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Climate and Nature Bill
Warwickshire Climate Alliance has written to the other local MPs – Jodie Gosling, John Slinger, Rachel Taylor, Matt Western, and Sir Jeremy Wright – to urge them both to support the Bill and, importantly, to pledge to be in Parliament to vote for it on January 24th. Please, if you are one of these MPs’ constituents, take the time to write to them to urge them to back the Bill. You can use the Zero Hour website to do this.
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Letter to MPs on the Climate and Nature Bill
We are delighted to see that the Climate and Nature Bill will now advance to a Second Reading in the House of Commons on January 24th, having been picked to do so by the new MP for the South Cotswolds constituency, Dr Roz Savage. As a Warwickshire MP, we would like to ask you to join 227 MPs and Peers across the political parties in pledging your support for the Bill, and to ensure that you are available to vote in favour of it on January 24th.
Like the 2008 Climate Change Act, the CAN Bill is non-party political. It links the climate and nature crises to give us the best chance of limiting emissions to 1.5°C, if that is still possible, and to reverse (rather than merely halt) the decline of nature. It would improve on existing legislation, including the Climate Change Act and the Environment Act, in several key ways:
It would unambiguously require the phasing out of fossil fuels as quickly as possible, ending the culture of delay and greenwashing promoted by the fossil fuel industry and their allies in the media.
By linking the climate crisis and the decline of natural biodiversity, the Bill ensures decarbonisation will not take place at the expense of the natural environment.
By requiring visible reversal of the decline of nature by 2030, it opens opportunities for carbon sequestration from the restoration of woodlands and hedgerows, rivers, peatlands and wetlands.
The Bill would mandate a just transition, by ensuring financial support and retraining for workers in fossil fuel and other affected industries.
In order to secure as broad a social consent as possible for a green transition that will impact the lives of everyone, the Bill would ensure involvement of ordinary people in planning the transition through a Climate and Nature Assembly.
It will ensure emissions reductions at home are not achieved by simply offshoring them, by requiring that the UK take action to reduce its carbon emissions and ecological impacts overseas, as existing legislation does not. Carbon emissions will harm the life chances of future generations wherever they are released. We cannot solve the problem with an ‘island mentality’.
You can learn more about the Bill, and find lists of supporting politicians and organisations here. The Bill itself can be read here.
We believe this is a vital opportunity to ensure that we are doing everything we can to try to limit global heating. As the planet heats beyond 1.5°C over pre-industrial temperatures, scientists consider it ‘likely’ we will trigger irreversible transformations, such as the undermining of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, and the transition of the Amazon rainforest to grassland. These transformations will have a devastating impact on human societies and the natural world. According to the latest State of the Climate Report, written by leading climate scientists, “Climate change has already displaced millions of people, with the potential to displace hundreds of millions or even billions. That would likely lead to greater geopolitical instability, possibly even partial societal collapse.”
Since entering government, both Keir Starmer and his Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, have spoken of the existential threat of climate change in speeches to the UN. At the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, the UK joined other nations in adopting a Declaration for Future Generations, in recognition of the impact our inaction will have on future generations. Passing the Climate and Nature Bill would help restore hope to the young, demonstrate world leadership, and uphold these commitments we have made to the United Nations and the world.
Please commit to supporting the Climate and Nature Bill and to turning up to vote for it at its Second Reading on the 24th January.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Pension Fund Divestment
Response to WCC Sustainable Futures
Sewage Pollution on the River Avon
Cemex
Beechwood Farm Battery Energy
Leamington EcoFest attendees tell us their views
By David Mond, Warwickshire Climate Alliance
At the recent EcoFest in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire Climate Alliance asked passers-by to agree or disagree with the statement "The Government is failing us on climate change". The result was very clear: out of 117 people, 110 agreed, one adding``massively failing''. It’s easy to dismiss this result -- the people attending the EcoFest were a self-selected group who are interested in climate change, and so the survey does not reflect wider public opinion. That may be true, but is it really a reason for disregarding the result? It’s not unreasonable to assume that the people who are interested enough in ecology to attend the EcoFest know something about it. So perhaps their view should not be dismissed simply because it does not coincide with the view of the wider public. If it is true that 96% of the people in Warwick District who are interested in climate change believe that they, we, are being failed by our government, then probably this is something everyone should care about. At the very least, it should prompt some more questions. After all, the government is committed to reaching net zero carbon by 2050.
The problem is that meeting that commitment is extremely challenging, surely more so than anything we have had to do since the Battle of Britain. We are being asked to replace the foundation of our material civilisation, and in many cases our livelihood, in just over 25 years. As the Jungle Book has it, it is man's red fire that distinguishes us from the rest of the animals. And we have to give it up.
Now, I don’t know what the people who took part in our impromptu survey understood by the statement “Our government is failing us”. That’s another reason to view the survey as only the beginning of an enquiry, and not the end.
But for what it’s worth, here is what I think.
The first ground on which it is failing us is simply that it is not telling us the truth. It encourages us to believe that there is nothing to worry about, that everything is under control, and that there is no need for us to change our way of life in order to prevent climate breakdown. Let’s keep on flying to far off countries for our holidays and business trips; let’s keep building houses as if there was no climate emergency, with old fashioned gas central heating and no solar panels; let’s keep driving our two-and-a-half ton SUVs; let’s keep eating our roast beef.
Telling the truth on climate change isn’t easy. Unless you are Winston Churchill, it’s not a vote winner to tell people that you can only offer them toil, tears and sweat. But right now it’s surely something you have to do. In fact both major parties are failing us in this regard. Both are putting getting elected ahead of protecting us from climate breakdown.
The lack of truthfulness can be seen in the contrast between what the government says, and what every international body is telling us.
- The United Nations says that to prevent a climate catastrophe we have to phase out fossil fuels now, and stop drilling for more oil or opening new coal mines. Our government has recently approved a plan for a new coal mine in Cumbria, and has just awarded hundreds of licenses for oil exploration in the North Sea.
- Back in 2019, Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, called on governments to “End fossil fuel subsidies, and stop using taxpayers’ money to destroy the world”. But In 2021, UK government support for fossil fuel extraction rose by 20% to nearly £2bn, with a fifth of the money given to support new extraction and mining. And thanks in part to this generosity, Shell and BP made £32bn and £23bn in profit in 2022, while energy bills soared.
- The Government claims it will achieve net zero carbon by 2050. Even its own advisory body, the Climate Change Committee, chaired until recently by a Conservative peer, Lord Deben, says that it is nowhere near being on course to meet this goal. A central pillar of its plans is to develop offshore wind – the cheaper alternative, onshore wind, was effectively banned by the Cameron government in 2015, by imposing un-meetable planning restrictions. But in the recent auction of licenses for new off-shore wind farms, there was not a single bidder! The reason? The government was offering a price for the electricity the new wind farms would generate that was below what it would cost to generate it. This was despite its being repeatedly warned by the prospective bidders that the price was too low and that unless it was raised they would not take part in the auction. Why did the government stymie its own efforts to develop renewable energy? Lack of commitment? Simple incompetence? We don’t know. But it’s hardly a success.
These are some of the reasons why I think the government is failing us – unless by “us” you mean “fossil fuel companies”. What do you think?