Insect Population

Clive Lewis Excerpts
Wednesday 20th March 2019

(5 years, 1 month ago)

Westminster Hall
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Alex Sobel Portrait Alex Sobel
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If we need to intervene and if we have to replace the natural pollinators with artificial pollinators, there will be a huge cost to the economy.

Clive Lewis Portrait Clive Lewis (Norwich South) (Lab)
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I praise my hon. Friend to the rafters for securing this debate, because it is quite clear to many people that it would be entirely possible for this country and this planet to save ourselves from climate change, yet destroy ourselves in myriad other ways that breach the other eight planetary boundaries. Picking up on that, does he agree that it is the world’s poorest—both internationally and domestically—who will be disproportionately impacted by the systemic climate shocks that these breakdowns in biodiversity will have on our economies?

Alex Sobel Portrait Alex Sobel
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Absolutely. The majority of the world’s poor live towards the middle of the planet, and with climate change those populations will have to move north and south to get further away from the equator, which will mean huge shocks to countries if we do nothing or if we do not do enough. That will have the biggest impact on the world’s poor and will increase desertification of the planet.