Ukraine: Act now, Rishi Sunak, over energy crisis so Britain no longer pays Putin’s Russia £2bn a year in ‘gas money’ – Dr Doug Parr

In this country, although President Vladimir Putin’s gas only makes up around five per cent of our imports, that means we’re still likely to send £2bn in gas money to Russia this year – £6m a day.

How Putin has lost the faith of Russia’s soldiers as Ukrainain war becomes the world’s worst nightmare – Colonel Bob Stewart

We’re in the absurd situation of funding the same war we’re trying to stop.

It’s clear, then, that getting off gas is a security issue, and the need to move away from it has never been more obvious or urgent.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is saying some of the right things, and has called for countries to “collectively cease the dependence on Russian oil and gas that for too long has given Putin his grip on western politics”.

The Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is cottoning on too, and now says the the UK will phase out the import of Russian oil by the end of 2022.

Meanwhile dockers in Kent are already taking matters into their own hands by blocking a shipment of Russian gas.

Right now, we need our Chancellor, and MP for Richmond, Rishi Sunak to step up.

The Government’s own advisers have said the best way to cut bills is to cut fossil fuel consumption.

Yet he’s called for new oil and gas projects in the North Sea which on average take 28 years to develop, won’t cut energy bills, and will keep emitting carbon for decades.

Millions of families will be struggling to pay their energy bills.

And instead of funding support through a windfall tax on gas companies that have gloated about their billions in profits, Sunak offered households a loan to temporarily soften bills, which will still have to be paid back. Is Sunak not listening?

It’s obvious that to import less gas, we need to use less of it. That means we need our homes to be warmer and to run on electricity. The UK is already embarrassingly behind on this. We have the worst heat pump sales record in Europe.

And we stand to get left behind yet again, because in response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, our European neighbours are already taking action.

Germany has shelved a major gas pipeline and turbocharged its push for renewables, and the EU Commission is about to unveil a plan to ditch Russian gas. We have no plan, and no timelines.

Sunak must now go full throttle on an emergency plan to get us off gas, and the Spring Statement later this month is the chance to do it.

We need £10bn from the Government over this Parliament to kick start a new insulation programme reaching all sectors, and we need to train up a workforce of engineers for a massive roll out of heat pumps for UK homes and businesses.

We need the red tape obstructing clean energy to be removed, we need VAT taken off solar panels and insulation products. Offshore wind has been a great success story for the UK, and for Yorkshire in particular.

But we now need a proper plan and legislative backing for putting turbines where they least affect our precious natural world, and to deliver an offshore electricity grid so the power is brought ashore with least disruption for communities on the coast.

Above all, we need a sense of urgency.

If standing up to Putin, slashing bills and sorting the climate crisis wasn’t enough, a race for renewables could be revolutionary for workers, in Yorkshire and the rest of the UK.

Hull is leading the way with offshore wind. If Sunak and Kwarteng come together to properly plan a transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy, people working in high-carbon industries will have secure and sustainable jobs to go to in the renewables and installation sector.

But inaction could see communities all over the North of England decimated once again, as they were after the closure of the coal mines.

It makes no sense to keep guzzling this gas which is bankrolling the first European war for decades, plunging UK households into fuel poverty, and causing deadly storms and flooding.

We’ve had enough silence from Sunak. He has it in his hands to get the Government to act now to get off gas, once and for all.

Dr Doug Parr is policy director of 
Greenpeace UK.

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