Council votes to support Climate and Nature Bill

Led by Christina Coleman, in February Wealden District Council passed a motion in support of the Climate and Nature Bill, a private members’ bill originally proposed by the Green Party’s Caroline Lucas, which is currently on its second reading in Parliament. (The bill was orginally called the Climate and Ecology Bill). Wealden join some other 250 councils to have passed a motion is support of the bill, which would require the UK to achieve its climate and nature targets – and give the Secretary of State a duty to implement a strategy to achieve those targets. The bill also proposes establishment of a Climate and Nature Assembly to advise the Secretary of State, and would give duties to the Committee on Climate Change and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee to monitor progress on the strategy and targets.

I believe that, above all else, people are looking for honesty in politics. 

Honesty in a democracy is a difficult thing, because people like to vote for the fairy tale; they want to believe that we can carry on with business as usual and that our benevolent planet will continue to provide. 

The problem is, if we do not tell the truth, if we are not told the truth, we cannot make the difficult decisions we need to make in order to build a better future.

Full text of the speech given by Christina in putting the motion to the Council:

“I believe that, above all else, people are looking for honesty in politics. 

“Honesty in a democracy is a difficult thing, because people like to vote for the fairy tale; they want to believe that we can carry on with business as usual and that our benevolent planet will continue to provide. 

“The problem is, if we do not tell the truth, if we are not told the truth, we cannot make the difficult decisions we need to make in order to build a better future.

“In 2015, world leaders at COP 21 in Paris, agreed to limit global temperatures to 1.5 degrees of warming. Those pledges have evidently been broken, and for the first time, we have seen average daily temperatures exceed 1.5 degrees centigrade across an entire year.  

“With every 0.1 degrees of warming, brings increased risks in terms of floods, wildfires, droughts, storms and heatwaves. We see greater risk to food security and of course to our economy. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, the cost of runaway climate change could see our national debt grow to 289% of GDP by the end of the century. 

“Global CO2 emissions are not just growing, they are accelerating. According to the EIA, in 2023, global energy-related carbon emissions grew to their highest level ever of 54 billion tonnes. Current government policies have us on track for at least 2.7°C warming above pre-industrial levels. Humans have never existed on such planet.

“Inextricably linked to the climate crisis is the crisis in nature. We know that healthy ecosystems provide many of the solutions that we need to tackle the climate crisis. For example, 80% of terrestrial carbon, that is to say carbon that is stored on the land, is locked away in healthy soils. Soils are living, they are themselves complex ecosystems. By safeguarding the health of soils, we can ensure that carbon is locked away for centuries to come. However, we are degrading our soils at an alarming rate, replacing healthy ecosystems with roads, concrete and chemically degraded land.

“A recent IPBES report warns that “Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history – and the rate of species extinctions is accelerating.” The UK is currently in the bottom 10% in the most nature depleted countries in the world. Much of this is down to habitat loss. Now, 1 in 6 native species in the UK are threatened with extinction.

“That is why we need robust national laws to tackle the dual climate and nature crisis together, in line with the latest science and in a way that ensures the public are included in finding a fair way forward. That is why I am in favour of the Climate and Ecology Bill.

“The CE Bill will prioritise habitat restoration, including: woodlands, peatlands, wetlands and seas, supporting nature-based solutions in order to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – much more cheaply than the unproven and unaffordable engineered options. And allow nature to help us adapt to climate change.

“The Bill seeks to bring back wildlife, and restore the services that resilient ecosystems provide for free, such as: pollination; water filtration; air purification; and pest and disease control.

“The Bill proposes that the UK should be fully transparent and take responsibility for our overseas footprint, both emissions and ecological. 

“This means properly accounting for greenhouse gas emissions from international aviation and shipping, which account for 10% of the climate problem and are growing rapidly. 

“These emissions were left out of carbon budgets (and the 2050 target) when the Climate Change Act became law.

“And it also requires fully accounting for the emissions and ecological harm caused by the goods and services we buy. 

“Not only will this be a more honest approach, that will allow us to  take responsibility for our part in the climate crisis, but it will also support our domestic agriculture and production sector, by ensuring that prices are not undercut by artificially cheap imports. Therefore improving food security, while creating jobs and skills. It will give a much needed boost to local communities and to the economy.

“The bill also seeks to give the British people a say in finding a fair way forward by temporary, independent and representative Climate & Nature Assemblies.

“The Climate and Ecology Bill has received cross-party support. It was introduced by the Labour MP, Olivia Blake and seconded by Caroline Lucas. It has the backing of Sir Ed Davy and all of the  Lib Dem MPs. As well as Conservatives such as Sir Peter Bottomley, Sir Roger Gale, Derek Thomas and Theresa May’s former environment adviser, Lord Randall of Uxbridge. In fact, it has received support from 11 different political parties as well as Independents. 

“So, Today I am asking that you back the motion to support the CE Bill so that Wealden District Council can add its name to a list of 237 other Local Authorities. In doing so, we commit Wealden District Council to:

• Support the Climate and Ecology Bill
• Inform the Press and residents of our decision
• Write to our MP to inform her of our motion, and
• Write to Zero Hour – the organisers of the cross party campaign who support the Bill – to inform them of our support. 

“As Sir David Attenborough has shown us, nature isn’t a nice to have; it’s all we have. Nature provides our best chance of mitigating climate change and its worst impacts, such as extreme flooding and drought. Put simply, we can’t solve the climate crisis without saving our key ecosystems, restoring habitats and protecting our much beloved species. That is precisely what this Bill aims to do. 

“And I therefore ask you to support this motion.”