Caroline Voaden: Remember, there's no growth on a dead planet

I was looking forward to debating the Climate and Nature (CAN) Bill last Friday (January 24).

As a longtime supporter of the Bill, I was excited to get into the nitty gritty of what it was proposing and how its passing could help us boost our country’s biodiversity, which is one of the most degraded in the world.

It’s easy to look at recent climate action in the UK and feel deflated. There are environmental crises happening all around us and yet Government action remains painfully slow. But this wasn’t always the case.

In fact, the UK led the world by passing the Climate Change Act in 2008 and did so again by becoming the first major economy to commit to reaching net zero by 2050.

On Friday, we had the opportunity to lead again, but to my huge disappointment, the Government chose another route.

Rather than offering a free vote on the CAN Bill, which would have allowed MPs to vote with their conscience rather than along party lines, the Government did everything in their power to halt the Bill’s progress, including reportedly telling Labour MPs who voted for it that they would lose the whip.

Quite why the Government was so keen to stop the CAN Bill is difficult to pinpoint. In their manifesto, Labour promised to “deliver for nature” but this appears to have become lost amid the post-election pursuit of growth.

That’s not a purely rhetorical statement. In fact, on Sunday, just two days after the Government sank the CAN Bill, the Chancellor expressed quiet support for a third runway at Heathrow despite massive environmental concerns.

While the pursuit of growth is a noble one, the Government’s current approach ignores the fact that the cost of not taking the bold action we need on the climate will be far, far higher than the cost making the changes we urgently need. Or, in other words, as one Labour MP more bluntly put it on Friday’s debate, “there is no growth on a dead planet”.

As the effects of the climate crisis spread and deepen, economies will shrink and possibly even collapse – so there’s a massive economic as well as a moral and human imperative to act now.

But unfortunately, this Government either doesn’t believe this, or still has its head in the sand about the scale of change needed to avert climate catastrophe. Either way, the result on Friday was deeply disappointing, and to do so in the same week that we saw a climate denier reoccupy the White House is frankly unforgiveable.

If there was one small ray of hope from Friday’s debate, it came from the Minister for Nature, Mary Creagh, who promised to bring forward “binding commitments” to advance the CAN Bill’s objectives. This was later reaffirmed in a video from Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, who promised to “set to work” on the CAN Bill’s objectives so we can make “a meaningful difference for climate and nature”. 

I’ll continue hold the Government to its word on this. I received a lot of emails in support of the CAN Bill, and I know last week’s result will have been a disappointment to many of you. But, as we search for another way forward, it’s vital that every MP who signed up for the CAN Bill continues to keep up the pressure on the Government to take the action we sorely need for the planet.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Bill and Roz Savage MP, who proposed it and was also the first woman to row solo across three oceans, then please come to our joint event in Totnes this Friday (January 31). It'll be a great evening of conversation about politics, nature and the environment, and you can get your tickets at: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/south-hams-liberal-democrats