Rt Hon Sir Keir Starmer MP
10 Downing Street
Congratulations on Labour’s election success and your appointment as Prime Minister.
You take office at a pivotal moment in history. Climate change and nature’s destruction are the two defining challenges of our time. June 2024 was the twelfth consecutive month where global temperatures reached 1.5°C above pre-industrial averages—and almost one million species are currently at risk of extinction. The next five years are our last, best chance to “keep 1.5°C alive” and to put biodiversity loss firmly in reverse.
Climate change and nature loss are interlinked and mutually reinforcing. As the effects of climate change worsen—droughts, heatwaves, wildfires, and flooding—nature is increasingly threatened. And as species extinction and ecosystem loss rises, our natural world’s ability to buffer those effects and support our livelihoods decreases.
Action on climate and nature will not only protect against these worsening impacts, it also enables us to take advantage of the huge opportunities in the transition to a zero carbon, nature positive future. Opportunities including job creation; strengthening our energy and food security; boosting our health, wellbeing, and prosperity; restoring our precious natural environment—and, crucially, repositioning the UK as a global climate leader.
This Labour Government, led by you, has a small and closing window to follow what the science demands—something that has not been delivered by any Government. You have a responsibility, at the outset of this Parliament, to ensure that the UK plays its full role in tackling (as you state in your manifesto) “the greatest, long-term, global challenge we face”. The UK has pre-existing international obligations to not pass the 1.5°C threshold (Paris Agreement 2015), and to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030 (Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework 2022). These are strong, viable, science-backed targets; but currently there is no integrated statutory framework in place in UK law to ensure that we achieve them.
This is why we call on you and the UK Government to support new, joined-up climate and nature legislation—the Climate and Nature Bill. The CAN Bill is the only proposed legislation, written by scientists, that will ensure the UK does what’s required to fully meet our 2030 targets. With the backing of over 200 world-leading experts, it is the only proposed legislation that matches the urgency of what the science demands with the UK meeting domestically what it has committed to internationally. By following the best-available science; by integrating our climate and nature plans—and by locking, into law, our internationally-agreed obligations—the UK can, through this Bill, reclaim its historic leadership role ahead of the upcoming UN COP16 and COP29 summits.
By supporting the CAN Bill, you would also send the strongest possible message to the public, civil society, and business that you are serious about improving the lives and livelihoods of current and future generations. New, secure, green jobs. Clean air and healthy rivers. Affordable, home-grown energy. Homes and workplaces that are fit for the future. Prosperous, happier communities. A flourishing, nature-rich UK. This could and should be Labour’s legacy in Government.
This Labour Government has a heavy responsibility of avoiding—by 2030—passing critical ‘red lines’. You are our last chance, before a mitigation focus turns to a purely adaptation focus, and we accept that nothing more may be done to avoid the worst impacts of climate and nature breakdown.
We, the undersigned, ask you to give the Climate & Nature Bill time to make progress in the House of Commons in this session. Please do not ignore the science—and please do not ignore us.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Amy McDonnell, Co-Director, Zero Hour
Oliver Sidorczuk, Co-Director, Zero Hour
Chris Packham CBE, Wildlife TV Presenter and Conservationist
Liz Bonnin, Biologist, Natural History Broadcaster and President of The Wildlife Trusts
Dr Amir Khan GP, NHS Doctor, Author and President of RSPB
Etienne Stott MBE, Olympic gold medallist, London 2012
Tori Tsui, Climate Justice Activist
Joycelyn Longdon, Founder, ClimateInColour
Dominique Palmer, Climate Justice Activist, Public Speaker and Writer
Dr George McGavin, Entomologist, Author and TV presenter
Sir Jonathon Porritt, Sustainability Campaigner & Writer
Kate Bradbury, Garden Writer, Broadcaster and TV Presenter
Venetia La Manna, Fair Fashion Campaigner
Aneeshwar Kunchala BCyA, Wildlife Presenter and Conservationist
Tolmeia Gregory, Artist & Activist
Dr Martin Gainsborough, The Rt Revd Bishop of Kingston
Graham Usher, The Rt Revd Lord Bishop of Norwich
Olivia Graham, The Rt Revd Bishop of Reading
John Arnold, The Rt Revd Bishop of Salford
Andy Atkins, CEO, A Rocha UK
Kamran Shezad, Executive Director, Bahu Trust
Sarah Woolley, General Secretary, Bakers, Food & Allied Workers Union
Ki Stoner, CEO, Bat Conservation Trust
Judy Ling Wong CBE, Honorary President, Black Environment Network
Dr Mya-Rose Craig, Founder and President, Black2Nature
Clare Brook, CEO, Blue Marine Foundation
Dr. Ron Wiener, Sociodramatist and former Honorary President, British Psychodrama Association
Alastair Mark, CEO, British Rowing
Gill Perkins, CEO, Bumblebee Conservation Trust
Samantha Cooper, Co-Director, Business Declares
Ben Tolhurst, Co-Director, Business Declares
Jamie Cresswell, Director, Centre for Applied Buddhism
Liz Rees, Green Space for Health Programme Director, Centre for Sustainable Healthcare
Dave Hampton, Co-Founder, Champions for Earth
Jason Reeves, Head of Policy, Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management
Fran McCloskey. Chief Executive Officer, Chartered Institute of Environmental Health
Dr Eleanor Cooke, Co-Lead, Climate & Health Scorecard Initiative
Dr Amelia Cussans, Co-Lead, Climate & Health Scorecard Initiative
Debbie Tripley, Global Director of Campaigns & Policy Advocacy, Compassion in World Farming
Richard Pike, Technical & Sustainability Director, COOK
Matthew Owen, Director, Cool Earth
Roger Mortlock, CEO, CPRE
Dr Matthew Lee, Sustainability & Climate Change Lead, Doctors’ Association UK
Prof. Kate Raworth, Co-Founder, Doughnut Economics Action Lab
Sophie Dembinski, Head of Policy & UK, Ecosia
Will Ghali, CEO, Ecosurety
Revd Canon Giles Goddard, Chair, Faith for the Climate
Alex Rind, Chairman, Faith In Nature
Clare Lyons, Director of Policy, Advocacy & Campaigns, Friends of the Earth
Kathy Wormald, CEO, Froglife
Elizabeth Slade, Chief Officer, General Assembly of Unitarian & Free Christian Churches
Sonja Graham, Chief Executive Officer, Global Action Plan
Hanuman Dass, Founder & CEO, Go Dharmic
George Dow, Chair, Green Christian
Tahir Latif, Secretary, Greener Jobs Alliance
Dr Alice Clack, Consultant Obstetrician, Health for XR
Professor Hilary Neve, GP and Honorary Professor, Health for XR and Peninsula Medical School (University of Plymouth)
Nicola Sansom, Director of Delivery, Hope for the Future
George Graham, CEO, Humanity & Inclusion UK
Ben Goodwin, Director of Policy & Public Affairs, Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment
Fazlun Khalid, Founder Director, Islamic Foundation for Ecology & Environmental Sciences
Emma Hoskyn, Head of Sustainability UK, JLL
Isabella Tree, Author and Conservationist, Knepp Estate
Sir Charles Burrell, Conservationist and Founder, Knepp Estate
Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg OBE, Senior Rabbi, Masorti Judaism UK
Gemma Hoskins, UK Senior Director, Mighty Earth
Fadi Itani OBE, CEO, Muslim Charities Forum
Daniel Kebede, General Secretary, National Education Union
Melissa Green, CEO, National Federation of Women’s Institutes
Susie Hewson MBE, Founder & Director, Natracare
Revd Dr Darrell Hannah, Chair, Operation Noah
Rowan Ryrie, Co-Founder & Co-Director, Parents for Future UK
Juliet Tizzard, Director of External Relations, Parkinson’s UK
Nida Al-Fulaij, CEO, People’s Trust for Endangered Species
Josie Cohen, Head of Policy & Campaigns, Pesticide Action Network UK
Dr Shireen Kassam, Founder & Director, Plant-Based Health Professionals UK
Nicola Hutchinson, Director of Conservation, Plantlife
Dr Valerie Huggins, Associate Professor Early Childhood Education, Plymouth Institute of Education
Annie Mitchell, Chartered Psychologist, Psychologists for Social Change
Anthony Bennett, CEO, Reboot the Future
Rebecca Wrigley, CEO, Rewilding Britain
James Wallace, CEO, River Action
Daniel Ross, Chief Executive, Royal College of Pathologists
Lizzie Lockett, Chief Executive Officer, Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons
Lauren MacDonald, Lead Campaigner, Stop Rosebank
Jamie Agombar, Executive Director, Students Organising for Sustainability UK
Dr Adam Read MBE, Chief External Affairs & Sustainability Officer, SUEZ UK
Giles Bristow, CEO, Surfers Against Sewage
Charles Perry, Founder, Sustainable Future for All
Gary McDermott, Chief Commercial Officer, The Co-operative Bank
Matt Larsen-Daw, CEO, The Mammal Society
Mark Lloyd, CEO, The Rivers Trust
Louisa Ziane, Co-Founder, Toast Brewing
Bevis Watts, CEO, Triodos Bank UK
Elaine Mulcahy, Director, UK Health Alliance on Climate Change
Roisin Taylor, Co-Director, UK Youth for Nature
Ellen Bradley, Co-Director, UK Youth for Nature
Kate Metcalf, Co-Director, Women’s Environmental Network
Peter Littlewood, Director, Young People’s Trust for the Environment
Matthew Gould, CEO, Zoological Society of London (ZSL)