UK voters need to hear battle over bills and climate crisis are linked, green experts say

The defining issue of Thursday’s local elections, feedback from doorsteps suggests, will be the UK’s soaring cost of living. But voters should be told about the links between inflation and the affects of fossil fuels and the climate crisis – or the remedies they choose – may make the situation worse, green campaigners have warned. Ami McCarthy, the head of politics at Greenpeace UK, said: “With people’s bills and prices soaring from yet another fossil fuel crisis, these local elections have a global context – driven by the Iran war. “Getting the UK out of the fossil fuel doom loop and on to renewables would secure a stable and affordable supply of energy . Voters face a choice between parties that want to keep us hooked on expensive, imported oil and gas, and those that offer a way out of this cycle of insecurity.” Nigel Farage’s Reform UK have vowed to encourage fracking and impose punitive taxes on on renewable energy generation. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA The Reform party, led by Nigel Farage, is expected to do well among the roughly 5,000 council seats up for grabs in England, and to a lesser extent in the Scottish and Welsh elections. The party takes an anti-climate stance , and has vowed to encourage fracking, impose punitive taxes on renewable energy generation, and block solar and windfarms . The Conservatives have also embraced more drilling in the North Sea and played down the climate crisis , without explicitly denying it. …