Ed Miliband, the shadow secretary of state for energy security and net zero has said that the climate activist group Just Stop Oil is “alienating people” from its cause.
Responding to an audience member who said that she had been driven to support Just Stop Oil because she felt “so let down by politicians” at the Hay festival, Miliband said that the climate crisis is an emergency and must be treated as one.
“When you block a motorway of people who are trying to get to their relatives who are dying … that isn’t helping your cause,”he said. “I don’t question your motivation but I massively question your tactics.”
The former Labour leader said that he was interested in “actually persuading people to come with us on this hard transition”.
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“If every country in the world adopted Labour’s position [on deciding not to issue new oil and gas licences] it would have a transformative effect on the debate,” he said.
Miliband further said that the party’s plans to ban new oil and gas licences are “the most progressive position of any major country in the world” but that the transition in the North Sea has to be properly managed to protect those working in existing fields.
Making sure the transition is fair has to be a priority, he said. “I’m speaking to you from my constituency which is an ex-mining constituency and was the site of an unfair transition.”
Miliband said that Labour plans to “follow the science” when it comes to climate policies, should it come into power. If Labour wins, he said the UK would “be the first major country in the world to commit to having all of our power coming from zero-carbon energy services by 2030, which is a massive commitment and requires massive change”.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
