The Environment Agency has declared a drought for all of the South West of England. Britain has been going through a climate crisis which has taken an extreme turn in the past few months. The Britons have braved two heatwaves, flash floods and water shortage which was followed by a drought in different parts of England. Now the cost-of-living crisis and the latest rise in energy bills have been added to the pile of problems.
Talking about the impact of the climate crisis on the rising energy prices, Arpana Giritharan, policy assistant at Green Alliance, said: “Heavy reliance on fossil fuels has resulted in the twin crisis of climate change and cost of living, which the government needs to address as soon as possible. Households in fuel poverty are set to double to a staggering 12 million by January, but all are expected to feel the pain.” “As we increasingly experience the impacts of climate change in the UK and around the world, such as recent heatwaves, it is critical that we expand cheap and clean energy, like wind and solar, which is now nine times cheaper than gas. We also need to urgently insulate people’s homes to permanently bring down energy bills”, she said.
Whether this is simply a short-term bump, caused by COVID and tensions over Ukraine or UK might face higher prices for years to come, the current increase in energy costs has made it abundantly clear that the UK needs to concentrate more on extracting fossil fuels.
