Right across the Labour movement, we are determined to deliver ambitious, joined-up action to tackle biodiversity loss, climate change, and the environmental risks to public health. We know that this is the challenge of our time, and that bold environmental action is also central to the mission of building a new Britain: a country that guarantees security, prosperity, and respect for both people and planet.
We know that climate action must be nature positive action. A joined-up environmental strategy, as proposed by the Climate & Ecology (CE) Bill, will not only help to protect the natural environment, it will also help to ensure that the green transformation works for everyone—creating green jobs, and delivering sustainable growth.
On climate, the Conservative Government's own Net Zero Strategy states that "if we fail to limit global warming to 1.5°C, floods and fires will get more frequent and more fierce, crops will be more likely to fail, and sea levels will rise driving mass migration as millions are forced from their homes. Above 1.5°C, we risk reaching climatic tipping points, meaning we could lose control of our climate for good." Labour will make the UK a clean energy superpower, and we understand the importance of the UK doing its fair share to cut emissions—in order to stay below 1.5°C of global heating—in the transition to a carbon neutral economy that invests and helps grow the green industry in Britain.
On nature, if we fail to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030—we increase the risk of further pandemics, rising global temperatures and loss of species. Labour will protect the natural environment, and we are determined to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity by 2030—for the benefit of all living things.
The CE Bill—a bill supported by hundreds of Labour and Labour/Co-op members, CLPs, councillors, mayors, MPs and Peers—is aligned to and strengthens the Labour Party's vision of building a greener, fairer future—and seizing the opportunities offered by a low-carbon, digital revolution. It is a bold, new, viable legislative framework that would deliver a science-led and people-powered climate and nature strategy for the UK.
This is a plan that would get us back on track after over a decade of unconnected, unambitious, and undelivered Conservative policymaking. By locking, in law, truly world-leading environmental policies—just as the Labour Government did with the Climate Change Act 2008—the CE Bill would power up the just transition to a renewable energy future, by ending the reliance of fossil fuels, and root the restoration of our depleted natural world at the heart of the vision of a fairer, greener future.
We must go further to address the interdependent crises of ecosystem degradation and climate change—and that the success in building a nature positive and carbon neutral economy—will depend on the engagement and support of the British public. Through its climate and nature assembly, the CE Bill would also give people much greater power over the issues that affect their lives. From the cost-of-living crisis, energy, housing, transport, farming, public services, the CE Bill would ensure that citizens' voices are central in the creation of a green prosperity plan—alongside protecting the rights of workers to control their own destinies in the transition to a cheaper, greener, clean energy future.
We want a country that takes on the climate crisis and seizes the opportunities of the digital revolution, not one whose leaders duck the big challenges. Click here to have your say on how we can drive Britain forward as a green and technical leader across the globe.
