A march for climate action will be taking place at 1.30pm on Saturday, November 6 at the Sea Terminal in Douglas.

It’s being organised by IoM Friends of the Earth, with IoM Climate Change Coalition, which is made up of more than 30 local organisations.

’The current steep rise in gas prices is a reminder that we are still dependent on fossil fuels,’ said Alice Quayle of the Coalition.

’If we quit that dependence, it reduces the ability of fuel companies to hold us to ransom in future’.

’The last administration spent several years talking about climate action, and made some detailed plans, but never moved onto real action.

’One practical thing the new administration could do now is to make a real push to improve the insulation and efficiency of the island’s homes, so there will be fewer people in cold homes in winter.

’It would also create employment, and it would reduce the flow of money leaving the island every day to pay for fossil fuels.’

She continued: ’The new Green Living Grant Scheme is aiming to insulate around 1,000 homes, which is a good start but isn’t going to end fuel poverty here. We’d like to see a lot more practical information, help, and encouragement from government on this.

This could include grants, courses, open days, videos, media articles, training, competitions, publicity, awards etc.’

’Furthermore, it’s a wasted opportunity that thousands of new builds are going up with old building standards and no solar. We could be building homes that only cost around £100-£200 a year to heat. It’s a lot cheaper to build high spec from scratch rather than to retrofit afterwards.

’Also, still only about 1% of our electricity comes from renewable sources.

’This is despite the fact we have some of the best wind and solar resources in the British Isles’.