Can you ask your MP to support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill? writes ACT member Paul Scholes

Two years ago Parliament declared a Climate Emergency and the Government committed to reducing the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently to be “net zero” by 2050. This updated the commitment first enshrined in law in the 2008 Climate Change Act.

Last year, more than 100 MPs and businesses showed their support for a new Bill to further update the 2008 Act and to add requirements to protect and restore nature, on the basis that the climate and ecological emergencies are two sides of the same coin.

Due to the pandemic the Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE) Bill was not debated so there are now plans to reintroduce an updated and condensed CEE Bill No. 2 in the current session, ahead of this year’s COP26 Climate Change summit in Glasgow.

The CEE Bill was devised and drafted by experts in climate, energy and ecology and, in addition to filling gaps in previous legislation, recognises the need to tackle the combined emergencies urgently and fairly. If it became law, it would require the government to act on several fronts. 

First, it would have to tackle all the UK’s emissions. At the moment, only ‘territorial’, or locally produced, emissions are included in emission reduction calculations and targets. There is no accounting for emissions from the goods and services we import or from our fair share of international aviation and shipping. Including these emissions provides a fairer “consumption” basis for our emissions but, being one of the world’s highest net importers of emissions, nearly doubles the emissions we are responsible for.

Second come more ambitious emission targets. The UK’s current net zero target is based on a 50 per cent chance of limiting global heating to a 1.5°C rise in temperature above pre-industrial levels. To reduce the risk for future generations, this needs to be increased to a 66% chance. In consideration of the UK’s historic emissions and its capabilities as a developed nation it needs to account for a proportionately smaller share of the global carbon budget, reduce emissions at a faster rate than developing countries and provide support for them to do so.

Third is a requirement for the UK to meet national carbon budgets set each year rather than every five years.

Fourth is a focus on reducing emissions and ending the extraction, export and import of fossil fuels.

At present, the UK and most developed countries are assuming that, in the decades ahead, we can carry on emitting greenhouse gases as technologies will become available to remove vast quantities of carbon dioxide from high emitting sources, such as power stations, or even to remove it directly from the air, and then safely store it underground.

Reliance on such speculative and unproven at scale technologies not only fosters delay in dealing with emissions but also passes the problem to future generations. 

To confront the ecological emergency, the Bill requires the Government to reverse the decline in the state of nature (including plant and animal species, habitats and ecosystems) no later than 2030, and to actively conserve and restore nature, with a focus both on biodiversity and soil protection. 

It also demands that the UK takes responsibility for its entire ecological footprint. This means preventing adverse impacts on ecosystems and human health caused by consumption, trade and production, in the UK and internationally, including the extraction of raw materials, deforestation, land degradation, pollution and waste.

Finally, the Bill calls for the creation of Citizens Assemblies to work directly with the Climate Change Committee and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee before the strategies are laid before Parliament.

Full details of the Bill, its supporters and ways in which you can lobby your MP are on The CEE Bill Alliance’s website: www.ceebill.uk.