why strengthen climate PROTECTIONS?
using legislation to drive accountability for climate action.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH OUR CURRENT climate protections?
The UK has a climate legislation record to be proud of. Not only did we introduce the Climate Change Act - the world’s first climate protection bill - back in 2008, we were also the first major economy to legislate for ‘net zero’ emissions by 2050.
But gaps in our Climate Act have prevented us from holding the government to account on progress towards reducing emissions. This needs to be addressed if the UK genuinely wants to be considered ‘world beating.'
1. the climate act allows government to promise, but not deliver.
The Act does not formally impose any sanctions should the government fail to deliver on its ‘legally binding’ emissions reduction targets, which are outlined in the UK’s Carbon Budgets. The result is what we see today: a chasm between the government’s rhetoric on climate, and action to meet its stated ambition.
2. THE ACT fails to encourage climate conscious policy making.
The policy response to climate change is uneven across government departments, many of whom consider mitigation to be somebody else’s remit. This is perverse, given that climate change affects everyone, everywhere, in every part of our society. One of the expectations of the Act was that it would change this, and ensure that climate change was taken into consideration in all areas of policy development. This has happened, but only to a degree, and it is still far too common for government’s international actions and national policy announcements to fail to comply with their net zero commitment.
3. THE LACK OF PROTECTIONS makes life hard for climate campaigners.
The Supreme Court’s ruling on Heathrow expansion and other ongoing legal challenges have demonstrated how strongly the UK public feels about climate action. But thus far, the job of accountability has been left up to campaigners and specialist organisations such as Client Earth; whose only option is to mount cases in the hopes of forcing a change of direction, or prompting a judicial review. While public action will always be essential to maintaining support for environmental legislation, we can’t expect civil society to pick up all the slack; especially as we enter into a more challenging phase of emissions reductions.
We’re calling for stronger climate protections.
We recognise that the integration of climate-conscious decision-making across all Government departments will take some time.
That’s why we’re starting with a relatively simple ask - for Her Majesty’s Treasury to introduce a robust Net Zero ‘stress test’ across all fiscal decision-making, ensuring fiscal decisions cannot be taken at the expense of environmental outcomes.
In the first instance, this should include a review of all existing fiscal measures, including provision of tax relief and tax freezes, and their associated environmental and emissions-saving impacts.
Subsequently, this process should be applied to future decision-making, to ensure that fiscal measures - including those which do not have explicit environmental objectives - drive rather than hamper progress against our legally-binding net zero target.
The Government's ambition in this space is not where it should be - as demonstrated by the fact that the Treasury has been exempted from having to consider environmental protection principles within their policy and decision making - and by a recent statement from the Exchequer Secretary:
"We do not have a way of saying 'this investment is good for net zero or not good for net zero…we're not going to do is to strangle our economic recovery with regulation that's not necessary.”
