Young people demanded we debate climate change in parliament – and only a handful of MPs turned up

Why isn’t the ‘mother of all parliaments’ dealing with the mother of all issues?

Climate change is the biggest issue facing our planet. Extreme weather hit every populated continent in 2018, killing, injuring and displacing millions.

That’s why young people across the UK and the world, including over 2,000 students in my Oxford constituency, went on strike over climate change two weeks ago.

I have heard them. They are angry, and so am I.

That is why I secured a debate on climate change in parliament this week, the first debate on climate change in over two years. It is simply unacceptable for this Tory government to pontificate on all the "great things" it is doing on climate change, and yet not allow MPs to discuss it in the chamber.

It speaks volumes about the all-consuming nature of Brexit that has pushed everything else into the parliamentary side-lines.

But I am angry.

I know many watched my debate and expressed frustration about the turnout of MPs, but this is once again proof that Conservative ministers in Whitehall don’t care. Rather than using government time to debate climate change they left it to the opposition – immediately reducing the number of MPs able to turn up.

There were plenty of MPs who wrote or spoke to me apologising for their absence. Many returned home to their constituencies to meet prior engagements, an integral part of our job as representatives.

But it isn’t just debating time that has been limited for MPs. In July 2016, Theresa May abolished the Department of Energy and Climate Change, which shows how seriously she takes the issue. With this, climate change moved immediately down the pecking order.

Since then the number of questions asked by MPs about climate change has fallen significantly, given there’s no opportunity to question the government exclusively about climate change and no government department explicitly deals with the issue.

If the so-called "mother of all parliaments" is not addressing one of the biggest issues facing our world, then it doesn’t deserve to be revered in that way. It is a disgrace.

But it didn’t need to be this way. Dr Liam Fox and his Department of International Trade pumps out a lot of hot air with his jet-setting across the world, albeit signing non-existent trade deals. That is what this government deemed more important than climate change.

When I asked the minister why it was that climate change has been debated so little in the House of Commons over the past two years an answer was not forthcoming. We didn't even receive an apology.

People deserve better, and the Liberal Democrats demand better.

The UK is due to bid to host the 2020 Climate Change Summit. The summit will be a vital step in putting the issue of climate change back on the agenda. If the UK is to become a world-leader in tackling climate change, as Liberal Democrats would want, this is an opportunity that ministers must not allow to fall through their grasp.

Liberal Democrats want to use the 2020 Climate Change Summit as a catalyst for action at home and internationally.

What we want to see is a carbon-neutral Britain. That means new targets to fast track the switch away from fossil fuels and into clean energy and green tech. We want to encourage a move away from polluting vehicles, aiming to ban new diesel and petrol cars by 2030, and expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

Ultimately, we need an overhaul of how things are done. We need a completely different type of economy - one which is truly green, sustainable, and embeds the biggest issues of the day into its heart. We need a government that takes climate change seriously, one that doesn’t shunt it to the side-lines.

That is the kind of radical action young people are protesting for. As an MP, I cannot imagine looking anyone in the eye 20 years from now without knowing I did all I could do deliver for these young people. I don’t think any MP could.

My challenge to this government is to therefore act now, because the planet cannot wait.

Layla Moran is the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon