The shocking details of a bill giving the government unprecedented power to pursue net zero and other eco-goals have been revealed.
The ‘Climate and Nature Bill’, which will have its second reading on Friday, will legally bind the UK government and the Secretary of State for Energy to achieving net zero and a slew of other green targets described by some as ‘national self-harm’.
The legislation, which is being led by Lib Dem MP Roz Savage, will give Labour legal cover to rigorously pursue climate targets.
Critics say it has the potential to erode personal freedoms under the guise of addressing climate crises and could devastate rural economies, enforce invasive carbon tracking and strip property rights from rural folk.
The legislation states ‘the Secretary of State must achieve the following objectives’, which include reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero, taking responsibility for ‘offshored’ emissions via exports and imports, and preventing the world from warming by 1.5 degrees.
It also states the Secretary of State must ‘ensure the end of the exploration, extraction, export and import of fossil fuels by the United Kingdom as rapidly as possible,’ inviting concerns the UK may harm its energy security in pursuit of green credentials.
Other objectives include ‘fulfilling the Paris Climate agreement,’ ‘halting and reversing the degradation and loss of nature in the United Kingdom and overseas’ and ensuring ‘nature is visibly and measurably on the path of recovery.’
Critics have argued the government could use the bill as legal cover to seize farmers’ land for rewilding projects, harming the UK’s food security and destroying rural economies.
Roz Savage, Lib Dem MP and leader of the Climate and Nature Bill
HoC Official Portrait
It could also provide legal cover for land requisitions for vast solar panel farms, scores of wind turbines and other green energy producing infrastructure across Britain’s countryside.
Sceptics also highlight the potential skyrocketing of energy prices as the UK government is legally required to move away from fossil fuels to expensive green energy.
Hikes to energy prices, which have already happened under Labour, would tip many businesses and families struggling with the cost of living over the edge.
This could also make travel prohibitively expensive, something Labour have been accused of eyeing to encourage people into electric cars.
Critics have also warned how the legislation could weaken the UK internationally, making us dependent on foreign imports from countries like China.
It comes after Donald Trump promised to scale up the US’s fossil fuels industry, telling the world America was going to ‘drill, baby, drill’, a move that has buoyed the energy industry in the US.
The bill has split opinion, receiving widespread support from MPs, faith leaders, businesses, seventeen union leaders and eco cheerleaders Dale Vince and Chris Packham.
GB News’ Bev Turner has taken a dim view of the legislation, however.
– YouTube
The proposed legislation will also require itself to have a ‘positive impact’ on ‘local communities with a high deprivation’, ‘young people’ and ‘people with protected characteristics’ like religion, race, transgender status and age.
OBJECTIVES IN FULL
As laid out by Zero Hour, the campaign for the Climate and Nature Bill, the bill’s objectives include:
- Limit the UK’s total CO2 emissions to no more than its proportionate share of the IPCC’s remaining global carbon budget, for a 67% chance of limiting heating to 1.5°C.
- Reduce CO2 emissions caused in the manufacture of the goods we import, in line with UK territorial emissions.
- Reduce the UK’s emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases, at rates consistent with the last chance of limiting global heating to 1.5°C.
- Ensure the end of the exploration, extraction, export and import of fossil fuels by the UK as rapidly as possible.
- Ensure that steps taken to mitigate emissions minimise damage to ecosystems, food and water availability, and human health, as far as possible.
- Restore and expand natural ecosystems, and enhance the management of cultivated ecosystems, to protect and enhance biodiversity.
- Include the Mitigation and Conservation Hierarchy so that any development or activity that threatens nature uses this framework to prioritise the protection of nature.
- Address the UK’s entire ecological footprint at home and overseas by accounting for and monitoring the impacts on human health and the destruction of nature; through the production and consumption of goods and services and all relate
The bill was supported by some big names when it was first introduced in March 2024 such as Caroline Lucas (former Green Party leader), Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat leader) and Colum Eastwood (Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party).
Roz Savage has been approached for comment.
