how you plan to support our friends and allies in Pakistan.”
Further complicating the situation is the fact that Truss is expected to be named the new Tory leader on Monday and confirmed as prime minister the following day.
The Foreign Office has been contacted for comment.
While this is obviously caused by the climate crisis, here’s everything you need to know to understand how it is really affecting our day to day lives.
PA Graphics via PA Graphics/Press Association Images
What caused the hot weather?
The extreme weather which spread across the UK in July was caused by a surge in continental air and August’s heatwave has been caused by a “stubborn area of high pressure sat over the UK”, a Met Office spokesperson told HuffPost UK.
Advertisement
A heat-health alert from the UK Health Security Agency is also still in place until 9am on Tuesday.
The heatwaves have made the UK so dry, that an official drought was declared in eight areas of England on Friday by the National Drought Group.
Welsh Water, Southern Water, and South East Water have brought in hosepipe bans too, while Yorkshire Water and Thames Water are planning to bring them in soon.
The Met Office also believes, despite the coming rain, this summer will be remembered as a particularly dry one.
The chair of the National Fire Chiefs Council, (NFCC) Mark Hardingham said: “I can’t remember a summer like this and I’ve been in the fire service 32 years. We are not going to see temperatures as hot as we saw three weeks ago but that doesn’t matter because the ground couldn’t get any drier than it already is.”
Will there be rain?
Not just rain, but storms too. Locations in Northern Ireland and Scotland are already seeing thundery skies, meaning the Met Office has issued some yellow thunderstorm warnings. Storms are expected to hit the south by Wednesday.
Advertisement
Three days of heavy rain are expected in total, potentially accompanied by hail, sweeping in an eastern direction across the country.
The Met Office expects to see at leat 50mm of rain in two or three-hour periods in a few regions, putting low-lying roads and areas next to sloping fields at risk.
But, the rain recorded from the rest of the summer in parts of southern and central England is less than a quarter of what is usually expected in a British summer.
By Thursday, high pressure will have pushed into the UK and so it will stay mostly dry.
Is this rain good or bad?
Well, there hasn’t been substantial rainfall since June in many southern regions.
But there are fears that the intense dry spell – lasting several weeks now – means the land is too dry to absorb the rainwater.
Advertisement
There could therefore be flash flooding, but the rain will do little to ease drought conditions. The thunder could could cause power cuts too.
However, rain does still reduce the threat of wildfires which have strained UK fire services over recent months.
The Met Office’s Dan Stroud said what we really need is “an extended period of light rain, an average or slightly above average autumn”, along with a winter where constant light rain recharges the ground.
Discussing the upcoming downpour, Stroud said: “It will help a little but to be honest really, it’s almost the wrong kind of rain. What we’re likely to see is some heavy, intense downpours.
“With the ground baked so dry, it’s very difficult for the ground to actually absorb the water very quickly… so what tends to happen in these circumstances is the water runs off, and we can potentially get some surface run-off issues, so some flash floods.”
Advertisement
Why is our weather changing so quickly?
Short answer: climate change.
In terms of why this week in particular seems so dramatic, meteorologist Stroud said the drastic changes stem from an alteration in air pressure.
Stroud said: “We’ve had a number of days now where we’ve had clear, strong skies and strong sunshine which has heated up the ground.
“We’ve had high pressure dominating, now we’re having low pressure dominate, so the air is becoming more unstable.
“As we’ve had some very high ground temperatures, it doesn’t actually take too much for the air to become even more unstable and for thundery showers to develop quickly.”
Heavy, thundery rain at first across Northern Ireland and Scotland this Monday morning ⛈️
Drier elsewhere, but thundery rain soon spreading from the west, feeling very warm and muggy for many 🌡️ pic.twitter.com/gVXOzUrduE
Probably not. The climate crisis is not going anywhere, and is actually getting worse, as our atmosphere continues to heat up.
Temperatures are expected to decrease to a more normal level in August, but that doesn’t mean we can’t expect similarly searing heat next summer.
As professor Hannah Cloke, a natural hazards researcher at the University of Reading told the i newspaper: “With average temperatures rising across the UK, we have to shift the definition of what ‘particularly hot’ is, otherwise that definitely becomes increasingly meaningless.”
She said the UK needs to change how we define a heatwave, as rising greenhouse gas emissions mean higher temperatures are more common now than they were over the last two decades.
The mayor of London said the country needed a “brave generation of politicians” in parliament, in an interview with HuffPost UK.
Advertisement
“This heatwave is directly linked with the consequences of climate change,” Khan said as the UK hit its hottest temperature on record of 40.2C at Heathrow.
“So rather than tiptoeing around this issue and ignoring it, as those running to be the Tory leader have done, we should be talking about it more with a sense of urgency.”
The criticism falls as the Tory leadership debate has focused on tax cuts and culture war issues, rather than the climate.
Cabinet minister Alok Sharma, who led last year’s landmark Cop26 UN climate summit, intervened in the Tory leadership race, suggesting to The Observer he might resign if the incoming PM fails to commit to a strong agenda on the climate crisis.
Advertisement
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan with Rosamund adoo-kissi-debrah, CEO of the Ella Roberta Family Foundation.
James Manning – PA Images via Getty Images
Meanwhile, Conservative MP Chris Skidmore has suggested Tory party members care little about hitting “net zero” carbon emissions by 2050 “because 90 per cent of them will be dead”.
Skidmore admitted a survey which put the climate emergency at the bottom of the list for the people who will choose the next prime minister is “rather depressing” in the Independent.
Leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch has previously branded the 2050 net zero commitment “unilateral economic disarmament” and vowed to axe it if elected.
At a hustings event on Monday she appeared to reverse her view before performing another U-turn on TalkTV that evening suggesting there were “circumstances” she would delay it. The three other remaining leadership candidates have all backed net zero.
Advertisement
Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, whose daughter Ella was nine years old when she suffered a fatal asthma attack in 2013 linked to severe air pollution, has also criticised Conservative leadership hopefuls for dismissing green issues.
Khan added: “I break down politicians into three areas: climate change deniers, climate change delayers and climate change doers.
“And this heatwave should make us all want to be climate change doers, rather than delayers or deniers.”
He added: “This heatwave, caused by climate change, should be a wake up call for all of us – including those running to be the leader of the Conservative Party.
Advertisement
“It’s heartbreaking, in my view, to see the Tories being in denial about this issue.
“I mean, just to think about one of the candidates talking about 2060, 2070, the other candidates being lukewarm at best about the issue of tackling climate change. That is not the sort of leadership we need.”
He added: “It was Conservative politicians in the 1950s during the Great Smog who made the brave decision to close down power stations in the centre of our cities – think of Battersea Power station, think of the Tate Modern, because then you could see the poison.
“The problem is you can’t see the invisible killer, but you can feel the heat.
“What we want to see is a brave generation of politicians in parliament now, tackling climate change and air quality.”
The mayor made the comments as he hosted a climate solutions summit in London’s City Hall.
A woman use portable fan as heatwave hits London, United Kingdom on July 18, 2022.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Transport for London released figures that show the expansion of Khan’s ultra-low emission zone appears to have reduced toxic air levels in the suburbs.
Advertisement
They found that roadside levels of nitrogen dioxide in central London were now 44 per cent lower than they would have been had the Ulez not been introduced.
However, the Evening Standard suggested the bulk of the benefits were attributable to the original central London zone which launched in April 2019.
Researchers have made a startling discovery beneath the waters off Western Australia. A meadow of sea grass stretching more than 110 miles long was actually a single plant that had spent the past 4,500 years cloning itself to carpet an area three times larger than Manhattan.
The findings, published Wednesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, make the colony of Posidonia australis, or ribbon weed, the largest known plant on Earth, scientists said.
Advertisement
Elizabeth Sinclair, a senior research fellow at the University of Western Australia and a lead author of the study, said her team has been testing seagrass meadows around Australia for genetic diversity for years to see how they respond to climate change. When her team visited an area known as Shark Bay, a relatively pristine landscape untouched by development, they went beneath the waves to collect samples of seagrass to see what types of plants were growing across the ocean floor.
The answer was one.
Advertisement
“It’s quite bizarre when you think about it, there’s this plant in one end of the bay and then you move 100 kilometres down to the other end and it’s the same plant,” Sinclair said.
Scientists say the meadow of ribbon weed is all genetically identical after cloning itself to cover an area three times larger than Manhattan.
Rachel Austin/University of Western Australia
Her team hypothesised that thousands of years ago, a single seagrass seedling landed in the bay. It was particularly suited to survive in different oceanic environments due to its unusual genome.
Advertisement
Most comparable plant offspring contain 50% of each parent’s genes. But Posidonia australis has 100% from each parent, making it a polyploid, meaning it has double the usual number of chromosomes.
“Polyploid plants often reside in places with extreme environmental conditions, are often sterile, but can continue to grow if left undisturbed, and this giant seagrass has done just that,” Sinclair said in a statement. “Even without successful flowering and seed production, it appears to be really resilient, experiencing a wide range of temperatures and salinities plus extreme high light conditions, which together would typically be highly stressful for most plants.”
The ribbon weed has slowly grown through a series of runners — like a normal turf lawn — to stretch nearly 80 square miles. The researchers estimate its age at about 4,500 years, based on the species’ size and growth rate.
Like other delicate oceanic structures, namely corals, seagrass meadows are susceptible to climate change. A severe heat wave in 2010 and 2011 sparked widespread damage to the Shark Bay meadows, killing about a third of the seagrasses. Underwater meadows are also home to many different species and serve a key role in an area’s biodiversity.
Advertisement
An aerial view of the seagrass meadow in Shark Bay.
Angela Rossen // University of Western Australia
“You lose a plant that creates this whole environment and you lose all the biodiversity that goes with it,” Sinclair said, adding that the 2010-2011 event had calamitous effects. “The turtles were going hungry, the dolphins weren’t getting enough fish, the whole network is connected.”
Although the ribbon weed has already begun to recover and spread since that event, Sinclair cautioned that climate change still poses a threat to region.
She also noted that it was “scary” how researchers had only just discovered the remarkable colony hiding beneath the waves, noting climate change could rip such species away before humans had a chance to discover them.
“It’s scary because we might lose it before we find out about it,” Sinclair said. “It might be gone before we even know.”
