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After Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, MPs will get up one after another to present the titles of legislation they want to push through as backbenchers. They will need Government support to get over the line.
Former ocean rower and new Lib Dem MP Dr Roz Savage will present the Climate and Nature Bill, backed by climate groups including the Zero Hour campaign.
The CAN Bill, which has been pushed by environmental groups since 2020, would ensure that the UK Government creates a “joined-up plan” to tackle the crises in climate and nature, which backers argue are “deeply intertwined”.
It would require the Government to cut emissions in line with 1.5°C – ensuring UK emissions are reduced rapidly, for the “last chance” of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
But at the heart of it is also a push to not only halt, but also reverse the decline in nature, setting it “measurably on the path to recovery by 2030”.
It would also require public bodies to take responsibility for our overseas carbon footprint, both in terms of planet-warming emissions and ecological destruction.
Restoring nature would have to be prioritised in decision-making, alongside ending fossil fuel production and imports as rapidly as possible. To secure buy-in, it would give people a say through a ‘Climate & Nature Assembly’, and is an attempt at bringing voters together through a more deliberative form of participation, to work out the solutions needed.
The bill could have monumental implications for how the Government works, and Britain’s chances of slashing emissions, as well as protecting and expanding natural habitats.
Q: What was the process like going through the ballot of MPs to propose your bill?
Dr Roz Savage MP:
The success of the bill depends on public engagement, and there’s already much support for the bill. My mailbox is inundated with people urging me to pick up the Climate and Nature bill. It’s a subject close to my heart, having been an environment campaigner for the last 20 years.
It’s essentially a lottery. There’s a big book with numbers from 1 to 650, and each MP writes their name next to a number. They draw numbers from a glass bowl, from 20 to one. The higher up the ballot you are, the more opportunity you have to debate it.
It’s an amazing opportunity to bring a private member’s bill, but it still has to go through due process. We need at least 102 MPs here on a Friday, which is usually a constituency day. It will be voted on, then go through committee and Lords stages. It’s a long journey, but I know about long journeys from my ocean rowing career.
Q: Why is this personal to you? Why does this matter?
As soon as I found out my number had been drawn, I knew I wanted to do something environmental. We’re not short of environmental issues to tackle. Given my time on and in water, I immediately thought of water issues, which are top of mind in my constituency (South Cotswolds). We’ve got big issues with flooding and sewage getting into our river.
Twenty years ago, the level of awareness wasn’t what it is now. [Former Green MP] Caroline Lucas first presented a version of the Climate and Nature bill in 2020, but awareness and desire for change have been growing. I like to think I’ve contributed to that growing awareness, along with countless environmental campaigners and organisations.
We’ve got a better chance in 2024 than ever before. With [UN conferences] COP16 and COP29 coming up on biodiversity and climate change, this will be at the forefront of people’s minds. If we don’t get this through, I hope we at least move the conversation forward significantly. I hope the Government realises that climate and nature are inextricably linked.
We’re often aware that climate change has detrimental impacts on nature, but what we’ve done to nature has helped create the climate crisis. These two issues are linked like hand in glove, and we need to start fixing them in tandem. At the moment, the Government is very focused on Net Zero to the exclusion of almost everything else.
Human history is full of examples where we’ve fixated on one narrow metric without considering the collateral damage. We need to take a more joined-up approach. This is something I’ve thought about extensively, including during my doctorate.
We’ve been trying to tackle environmental issues in isolation, but we must put nature at the heart of every decision we make across all policy areas.
Dr Roz Savage, MP
Q: Have policymakers focused on Net Zero to the detriment of other aspects of protecting the environment and ecology?
Yes, that is my view. Net Zero is important, but we need a joined-up approach. Nature has a crucial role in helping us reach Net Zero. Healthy soil from regenerative farming practices is a more effective carbon sink than degraded soil. It can also hold more water, mitigating the impacts of climate change like sudden rainfalls that create floods.
Water connects everything and is a great metaphor for nature as a holistic system. When we focus on just one aspect, we won’t develop a successful strategy. We must recognise that everything is connected.
I’m glad the current Government is taking action on climate, but it seems to be trying to technologise its way out of the problem, by encouraging the development of large solar farms, which I don’t necessarily agree with, within the first week Labour came to power.
The minerals for solar panels come from overseas, are refined overseas, and the panels are manufactured overseas. There isn’t really an end-of-life plan for solar panels. We might get emissions down to zero, but there’s a lot of embedded carbon in the extraction, refinement, and manufacture of solar panels that we’re not accounting for.