Key steps I'm taking on the climate emergency

The Climate & Ecological Emergency Bill

I introduced the CEE Bill as a private member's bill in Parliament last September and it's winning the support of MPs from across the House of Commons.  The CEE Bill updates the existing Climate Change Act and fills in gaps to address the latest science on climate AND nature.  The Bill seeks to

• set legally binding targets for the UK to achieve its fair share of emissions reductions, in line with the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement which we signed in 2015
• restore and enhance nature, addressing the biodiversity crisis while recognising the importance of nature's role in tackling the climate crisis
• give a voice to ordinary citizens via a citizens' assembly which would work with government to ensure the UK achieves its objectives

There's more information about the CEE Bill here, where you can sign up to support the campaign.

A Wellbeing Economy

At the root of the climate and nature crisis we face is an economic system which prioritises short-term profit and GDP growth above anything else. 

A recent UN climate science report warned that a post-pandemic economic stimulus focused primarily on growth would jeopardise the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate.  And the Treasury-commissioned Dasgupta Review on the Economics of Biodiversity called for urgent and transformative change in how we measure economic progress, with Professor Partha Dasgupta saying at the report’s launch that GDP is “totally unsuitable for judging the progress of economies over time.” 

As an economic model, continuous GDP growth clearly isn’t working.  It needs to change to one whose primary goal is the health of people and planet, which is what most people want in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. 

We can do that by setting aside GDP growth as the key target of government policy-making and making wellbeing our main economic goal - of people, communities and our natural world. 

A Green New Deal

A radical Green New Deal would transform our economy and society so that we can simultaneously avert the climate and nature crises, redistribute wealth and reverse inequality. It is the best way to build back better after coronavirus.

Our economic system is plundering our planet and destroying our society with corrosive levels of inequality.  A Green New Deal bill addresses both harms.  It tackles the climate emergency at the speed demanded by the science putting us on track to reach net zero emissions by 2030, and it would transform our economy and society from the way we produce and consume energy, to our jobs and transport, how we heat our homes and the way we grow our food.

The Green New Deal bill (formally known as the Decarbonisation & Economy Strategy Bill) which I introduced in Parliament covers areas from health, education and housing through to energy saving and renewables, nature protection, the circular economy and other measures to effectively tackle the climate crisis while levelling up the nation.

The aims of the bill are to

• Introduce legally-binding targets to cut emissions, reverse inequality and turn around the degradation of the environment, year-on-year to 2030, achieving net zero by then
• Change the way the Government manages the economy to enable extensive public and private investment in a Green New Deal
• Appoint a Green New Deal Commission to draw up a comprehensive action plan to transform our energy supply, transport system, farming, buildings and the way we work

There's more information on the bill here