Climate change is man-made, the Conservative candidate to be Stroud MP has said.

Siobhan Baillie confirmed her belief after the Tory county councillor tasked with Gloucestershire’s environmental policy this week refused to say climate change is the result of human activity. (https://bit.ly/1qgBAiF) 

"Yes to man-made climate change,” she told the SNJ as she visited a Stonehouse-based green energy business today.

“It's just not a single issue - there's lots of elements to this that need we to look at when it comes to the environment.

"Nigel Moor is an excellent county cabinet member. I haven't read all of his comments but he's going to work really hard for the environment.

"I've seen the science reports, I believe that climate change is an issue.

“Even the skeptics and people looking at contradictory or other types of science reports available - we're all on board with believing that we've got to work together for the environment, for future generations.

"Nigel Moor is in exactly that position and is the right person. It's a positive thing that the county council made a decision to put him in place and in charge of climate change."

Ms Baillie joined Claire Perry, minister of state for climate change, on a tour of Progressive Energy, which develops projects decarbonising the UK’s gas network.

Ms Perry added: "The thing I say to people who say 'Should we be acting now?' is, first of all, there's no longer this trade-off between cost and doing the right thing because we've had incredible reduction in the costs of renewable energy.

“We can buy offshore wind now at a price that is unimaginably low and that's the reason we've been able to stop coal. We'll be off coal completely as a country by 2025 because of our investment in renewables.

“And, secondly, even if you don't believe the science, the economic opportunity from doing this is absolutely immense. The whole world is moving to a low-carbon future as we are.

“You can debate the science but - you know what - I kind of like the pace of that change in the UK and want us to be developing jobs, creating innovation that supports that."