At a time when Extinction Rebellion, the Youth Strikes, and climate activists around the world are rightly pushing for urgent action to tackle climate change, the Government has just overruled its own Planning Inspectorate and approved four new gas-powered turbines.

In Parliament, I spoke against the Government’s decision, which will undermine our ability to meet crucial climate targets. The inspectorate specifically said that these turbines should be blocked because of their impact on climate change as, just last week, Ofgem confirmed that the rate of decarbonisation in the UK slowed last year, when it needs to be accelerating.

The Tories are simply not taking the climate crisis seriously. They have pushed ahead with fracking, removed support for renewables, cut subsidies for green vehicles, and scrapped plans to make homes carbon-neutral.

In contrast, Labour has set out a range of ambitious but achievable policies to tackle the climate crisis. In Government, we’ll provide funding to support the switch to electric vehicles, build new wind farms, tackle the scourge of plastic waste, insulate homes, introduce a new Clean Air Act, and invest in public transport. This Green Industrial Revolution will restructure our economy to protect the environment and create hundreds of thousands of high-skilled, unionised green jobs.

Responding quickly and effectively to the climate crisis is a mammoth task that will require determined action from an interventionist Government. Only Labour has the policies, vision, and political will to meet that challenge.