Thread by @James_BG

The debate is on the UK's progress towards net zero. Lib dem's Layla Moran kicks off. Stresses the debate has cross party backing and says she would not have applied for the debate without the School Strikes.

The House looks just under a quarter full. The Government benches... less so.

Jonathan Edwards of Plaid says the House is 'dysfunctional'. Complains that MPs bang on about Brexit, but it is a disgrace that climate has not been debated for two years.

Of course, the other way in which the House is dysfunctional is in its basic formats. You forget how weird and counterproductive the basic premise of constant interruptions, digressions, and self promoting questions are.

Layla Moran says the theme of her speech is that 'we are not doing enough'. We would, of course, find this out if she was allowed to complete a sentence.

First question to the Minister is are we planning to have a net zero target and when will it be, because 80% is not good enough.

. @MaryCreaghMP criticises Lib Dems record in government, prompting a response from @EdwardJDavey correcting claim the Lib Dems axed DECC and pushing back against other accusations.

Second question to the Minister is what is the update on UK bid to host 2020 COP?

Luke Graham for the Conservatives highlights @PwCclimateready showing UK has deepest emissions cuts of any G7.
Moran says much of the credit for those cuts should go to Lib Dem policies pushed through in coalition in face of Tory opposition.

Pained pleas from government benches for people to 'not play games'. But Moran pushes on with attack on govt record on onshore wind, fracking, etc. 'Lib Dems want to see a carbon neutral Britain by 2050'.

Attack moves on to 'zero carbon homes', then opens up to need for a 'new type of economy', circular economy, carbon tax and dividend, rewarding pension funds to divest, etc, etc.

Next question for Minister is will she clarify plans for ETS post-Brexit? Although arguably Perry did this yesterday: businessgreen.com/bg/news/307186…

Moran closes by declaring climate change an 'emergency' and demands much more action. 'There is no Planet B', she concludes.

Former Environment Minister @RichardBenyonMP is up. Says climate is one of the few issues more important than Brexit. Declares it an 'existential' threat. Quotes the Pentagon on the scale of the climate-related security risk.

Debating existential threats:

Switch off for a sec and we have gone from Himalayas to Bangladesh to UK flooding to Arctic ice caps to Tibetan plateaus and now I am completely lost.

Benyon: I want to cut off, hopefully for the last time in my life, the arguments put forward by those who doubt that manmade climate change is happening. Recommends @_richardblack new book.

Benyon says they are not sceptics, it is good to be sceptics, they are contrarians, like the golf club bores.

Benyon also praising the passion of young people campaigning for bolder action.

Now referencing the Kids Against Plastic vital campaign. He says 30 young people came to his office and he was struck by their passion, but also how we need to inform people better.

He says none of them knew UK was first country to pass a Climate Change Act (while acknowledging they had no reason to know, as it is a process thing). He asked them how much they knew about Blue Belt.

Should inspire them to say 'at least we have a government that is doing about this'. Goes on to highlight renewables progress and the move to net zero target, which he predicts is now 'inevitable'.

Benyon absolutely well-intentioned, but this anecdote is coming across a bit Dianne Feinstein-y. The kids are not going to be won over by UK's impressive, but still very partial progress, in the face of the scale of the climate threat.

Claire Perry described as 'climate minister', which of course she is not. It is in her remit, but she is Energy and Clean Growth Minister and I think I am right in saying there is no Climate Minister.

Benyon says there could be a silver lining from Brexit in UK being free from EU rules hand having the chance to lead.

Benyon wraps up by saying it is fantastic that the UK has cross party agreement on climate action, unlike the US.

.@MaryCreaghMP is up and jokes Benyon should keep his phone on as George Eustice has just resigned and it would be a good piece of recycling were he to return as environment minister.

Creagh says UK should debate Brexit less and climate a lot more. Says this 'thumping great' threat impacts everything. Highlights how EAC covering everything from pension funds to fashion.

Creagh: 'We need to shape and bend the entire financial system to invest in this green economy and deliver a just transition'.

A modest proposal for improving our politics: A ban on any and all questions that start adhere to the format, 'do you agree with this universally popular and well established point?'

Creagh: 'Real sustainability comes not just with social justice, but climate justice as well.'

Creagh finally tries to get things back to the subject of net zero with some scary stats on climate impacts, Arctic warming, fires on Saddleworth Moor, catastrophic melting of sea ice, deadly summers.

Creagh: 'When we are talking about climate we are talking about ourselves. We are conducting a vast experiment on the only system that supports our existence.' When Cape Town is already running out of water now, what happens at 1.5C or 2C.

Creagh: At 2C our children will never see a coral reef. They all die.

Creagh is rattling through the huge scale and reach of climate impacts. Food security, flooding, 'we treat soil like dirt'.

First speaker to inject a degree of urgency into proceedings.

Oliver Letwin picks up the soil point and asks if the new proposed subsidy regime should help improve our soils. Which, of course, it should.

Now they're talking about peat moor protection in the Peak District.

Now some praise for Cranfield Uni's world-leading soil research.

All important stuff, but things are getting a bit, erm, discursive.

Creagh trying to get back on point talking about the detail of the global carbon budget we need to get under serious control within 12 years. She says the stark maths of that budget is why she has concluded there is not space for a new fracking industry.

Creagh says source for hope is that clean tech revolution is taking place at the pace of the technological revolution.

Praises progress on power, but quotes @theCCCuk as saying this progress has masked failure in many other areas.

Kerry McCarthy intervenes to say 10 years ago she organised the first Commons debate on livestock emissions and was laughed at, but now people are trying to eat less meat and we need more action.

Creagh jokes that people call it the nanny state, but if nannies are good enough for people on very large incomes they can be good enough for the rest of us. Says it is encouraging public is ahead of govt on flexitarianism and sustainable diets.

We are now on to the need for better public transport similar to that which has been pioneered in Nottingham. Not sure how we got there from flexitarianism, but that's where we are.

Good point from Creagh on EVs. There is no point midwives and nurses travelling across cities, polluting the air, and then talking to people about how to keep their children healthy. Need a joined up EV transition.

Creagh wrapping up with the urgent need for investors to look at carbon bubble risk. Says UK can be a leader and Perry has proven she can be a leader in opposing a no deal Brexit.

Creagh finishes by saying net zero is not the end, it is the start of the next mountain to climb.

.@ZacGoldsmith is up. Says some of his critics in his wafer thin majority Richmond constituency tell voters he cares more about the environment than Brexit. 'I do,' he says. 'They can stick that on their leaflets'.

Fewer interruptions so far, and as such Goldsmith able to rattle through some of the terrifying global stats on toppling temperature records and escalating threats.

Lots of talk and agreement on seriousness of climate threat and need for local action. Virtually nothing so far on how we actually build a net zero economy, how to drive that investment, how to build public, political, and business support for it.

Goldsmith says we are not on track for apocalyptic 2C of warming, we are on track for 3C. In that light the idea of criticising children for missing a few hours of geometry is 'churlish'.

Not a contrarian in sight thus far to make the case against 'truancy'.

Goldsmith references them in absentia. Says it is impossible to make 100% certain predictions, but what happens if we listen to the sceptics and are wrong? Then we risk the collapse of civilisation itself.

And if we make the transition and the sceptics are right then we will still have made a cleaner, healthier world.

Independent as ever, @ZacGoldsmith praises UK emission reduction progress but does highlight we are not on track for fourth and fifth carbon budget.

Goldsmith tells the 'old story of the whale oil'. Every US building was lit by whale oil, and then they struck oil and within a few years the industry was gone. Quotes a diary entry from a whale oil trader: 'I am astonished I ran out of customers before I ran out of whales.'

House attendance update for debate on the existential threat to global civilisation...

Goldsmith making strong plea for more of @DFID_UK funding to focus on restoring ecosystem services that support the world's poorest communities.

Speaker praises a 'well-balanced' debate, before imposing a five minute limit on the remaining speakers.

. @CarolineLucas is up. Says recent temperatures are 'not normal' and the implications are 'profound'. Under 3-4C warming the world would be 'ravaged' and large areas would become uninhabitable.

Says we need a new level of boldness and ambition. Slams government record on fracking, GIB, zero carbon homes, 'solar shafted'. It is not possible to tackle the climate crisis while expanding airports, throwing tax breaks at North Sea, building more roads.

Whatever you think of @CarolineLucas ' politics, and not all will agree with every part, the precision and eloquence of her language and structure of her speech really is a class apart.

Lucas makes full throated call for a UK Green New Deal, which a UK campaign first proposed a decade ago before @AOC picked it up. She argues that it could be the project that brings the Brexit split UK back together.

She says it is going to take 'something big' to restore people's confidence in politics. A Green New Deal could be it.

Lucas calls for a cross party select committee on Climate Breakdown and asks for climate to be embedded in the remit of all committees and departments.

A speech with a clear point, genuine passion, and realistic calls for action, from @CarolineLucas. Much more of this sort of thing desperately, desperately needed.

Conservative's Vicky Ford says the Minister knows her view on the need to give onshore wind a route to market. She says that as a physicist she will continue to make the case for more R&D on storage. And voices support for Zero Carbon Home Standard.

Ford says she is a 'sucker for a puffin and has visited puffins all over the UK', and then praises @Natures_Voice report on importance of UK peat carbon sinks.

Then on to food science in East Anglia and plastic waste and giving up plastic for Lent and... says she will 'be going lentil for Lent and giving up meat'.

I really do have some suggestions about the format if Bercow wants to catch up for a coffee sometime...

.@labourlewis is up and says he is going to make some partisan points.

'That's not like you,' come voices from the govt benches.

He says the reason children are protesting is because they fear 'this place is sleepwalking off a cliff'. Makes a big picture pitch that there is a fundamental problem with classical neo-liberal economics.

He insists climate action must present 'a challenge to the economic orthodoxy that the benches opposite champion'.

Warns that if there is not social justice at the root of the transition then there will be problems. Cites Gilet jaunes protests. There was a carbon tax on road fuel, but no investment in public transport or helping the poorest, no tax on aviation fuel.

Lewis says Heathrow is one of the most important dividing lines in politics. No government serious about meeting 2C target would approve Heathrow.

Hard to argue with the clarity of that statement...

Lewis insists young people were not just protesting about climate change, they want 'system change'.

There's obviously a debate over whether the left should try and 'own' climate action. But if I were a Tory strategist I would be very worried about the fast-improving clarity of the just transition/social justice/system change/decarbonisation/GND narrative.

Gillian Keegan is up for the Conservatives. Solid speech running through the government's various decarbonisation achievements and UK tech base.

'Sustainable growth can be more profitable in every respect,' says Keegan. She adds that young people came to Westminster to say 'we care'. Insists MPs are here to say 'we care too'.

Keegan will be picking up litter for lent and will think about the lentils.

Then quotes Tolstoy: "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."

Litter, lentils, Tolstoy.

Labour's Jeff Smith says we are not making fast enough action as the relatively wealthy inhabitants of a windy and rainy island.

Smith says he visited Australia last year. He went 25 years ago and visiting the reef was one of the happiest memories of his life. He went back to the same place last year and it was bleached.

Smith praises Glastonbury decision on plastic bottles... businessgreen.com/bg/news/307181…

Speech with a clear point klaxon. Labour's Thelma Walker praises @GretaThunberg. Quotes UN convention on the rights of the child. Stresses that a clean environment is our children's right.

She quotes UN convention again: Children have the right to express their views and have their concerns taken seriously.

Says she was proud to see children protesting and argues the curriculum must change to better reflect climate crisis. Reiterates Labour support for net zero.

Walker expresses heartfelt thanks to the children who protested. 'We hear you', she says. 👏👏👏

Labour's Darren Jones has a point too (things are getting better). Asks why this is the first debate in two years on climate, why the PM is not here leading the debate, why the response to the IPCC was to ask CCC for a review.

Says govt should be fast tracking net zero target now.

Jones refuses to give way. Argues this is part of the problem 'we each have four minutes' to talk about this. No time to discuss all the many, many challenges. My constituents will be angry we only have four minutes. 'It is the future of our planet, the world we want to live in'

Jones asks the Minister to say when we will be coming back to debate this for days. When will more time, more government time, be allocated for this debate?

Says he stands in solidarity with the young people protesting.

Things are finally heating up a bit. @alexsobel calls on Minister to confirm the government will declare a 'climate emergency' like a civil emergency.

Sobel says we do not need gradual change. We need system change. We need petrol stations to be as common as coaching inns in a few decades.

Says he is not calling for a Green New Deal, but a Marshall Plan for the Environment.

Sobel: If we do not deliver we are not failing ourselves, we are failing our children and grandchildren.

Labour's Mohammad Yasin says younger people 'have every right to be angry about the future we are passing on to them... it is time we listen to them'.

Labour's Anne McMorrin echoing previous criticism of the fact this is the first debate in two years on climate. Asks where was the debate in government time following the 'stark' IPCC report?

McMorrin channeling recent @MLiebreich piece on how international consensus has been to decarbonise as fast as possible without compromising business-as-usual that much.

McMorrin says every government minister has to have climate targets in their remit.

Former Energy and Climate Sec Ed Davey is up and it's a speech with a clear point, people. He asks what are the barriers to decarbonisation. He says there are political and technological barriers, but a big and ignored one is finance.

Too many financial institutions do not get that renewables investments can be fantastic and do not get the climate risks and carbon bubble risks they face, says Davey.

Davey takes a question and it is...can you guess?... Hinkley Point.

Davey says he is seeking a meeting with Mark Carney and is calling for B of E to make banks declare levels of carbon intensive assets and let investors decide if they want companies that are exposed to fossil fuel risks.

Nice idea this: Davey calls for a fossil fuel 'non proliferation treaty' that says 'we've got enough fossil fuels, we can't even use the ones we've got'.

Davey calls for a radical approach, a systems wide view from BoE, FRA and other regulators to change this relationship between finance and fossil fuels.

Davey pivots to talk about how renewable energy can tackle poverty and democratise political power around the world.

From the macro to the micro. 'We only have one EV charging point in High Peak', says High Peak MP Ruth George.

Not a single word of dissent against the proposal for a net zero target thus far. The opponents of climate action obviously busy worrying about Brexit.

SNP John McNally quoting @CFigueres praising Scotland's approach to climate action as 'exemplary to the world'.

. @alanwhiteheadmp is up for the Labour frontbench is up and praises a good and positive debate. Says he has been to almost every debate on climate the house has had in the past 20 years and they normally have a 'claque' of climate sceptics.

Finally a moving moment in a debate that should be more emotionally charged. 'We are all together in this House, just as it is almost too late,' says Whitehead. Adds he is not smug that the sceptics have been proved wrong, he is 'scared stiff' at the fact it is 2 mins to midnight

He asks the Minister to make sure that when the CCC publishes its net zero advice can we have a debate in government time for at least half a day to allow members the proper time to discuss what to do about this 'emergency'

Whitehead warns the ability to do anything about this climate emergency 'is on our watch'. Many of the members here today will be here for the 12 years we have to make real progress.

He does not go in for histrionics does @alanwhiteheadmp, but this is quietly charged and honest stuff.

Whitehead says net zero means not just cutting emissions, but delivering negative emissions. It means system change in our economy so we have a permanent, low carbon, sustainable economy.

Just as things get really interesting I'm going to have to go and pick up two of the people who will hopefully be around in 2100 to see if we can avoid that 2C of warming...

Whitehead reminds the house the Clean Growth Strategy fails to deliver on the fifth carbon budget. Says the first thing we must do is make over that plan to meet the 5th carbon budget and beyond that be in a position to build towards net zero.

Whitehead says govt should start work now on reworking the Clean Growth Strategy to deliver 5th budget and prepare for Net Zero. He says if govt does that the opposition will support it, so that we are no longer running to catch up.

.@claireperrymp starts and thanks everyone participating in the debate and agrees there should be more debate in parliament on climate.

Perry welcomes collegiate tone, and says she will not get into political digs today as we will not make progress without a cross party approach.

She stresses commitment to carbon budgets and reiterates hopes UK will overachieve against them in reality.

Perry acknowledges IPCC report was 'very, very worrying'. Says UK was first industralised nation to take advice on net zero. Says CCC has been asked how and how much it will cost. She stresses the cost issue, pointing to gilet jaunes and stressing you need to take public with you

Lucas says you can avoid gilet jaune protests if you lead as government and put social justice at the heart of the transition.

Perry stressing UK record on emissions reductions, now onto renewables generation record, floating wind farms, coal free days. Aims a dig at Lucas' heckling.

Perry says she is about to bring forward Offshore Wind Sector Deal and govt has earmarked £6bn for clean energy.

Perry wraps up. Says she accepts the challenge of leading from the front, tackling the climate catastrophe, so we can 'look the next generation in the eye... because there is no planet B'

Moran says the House should come together more often to deliver for the young people who protested.

And the 'ayes' have it. With negligible levels of enthusiasm.

So there we have it. UK climate politics in a parliamentary nutshell: consensual, scared, complacent, world-leading, committed, admirable, inadequate, discursive, heart-felt, and more than a little confused.