Evidence for the Environmental Audit Committee inquiry: Heatwaves, adapting to climate change

Green House submitted evidence to four UK public policy inquiries: to the inquiry being conducted by Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee into the role of the Treasury in relation to sustainable development and environmental protection; to the Kerslake Review into the current role, responsibilities and operating mandate of the Treasury, commissioned by Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell; to the inquiry on Intergenerational Fairness by the parliamentary Work and Pensions Committee; and to the open consultation on the government’s National Infrastructure Commission.

This evidence sets out Green House Think Tank's position that we need community-level responses to identify vulnerable people, communicate what they can do to stay cool and ensure that people check they are coping with the heat. The dangers of heat waves and the fact that they are times when we need to take more care to look after each other needs to be communicated.

This evidence sets out Green House Think Tank's position that the treasury's policy time scales are too short term to deal with climate issues. There is a need for systematic reform of the Treasury’s processes and procedures, so that these help rather than hinder transition in the UK towards an ecologically sustainable economy.

This evidence was written by Green House's Rupert Read and Brian Heatly with the aim of ​arguing that the issue of intergenerational fairness cannot be properly explored except in the context of the end of economic growth.

This evidence sets out Green House Think Tank's opposition to the government's proposal 'Do you agree that the remit should be set by a letter from the Chancellor, on behalf of the government?'. The Chancellor is the wrong person to set the Commission’s remit, and certainly the wrong person to appoint all its members.