Roz Savage MP has selected the CAN Bill in the Private Members’ Bill Ballot, and now has the chance to progress all the way. This is a golden opportunity to pass a Climate and Nature Act—but it’s critical that there are as many supporting MPs as possible to help it succeed. It’s especially important to lobby Labour MPs. We were promised green policies and action. This Bill is the sure fire way to ensure that genuine change is delivered.
The campaign need your help! Can you lobby your MP and ask them to back the CAN Bill at this critical moment? It’s easy. All you need to do is click on this link and follow the instructions. Please join the Zero Hour campaign while you are on the site.
Zero Hour’s website has a wealth of information and resources to ensure you are as informed as you can be about the need for the Bill and its potential impact.
Key proposals
If made law the CAN Bill would ensure that the UK:
● Creates a joined-up plan—the crises in climate and nature are deeply intertwined,
requiring a plan that considers both together.
● Cuts emissions in line with 1.5°C—ensuring UK emissions are reduced rapidly, for the
last chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C.
● Not only halts, but also reverses the decline in nature—setting nature measurably on
the path to recovery by 2030.
● Takes responsibility for our overseas footprint—both emissions and ecological.
● Prioritises nature in decision-making, and ends fossil fuel production and imports as
rapidly as possible.
● Ensures no-one is left behind—through fairness provisions.
● Involves the public—giving people a say in finding a fair way forward through a
Climate & Nature Assembly, an essential tool for bringing the public along with the
unprecedented pace of change required.
Fundamental principles
After passing the CAN Bill, the Government must develop a strategy, in consultation with
the public via a ‘Climate & Nature Assembly’. The strategy must follow the following
fundamental principles:
- Limit the UK’s total CO2 emissions to no more than its proportionate share of the
IPCC’s remaining global carbon budget, for a 67% chance of limiting heating to 1.5°C. - Reduce CO2 emissions caused in the manufacture of the goods we import, in line
with UK territorial emissions. - Reduce the UK’s emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases, at rates
consistent with the last chance of limiting global heating to 1.5°C. - Ensure the end of the exploration, extraction, export and import of fossil fuels by
the UK as rapidly as possible. - Ensure that steps taken to mitigate emissions minimise damage to ecosystems, food and water availability, and human health, as far as possible.
- Restore and expand natural ecosystems, and enhance the management of cultivated
ecosystems, to protect and enhance biodiversity. - Include the Mitigation and Conservation Hierarchy so that any development or
activity that threatens nature uses this framework to prioritise the protection of
nature. - Address the UK’s entire ecological footprint at home and overseas by accounting for
and monitoring the impacts on human health and the destruction of nature; through
the production and consumption of goods and services and all related activity
including financing, the extraction of raw materials and waste production.
Simon Oldridge said:
“The clever thing about the CAN Bill is that it isn’t a list of policies. Rather, it’s a mechanism to ensure policy follows science in pursuit of (1) making our share of emissions cuts consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C and (2) setting nature on the path to recovery.
“The Bill would set in motion a process to devise an emergency strategy, informed by the public in a citizens’ assembly, but with Parliament having final say.
“So re Labour’s oil / gas / CCS proposals etc, if they’re consistent with those goals, they’d be permitted (of course they aren’t, despite Labour saying they are – a tricky position for them).
“We can’t control what others like India and the US do. The best way to influence them is by setting a positive example. Passing the Bill here would create waves around the world. It would be fitting for the nation which sparked the Industrial Revolution to show the way to a cleaner, healthier, more positive future.”
Every day brings new evidence of the impact of climate change and every day that passes without action being taken makes the task more difficult. Time is running out, but it’s not too late! You can help amplify the alarm and promote the solution. Remember, MPs work for us, not the fossil fuel giants!
