A new law to tackle the nature and climate crises

We know that the church has a significant voice as part of civil society to advocate on the protection of nature as stewards of creation and to call for justice for those most vulnerable to the catastrophic effects of climate change. This is why A Rocha UK is partnering with the Zero Hour campaign to call for the restoration of nature and action to combat climate change.

The most recent IPCC reports have laid out with chilling clarity how the climate is changing, and how, without urgent action, things will only continue to get worse. Back in 2015, the UK pledged to do its part to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels as a signatory to the historic Paris Agreement. Yet we are far off track to meet this target and we will see more extreme weather, further irreversible losses of nature and more climate-vulnerable people displaced globally with every further degree of warming.

What can we do, as individuals and churches, to put our government back on track?

Following in the footsteps of the Climate Change Act passed in 2008 (which also began as a private members bill), the Zero Hour campaign is using a private members bill in the House of Commons to campaign on this very issue. The bill, called the Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE) bill, sets out a legislative framework for the UK to reduce climate impacts and restore biodiversity. There are two main components of the bill: to reverse the decline of nature and to keep global temperatures under 1.5 degrees of warming above pre-industrial levels. 

The existing Environment Bill is committed to halting the decline of nature by 2030, but the CEE bill commits to reversing the destruction of nature within that 2030 deadline. The bill also requires the government to reduce the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions in line with limiting the global average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees, as committed to in the Paris Agreement and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. 

Come along to our Wild Christian webinar on 5 May where we’ll be joined by the Zero Hour Campaign Coordinator Amy McDonnell. We’ll also be doing a live campaign action at our Act for Nature days. Register via Eventbrite here.