Why we need a country first approach to Climate and Nature 🌿⚡️

When I was fresh out of university, I vividly remember David Cameron grabbing headlines with images of hugging Huskies and pledging, if elected, to deliver the ‘greenest government ever’. This was years after Conservative MPs had overwhelmingly voted in favour of the Climate Change Act - even calling for the Labour government at the time to go further on its climate targets.

Yet, 15 years later and six Prime Ministers since that pledge was made, the same party, now under the leadership of Kemi Badenoch, have pledged to repeal the Climate Change Act. The party that put net zero into law, that stood alongside the whole House of Commons and declared a climate emergency, is now just a distant memory. 

This announcement is not only a break from Conservative policy but also ends a political consensus that stretches across decades, successive governments and party lines. The drive to cut emissions and meet our international obligations on climate was a shared mission, a policy that emphasised ‘country first, party second’, but this has sadly come to an end.

The reason for the Conservatives’ decision? Kemi Badenoch stated: “Our priority now is growth, cheaper energy, and protecting the natural landscapes we all love”. This is a false choice. The truth is that Badenoch subscribes to the same divisive politics as Mr Farage, a politics where vested interests are more important than communities. 

The CBI sent a clear message earlier this year: the UK’s net zero economy is growing three times faster than the economy as a whole. Undermining the certainty that drives this growth and attracts investment is not acting in the national interest, it is working against it. Promising to extract every drop of oil and gas from the North Sea will not bring down household bills, it will make big polluters more profits and strengthen fossil fuel dictators control on the energy market.

Energy bills

In recent years, we have seen skyrocketing energy bills, but it wasn’t caused by renewables; it was caused by our dependency on oil and gas. Contrary to Badenoch’s claims that repealing the Climate Change Act will prioritise cheap energy, history shows us that decade of rollbacks on green commitments has caused household bills to rise by £2.5bn.

The independent body, the Climate Change Committee, which Badenoch would scrap under her recent proposals, has outlined that new oil and gas licences would be insufficient to affect global energy prices and have little to no effect on reducing household bills; a claim also shared by the Conservative Party in 2022.

The Interim Chair of the Climate Change Committee, Professor Piers Forster stated “Given increasingly unstable geopolitics, it is also important to get off unreliable fossil fuels and onto homegrown, renewable energy as quickly as possible. The fossil fuel era is over – cheap, clean electricity is our future.” And a report by CCC said if the Government were to follow the climate measures set out by the Committee, then “annual household energy bills are predicted to be ~£700 cheaper than today”.

Economic growth

Badenoch also said she would prioritise growth, but once again her pledge to scrap the Climate Change Act ignores reality. Only months ago, the CBI reported that the green economy grew by 10.1% in 2024, that's three times faster than the wider economy. Multiple studies have shown that the North Sea oil basin is in natural decline, which is exactly why reports by Green Alliance have argued it is not economically viable to extract more oil and gas.

There is no economic case for rolling back our climate targets grounded in reality. Studies from the Climate Change Committee and LSE have projected the cost of inaction on climate change is projected to rise to 3.3% of GDP by 2050, that’s almost £100bn. Far from unlocking growth, Badenoch's approach is short-sighted and only there to please the interests of a handful of oil and gas giants.

Protecting nature

In what can only be described as cognitive dissonance - or perhaps a line fed to her by a fossil fuel lobbyist - most bizarrely of all, Badenoch also thinks further extraction of oil and gas is the best way to protect the natural landscapes we all love.

Unfortunately for her, the very organisations dedicated to preserving our natural landscapes support the existing Climate Change Act, which she wants to repeal. Many of these groups are even calling on politicians to go further by introducing updated, science-led legislation through the Climate and Nature Bill.

This demonstrates there is a fundamental misunderstanding within the corridors of Parliament about the interconnectedness between climate targets and nature recovery. They are two sides of the same coin, so addressing one without the other is pointless. 

The impacts of climate change are already devastating our natural landscapes, with wildflower meadows, wetlands, peatlands and saltmarshes in decline - as well as many of our beloved species at risk of extinction. Weakening our targets will only make this worse. But nature is more than scenery. It underpins our economy, livelihoods and wellbeing and in Badenoch's drive to protect our natural landscapes, she is in fact threatening their very existence.

The Conservatives and Reform are ignoring the majority of the public who support more climate action, not less. Rather than retreat, we need to double down and go further than the by-now outdated Climate Change Act. We must build on its legacy with updated legislation informed by the latest science to meet the contemporary challenges that we are facing. A Climate and Nature Act would create the best pathway to deliver energy security, reduce bills, protect farmers and communities and create the jobs of the future. The public knows this. The scientists know this. It’s time for our MPs to stand up tall and show leadership.

Let’s be frank. It’s now or never for our natural world - the very life support systems we depend on. Today's announcement asks questions of how the Government will respond, will they embrace the ambition the public demands? Or will they roll back with stark consequences for the security and prosperity of communities across the UK and the world?

The UK government, which was once leading on climate legislation and one of the first world governments to declare a climate emergency, is now dithering and delaying on the action necessary to deliver a future for your community.

This is the moment for YOUR MP to stand up and return the UK to being a leading voice for climate-nature action. This can only come from following the science and delivering the change the British people want and deserve.  

The good news is that thousands of campaigners like you are mobilising across the UK to stress the importance of an ambitious science-led approach to the climate-nature crisis and the need for leadership on the biggest issue of our time.

If you want to join campaigners in your local area and build pressure for MPs to lead on tackling the crisis, get in touch by signing up today.