Press Release
Controversial Climate and Nature Bill Fails to Make Progress
Liberal Democrat MP Roz Savage failed to get her bill to a successful vote in Parliament last week. South Cotswold Conservatives are concerned the result being an enormous amount of time spent on a bill promoted by national parties with very singular aims at the expense of time spent on real issues affecting her constituents in the South Cotswolds.
The rehashed bill, only published a day before the debate last week has drawn concerns from various stakeholders, highlighting significant challenges and drawbacks. The former Green Party Climate and Nature Bill aims to address both climate change and the loss of biodiversity by setting legally binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to stop temperatures rising by 1.5 degrees Celsius and protecting nature by reversing the damage to the natural world by 2030. All sounds good at face value but the bill faced political resistance due to economic concerns, and questions about its feasibility including emissions embedded in imported goods in the UK’s budget.
The Bill was unlikely to ever be passed with the Labour Government not supporting it and voicing their opposition to the Bill raising early questions about its political viability in the House.
The Conservative Party has always been against the Bill for multiple reasons, including:
- The threat it would pose to the UK’s energy security. In stopping the extraction and import of all fossil fuels, we would become reliant on unreliable, intermittent green energy sources like solar and wind. When taken together last week those sources produced only 3% of the electricity needed by the UK, whereas gas power stations produced 65%.
- The Bill would give increased powers to an unelected “citizens assembly” over decision-making. It would hold local authorities and the government accountable, potentially eroding democratic input. Furthermore, the annual targets would be set by a non-elected public body called the Nature Assembly. The possibility of an unaccountable body taking control of climate plans over an elected Parliament is very undemocratic.
- Targets set by the Bill could have severe repercussions on the UK economy. Industries such as steel and chemicals, which are pivotal to the nation's economic stability, may face significant job losses and operational challenges. The potential economic fallout has raised concerns about the Bill's feasibility, especially in the current economic climate following Labour’s disastrous budget.
- The Bill will add taxes on fuel and impose stricter building regulations. This will make it more expensive to live and work in rural areas meaning more hardship for working families and businesses. It will undoubtedly make the UK less competitive than our global counterparts.
- We were also concerned by the last-minute addition of a protection against large scale solar, Savage seemed to add this only 24 hours before the Bill was read in Parliament earlier version with little protection for communities against large scale solar such as Lime Down.
- The bill also stood to make life incredibly difficult for farmers with the phasing out of fossil fuels and the ability to produce fertilisers, also impacting the cost of food.
The Bill like much that comes from the Lib Dems —is nice in theory but unrealistic in practice. The Bill has been met with scepticism by businesses, with everyday realities being overshadowed by a ‘wish list’. There are unanswered questions about whether the UK's existing infrastructure and resources are adequate to meet these ambitious goals without significant disruption and short-term change.
The Conservative Party have always been leaders on green policy, we made the UK the first major economy to enshrine net zero by 2050 in law. The Conservative party’s 2019 manifesto aimed to “reach net zero by 2050 with investment in clean energy solutions and green infrastructure to reduce carbon emissions and pollution”.
The Government delivered the strategies and policy frameworks needed to reach the target, including the Net Zero Strategy, plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, and a goal of quadrupling offshore wind capacity by 2030.
In 2021, the UK hosted the UN’s climate summit, COP26, where 197 countries negotiated and signed the Glasgow Climate Pact, with commitments to reaffirm the goal of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, phase down coal-fired power stations, and provide finance for developing countries to tackle climate change. Today, net zero targets cover over 90 per cent of the world’s economy.
Roz Savages Bill duplicated much of the current Environment Act 2021, where the Conservatives set a new target to reverse the decline in species abundance by the end of 2030. It is simply green posturing. However, the previous government maintained a £2.4 billion annual farming budget that introduced the sustainable farming incentive to support food security while protecting and improving the environment and biodiversity.
Conservative Councillor for By Brook and Wiltshire Council Cabinet member for Finance, Development Management and Strategic Planning Nick Botterill, said, “Roz Savage is new to politics. She is an opposition MP (not even in the Opposition) and she has just learnt what it is like to be run over by the government steamroller. In reality, while it could be argued that some existing environmental laws could be more targeted and effective, there seems to be little demand for more all-encompassing legislation with the likely unintended consequences it would entail.”
Contact:
Laura Hall-Wilson - South Cotswold Conservative Association
