Tag Archives: The Time is Now

Boris is right that speed matters, but it’s a green recovery that we need fast

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Man installing solar panelsIf the reports in the Sunday papers this weekend were true, then tomorrow the prime minister will set out his vision for how the UK government plans to respond to the serious and grave threats facing the economy as the global pandemic continues.

It will also be the first time since the lockdown in March that the government has had the chance to put climate and nature back on top of its agenda. The need to do so could not be more urgent. Read more

How one meeting with my constituents made me take climate change seriously

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time is now smallThis post is by Gary Streeter, MP for South West Devon. It was first posted on his blog. 

MPs get lobbied a lot. Pretty much daily. Its part of the job and there is a growing industry set up to influence us to act in all kinds of ways and pass all kinds of laws. I can’t recall the last time a lobbying exercise persuaded me to change tack. Read more

To attract green-minded voters, Labour must be consistent on the environment

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jeremy corbyn smallThis blog was originally posted on LabourList for the FEPS-Fabian Summer Conference 2019. 

Our climate has benefited from Theresa May’s shift into legacy mode, with her hugely welcome announcement that the UK government will follow the advice of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) and legislate for a net zero emissions target. But she was pipped to the post by the devolved administrations: the SNP government in Scotland had already adopted a more ambitious net zero emissions target, while the Labour government in Wales pledged to achieve net zero five years ahead of the target advised by the CCC.

Game on. But, as the UK parliament recognised in its May 1st declaration, we face a wider environmental crisis beyond climate change – as if the latter weren’t terrifying enough. A few days after the debate, a colossal global assessment of humanity’s impact on nature made headlines with its finding that one million species are facing extinction. Read more

Hope and optimism are the guiding lights in the fight for new environmental laws

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climate emergency smallI am inspired and brimming with hope. Yesterday I was part of the biggest ever environmental lobby of parliament. I felt a small cog in a big wheel of change as around 12,000 people travelled from across the UK to parliament to urge their MPs to take action on the environment and climate emergency. Surfers, farmers, countryside rangers, school children, students, firefighters and medics all joined forces to deliver this message to their MP: we care passionately about the environment and we want you to listen and do something now.

I spent some of the day walking the mile-long lobby queue to find out why so many people had given up their time. Here are some of the things I learned. Read more

Investing in the environment is an investment in people

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mass lobby smallThis post is by Ruth Chambers, senior parliamentary associate, and Maddy Carroll, campaign coordinator for Greener UK. It was first posted on Business Green.

Earlier this month, experts at Kew Gardens and Stockholm University highlighted the extinction epidemic facing many vital plants, reminding us that all life on earth depends on plants. This echoes the stark finding of the UN’s recent global assessment that nature is declining at rates unprecedented in human history and the health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. Read more