Energy & Climate
Understanding ‘climateflation’
Extreme weather and fossil fuels added £605 to the average household food shop in 2022 and 2023.
27 January 2025
As another 30ºC heatwave hits parts of the UK, the country’s leading firefighter union has urged the government to tax fossil fuel polluters to help support underfunded emergency response services.
The Fire Brigades Union, which represents over 30,000 fire responders in the UK, has joined a fast-growing initiative calling for ministers to force big carbon polluters to pay their fair share towards the damage they are causing.
While climate impacts are escalating, a decade of funding cuts has left the UK’s fire and rescue service fragmented, overstretched and chronically underfunded.
The service has lost one in five firefighter posts since 2010 – the equivalent of 12,000 full-time roles – while 82 fire stations and 17 control rooms have been closed.
Since 2014, the number of incidents to which the fire service responds has risen by 20%.
Response times are now the slowest on record, with the time it takes for a first appliance to reach a fire having risen by three minutes since the 1990s.
In July 2022, during Britain’s biggest-ever heatwave, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) reported its busiest day since the second world war, while 39 fire engines sat idle because there were not enough firefighters to crew them.
In April this year, wildfires in the UK had already burnt an area larger than the overall annual record for the last decade, while a drought has officially been declared for the North West and Yorkshire.
‘Fossil fuel giants are making billions fanning the flames of the climate crisis, endangering us all, while overstretched firefighters are left to battle with this chaos to keep us safe. This isn’t right –these big polluters can’t keep leaving others to foot the bill for cleaning up their mess.
‘As more heatwaves, wildfires and floods hit the UK and countries around the world, we need well-funded, well-staffed emergency services to protect homes, businesses and lives. And if ministers are looking for revenue, they must tax the massive profits Big Oil is still making from cranking up the planet’s thermostat and devastating the lives of millions.’
MAJA DARLINGTON
Greenpeace UK climate campaigner
The firefighters’ union is the latest organisation to join the Polluters Pay Pact, a global alliance of climate-hit communities, concerned citizens, first responders and political leaders, launched by Greenpeace.
They demand that governments around the world make oil, coal and gas corporations pay their fair share for the damages they cause.
Research shows this is a popular demand as a recent global survey commissioned by Greenpeace and Oxfam revealed that eight in 10 people across 13 countries — including the UK — support taxing these companies to fund climate recovery.
‘While oil and gas giants profit from pollution, firefighters are left to deal with the sharp end of the climate crisis – and all too often without the resources they need to protect lives. It’s frontline workers and vulnerable communities paying the price.
‘Governments must get serious: make polluters pay, fund public services and back a transition to clean, green energy. The UK and global leaders must be braver and bolder in holding polluters to account, starting with signing up to the principles set out in the Polluters Pay Pact.’
STEVE WRIGHT
General secretary of the Fire Brigades Union
Extreme weather and fossil fuels added £605 to the average household food shop in 2022 and 2023.
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