CAMPAIGNER BLOG BY SARAH WARREN
Today is the day my hope in this Government died.
The landmark Climate and Nature Bill, introduced by Roz Savage last autumn, has been kicked down the road in an interminable pause. This means that for this session, it’s on death row.
Who put it there?
The Prime Minister.
Elected on a promise of ‘Change’ a year ago, the Government has seemingly abandoned all pretence of seriously delivering for climate – and especially nature. That is nowhere more apparent than in his approach to the CAN Bill.
Presented with an opportunity to live up to the promise to take climate and nature breakdown seriously, the Government instead threatened a three-line whip on the Bill ahead of its Second Reading on 24 January in the face of a ‘mass rebellion’ by its backbenchers.
This was an unprecedented response to a Private Member’s Bill by a Labour Government – and would have meant that Sir Keir joined the ranks of Conservative Prime Ministers like Margaret Thatcher and Boris Johnson who did the same.
It left me asking: what exactly is the Government so afraid of?
The CAN Bill is a very simple Bill. Written by leading UK scientists, the Bill ensures that the UK does everything necessary to tackle the climate and nature crisis in line with the most up to date science.
Specifically it would make the UK’s pre-existing, science-led international pledges on climate and nature – pledges made under previous Conservative Prime Ministers at Paris and Montreal – legally binding.
Why would the Government threaten to whip against something so sensible?
Is it because of the 104 meetings Labour ministers had with fossil fuel lobbyists in their first three months in office?
Or is it because the Government secretly plans to break our internationally agreed targets on climate and nature and doesn’t want its hands tied by anything like a pesky Private Member’s Bill that makes them legally-binding?
Or perhaps it’s something simpler than that…
Maybe this Government is terrified of the science.
The truth is we’ve left it so late to act on the climate and nature crisis that meeting our international pledges will now require an upheaval so great it is unpalatable to politicians focused on winning the next election (even though the changes the Bill would trigger – from warmer homes to cleaner air and rivers to better public transport and flourishing nature – would be welcomed by everyone apart from those with vested interests).
Faced with Reform and the Conservatives abandoning net zero, and well-heeled fossil fuel lobbyists knocking at his door, Sir Keir Starmer had a choice: follow the science or play politics.
The fact that he refused to back the Climate and Nature Bill tells me all I need to know.
This Government is clearly not going to deliver the change we need. They are circling around a third runway at Heathrow. They are considering greenlighting Rosebank. They are being advised by key Labour think tanks to bring in new legislation to undermine the landmark Finch ruling. They are destined to end their first term having put us, those we love, and our communities in danger because they prioritised chasing growth over tackling the climate and nature crisis.
Since 2019 scientists have been saying ‘Act Now’. Successive Conservative governments ignored them. We hoped Labour would do things differently, especially after Sir Keir received a letter from 1,000+ scientists – including four Nobel Laureates – in September 2024 raising the alarm.
Yet, when given the chance to follow the science by supporting the CAN Bill, Sir Keir said: ‘Not now, maybe later. Let’s see…’
You might be feeling hopeless after reading this. But I am not. Yes, I have lost faith in our Government. But I haven’t lost faith in the CAN Bill.
I’ll end with a quote from American writer and activist Rebecca Solnit:
‘Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky.
It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency.’
The CAN Bill is the axe. We need to use it to break down the doors of Parliament. Now isn’t the time to give up. Now isn’t the time to be angry. Now is the time to act.
The CAN Bill may be buried. But it will come back from the ashes like a phoenix in the next session of Parliament.
How can I be sure?
Because there is no other proposed legislation that will ensure the UK is in line with the science, and physics, unlike politics, can’t be negotiated with.
This crisis isn’t going away until politicians act, which is why Zero Hour is going to come roaring back with an exciting new plan to make this Government work for us and get this Bill made into law.
Since January we’ve seen Labour MPs rebel against the Government on a range of issues – the Winter Fuel Allowance, the two-child benefit cap, and the Welfare Bill. It’s our job as constituents to make sure that if the Government fails to act, that our MPs rebel to advance action on the most defining issue of our time, including by backing the CAN Bill. Time is running out.
You can’t issue a three-line whip against the science.
Make sure you’re signed up to our newsletter as we get ready for the next chapter of the CAN Bill campaign. The pressure is building, will you join me?: www.zerohour.uk
