What will the Climate and Nature Bill do?

The CAN Bill calls for an emergency strategy for the UK to address the crisis. By passing the bill, the Government would be making a legal commitment to ensure that policy and action is driven by what the science tells us is necessary, not what big business lobby for.

The CAN Bill would ensure that the UK:

• Makes its fair share of emissions cuts necessary to limit the increase in global temperatures to 1.5°C (the more ambitious end of the Paris Agreement).
• Accounts for its entire carbon footprint wherever the emissions occur. This means taking real action on the emissions we cause overseas through the production, trade and transportation of the things we consume.
• Halts and reverses the decline of nature by 2030, in line with COP15 commitment. Protects and restores natural and managed ecosystems, for healthy soil and water, increased biodiversity and thriving natural carbon sinks.
• Takes responsibility for its harmful impacts on nature around the world. This means being honest about the damage to the environment caused by our financing, investments and consumption; making sure we reduce our global impact on natural resources.
• The Bill calls for the creation of a Climate & Nature Assembly that would put forward recommendations for the emergency strategy to Parliament. This group of ordinary citizens, selected at random like a jury, would listen to expert evidence before reaching conclusions on the best way forward. Their recommendations would be debated in Parliament, but MPs would still have the final say.

The CAN Bill is the only proposed legislation in the UK that tackles the climate and nature emergencies as one; recognising that the repair of our natural world and action on climate are two sides of the same coin.

History shows that MPs will only act when the public demands it of them. Please check out our Take Action page for simple things you can do to make a difference.