Tuesday 4th June 2013 saw MPs from around the country gather in the House of Commons for a debate and vote on whether there will be a decarbonisation target in the Energy Bill that is currently going through Parliament. Getting a decarbonisation target in the Energy Bill has been a big part of the Clean British Energy campaign over the past year. Disappointingly it didn’t quite get passed. The final vote counted at 267 for the target and 290 against. Eight conservatives and sixteen Liberal Democrats rebelled against their party whips.
It is not all doom and gloom though. Thanks to all the pressure everyone has put on their MPs, this was one of the biggest rebellions against this Government. In Birmingham we would like to thank; John Hemming (Lib Dem), Richard Burden, Steve McCabe, Jack Dromney, Shabana Mahmood, Roger Godsiff, Liam Byrne and Giesla Stuart (all Labour) for voting for the target. We were only twelve rebels away from an outright victory, which shows that this issue will not going away and there is now a chance that the House of Lords could overrule the decision.
The decarbonisation target was a chance to create a secure economical environment for investment in the low-carbon energy generation industry. This would create thousands of jobs as well as setting a pathway for the UK to have a secure clean energy future.
A big thank you to everyone who has helped in this campaign and I would encourage you to show your appreciation to the MPs who went and voted for the target. Through public meetings, writing to MPs, stunts, stalls and street campaigning we turned this decarbonisation amendment into an important issue, got the vast majority of Birmingham MPs to vote for it, as well as create strong foundations to build on in the future.
