DAVID TURVER

Introduction

There is a new bill circulating in Parliament called the Climate and Nature Bill. The Bill passed first reading in October and is scheduled for second reading on the 24^th of January 2025. It is being promoted by an organisation called Zero Hour whose name invokes an alarming echo of Pol Pot’s Year Zero. As we shall see, the measures proposed in the Bill do nothing to assuage these concerns.

The name of the Bill sounds innocuous enough: who could possibly oppose measures to protect and enhance nature? But when you dig into the details of the proposals, then the Bill starts to look very sinister indeed, despite claims the proposed new law is “in-line with the most up to date science.” Interestingly, they do not actually show any science on their website. The Bill is intended to give the Secretary of State (it does not state which one) the duty to achieve certain climate and nature objectives by publishing a strategy to achieve them. The strategy must include annual interim targets and the Secretary of State must “take all reasonable steps to achieve them.”

Climate Targets

The overall objective is for the UK to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero at a rate consistent with limiting the global mean temperature increase to 1.5^oC above pre-industrial levels. There are two problems with this objective. First, the UK represents only about 0.8% of global CO₂ emissions and global emissions are rising faster each year than the UK’s entire contribution (See Figure 1 from OWID).

Cutting UK emissions to zero will make no significant difference to global emissions. Second, according to the BBC, the sacred 1.5^oC warming limit has already been exceeded, rendering the objective completely irrelevant. The Cliscep website has also dissected the absurdity of the CO₂ reduction target here.

Nevertheless, the Bill calls for the strategy to include measures to also reduce carbon dioxide emissions from imports at the same percentage rate as our territorial emissions. So, after closing our steelworks and much of our chemicals industry, we will be legally obliged to cut imports too. Imports of food like beef and lamb that are supposed to have large carbon footprints will also have to be curbed. Even vegan imports such as avocados and quinoa will not be safe.

The Climate and Nature Bill also calls for an end to the exploration, extraction, export and import of fossil fuels “as rapidly as possible.” This is going to be quite a tall order because fossil fuels provided about three quarters of our dwindling primary energy supply in 2023 (see Figure 2, again from OWID).

Those behind the Climate and Nature Bill seem to have overlooked the vast array of products that are derived from fossil fuels (see Figure 3, courtesy of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York).

These include cars, computers, phones, hair dye, aircraft, clothing, packaging, toys, bicycles, medical equipment, contact lenses and pharmaceuticals, not to mention fertilisers and even wind turbines. Ending the production and import of fossil fuels will take us back to pre-industrial times.

Nature Measures

The nature measures in the strategy must include actions that will achieve the objectives by “restoring and expanding natural ecosystems and enhancing the management of cultivated ecosystems” in the UK and protecting and “enhancing biodiversity, ecological processes and ecosystem service provision” overseas. The measures must also ensure that all activities in the UK “which affect the health, abundance, diversity and resilience of species, populations and ecosystems prioritise avoidance of the loss of nature, through adherence to the Mitigation and Conservation Hierarchy (MCH).” Now the MCH includes encouraging organic agriculture (which reduces yields) as well as natural flooding of wetlands, reforestation, rewilding, ecosystem creation and species introductions. In other words they want to cut food yields at the same time as turning farmland into flood zones and forest by replanting trees.

They do not explain how we can feed ourselves if we can no longer import food and grow much less ourselves. These proposals are eerily reminiscent of the UK FIRES Absolute Zero report, but instead of being recommendations in an esoteric publication from some whacky academics they will now be enshrined in law.

Safeguards

Who is Behind the Climate Nature Bill?

The Bill was originally presented to Parliament by former MP Caroline Lucas in 2020 and was supported by among others, Peter Bottomley who is also no longer an MP. Chris Skidmore, who has the stain of Net Zero on his record has also supported this bill, terming it the Climate Change Act 2.0. It is now being pushed by Lib Dem MP Roz Savage, the daughter of a Methodist minister and deaconess. There often seems to be a religious angle to these types of Bill.

On their website, Zero Hour claim that 1,737 organisations, politicians and scientists are backing the Bill. The organisations include Dale Vince’s Ecotricity. Quite how he plans to build his wind farms without fossil fuels is not explained. It also appears as though fellow supporters Lush and the Body Shop have not thought through how they are going to package their products without plastics derived from fossil fuels (see Figure 4).

Zero Hour also claim to have the support of 192 MPs, including Miatta Fahnbulleh who is the Minister for Consumers in DESNZ and Emma Hardy, Minister for Water and Flooding in DEFRA. Who would have thought the Minister for Flooding would be backing a Bill to create more floods? It is also claimed that the Bill is backed by 54 peers, 6 mayors, 8 MSPs and 3 MSs (from the Welsh Assembly). Apparently, 15 political parties including the Climate Party, the True and Fair Party and Mebyon Kernow (no, me neither) also support the Bill. Some 374 councils including such august bodies as Ambrosden Parish Council and Upper Beeding Parish Council have also declared their support. The claimed support might not be quite as strong as we are being led to believe.

Undermining Democracy

This is a Private Members Bill and not Government legislation, so nobody voted for this. Nevertheless, the Bill calls for another Citizen’s Assembly to be convened where they brainwash hand-picked members of the public to believe in their climate utopia. If they manage to get 66% or more of the Assembly to agree to certain recommendations, then these measures must be included in the Secretary of State’s strategy unless the Climate Change Committee or the Joint Nature Conservation Committee agree there are compelling reasons not to.

A Zero Hour briefing about the Bill says that if the “Government fails to deliver a strategy that meets the Bill’s objectives and fundamental principles, breaching the duties imposed by the Bill, the Government can be challenged in the High Court through judicial review.” This will effectively put the measures proposed in the Climate and Nature Bill into the hands of activist judges and out of reach of normal democratic processes.

Conclusions

As we saw above, the objectives of the legislation are pointless because UK emissions are nothing more than an irrelevant rounding error in the global scheme of things. Moreover, the dreaded 1.5^oC temperature limit has already been breached, so the objective cannot be achieved. We need to recognise that the people proposing this Bill are a danger to the rest of us.

Cutting domestic fossil fuel extraction and phasing out imports will cut off vital fuel and access to the myriad of essential products derived from them. People living in poverty die younger and more than one in five of all people are dying in fuel poverty. Reducing the amount of land we have available for growing food at the same time as cutting imports will lead to food shortages. They are proposing a law that will lead to death and destruction on a grand scale in the name of saving the planet. We truly are entering the world of Pol Pot’s Year Zero. We must not beat around the bush here, if this Bill becomes law people will die. Net Zero kills. You might like to write to your MP and ask them to oppose this Bill at second reading.

This article (Climate and Nature Bill is Our Year Zero) was created and published by David Turver and is republished here under “Fair Use”