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Climate and Nature Bill

XRUK is supporting Zero Hour’s digital campaign to lobby MPs to attend the Second Reading of the Climate & Nature Bill.

Zero Hour campaign - Write to your MP!

Zero Hour have been campaigning to get the Climate & Nature Bill adopted and then passed into law by the UK Government. More detail about this campaign below.

The next step is to ask MPs to support the Bill, if they haven't done so, and to attend a crucial debate in Parliament on 25th January 2025.

Zero Hour have produced several template letters, and a web page to select the correct one for your MP:

  • a "Thank You" email for an MP supporting the Bill, and committed to attending the debate
  • a "Please attend" email for an MP supporting, but not yet attending
  • a "Please support and attend" email for an MP silent on the issue so far
  • an email to get support from local councillors, for an MP known to be hostile to the Bill

Take Action - Email your MP

Access the right email template by using Zero Hour's website, you can do this by:

You'll find lots of information on these pages about your MP, some instructions, some example text to edit, a form to enter your details - emails to MPs are never anonymous, and finally a button to take you to the next step.

It is much easier to do all this from a laptop instead of a phone.
Almost 18000 emails have already been sent by the campaign!

What is the Climate & Nature (CAN) Bill?

The CAN Bill is a private members’ bill, originally proposed by Caroline Lucas MP. It sets out a comprehensive and joined-up set of policies to address the climate and environmental crises.

Most private members’ bills fail, but the best chance of success is when they are introduced through the ballot process, where MPs who are successful in the ballot can decide which bill to bring, as it guarantees that the bill will be given time to be debated properly in the House of Commons. This is now the case for the CAN Bill as Roz Savage MP has been successful in the ballot and agreed to bring the CAN Bill.

The First Reading is a formality and has already occurred. The crucial next stage is the Second reading on 24th January 2025. A minimum of 102 MPs must attend the reading in-person and vote in support of the bill in order for it to proceed to the next stages. Although over 180 MPs have declared their support for the bill, 24th January is a Friday when many MPs would normally be back in their constituencies, so supporting MPs will need to make a conscious decision to stay in London for the vote.

There are still many hurdles beyond the Second Reading, but provided that these can be successfully overcome it may be possible for the bill to achieve Royal Assent by Oct/Nov 2025 . The stages involved in this process are explained here.

Why is XRUK supporting Zero Hour’s campaign?

XR has supported Zero Hour’s campaign for the Climate & Nature Bill (originally called the Climate & Ecology Bill) since its inception, and some of the key people in Zero Hour were previously in XR.

A central element of the CAN Bill is a citizens’ assembly, to help decide how the provisions of the Act (once passed into legislation) should be implemented.

Although not the same as the Third Demand, passage of the CAN Bill into law would be a massive step forward, and pave the way for a true citizens’ assembly on climate and ecological justice.

Irrespective of the citizens’ assembly, the bill offers a route to getting comprehensive, joined-up, science-based legislation in place to address the climate and ecological emergencies.

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