Climate Campaigners and Politicians Urge Prime Minister to Support the Climate and Nature Bill

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)


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