Getting to grips with the climate crisis | Letters
Our political system has been hijacked by a cabal of ideologically driven free marketeers with no democratic mandate. Air pollution and climate change, the two most urgent issues confronting society, are nowhere mentioned in the bubbles of bombastic rhetoric generated by our new prime minister. Boris Johnson's main contribution to air quality as mayor of London was to cancel the western extension of the congestion zone. As for climate change, he presided over a 60% reduction in climate attaches as foreign secretary and subsequently accepted an expenses-paid trip to the US courtesy of the American Enterprise Institute, a fossil-fuel supporting free-market thinktank partially funded by the Koch brothers. I no longer recognise our leadership as embodying British values. I feel I'm living in a foreign dictatorship consumed by profit and self-interest.
Dr Robin Russell-Jones
Chair, Help Rescue the Planet
" Your article (Ofgem is out of touch with environmental priorities, say UK's business leaders, 22 July) ignores the fact that Ofgem's principal duty, enshrined in statute, is to protect the interests of energy consumers both now and in the future, including from damaging climate change by reducing greenhouse gases. Ofgem's regulation of Britain's energy networks has facilitated the huge expansion of renewable electricity generation over the last decade, and we are working with the government and other stakeholders to help decarbonise how we heat our homes, businesses and transport, particularly through electric vehicles.
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