Across the UK – In the space of just under 12 months, over 100 local authorities, including district, town, county and city councils, have pledged their support for the Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE) Bill.
104 councils have now pledged their support by passing motions in favour of encouraging Westminster politicians to pass the CEE Bill and for it to become law. Cross-party councillors from all major parties have worked together over the past 12 months to persuade their colleagues to act in the interests of both their residents and the wider world to take appropriate action on the climate and ecological emergency.
The Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE) Bill was tabled by a group of MPs in June. The CEE Bill is scheduled for its Second Reading in the House of Commons in September, in the lead up to the international climate conference COP 26 taking place in Glasgow from October to November 2021. The Bill provides a framework of overarching policy imperatives that recognise our responsibility to reduce the UK’s entire emissions and ecological footprint, urgently and fairly.
Cllr Andrea Davis, a Conservative councillor and Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Environment and Transport on Devon County Council, said: “We are already gathering support and acting at a local level on the aims of the
CEE Bill. To enshrine the aims in law would provide even greater focus on the climate and ecological emergencies and give a greater mandate for national policy and resources to be aligned, to have the necessary impact on these most pressing of issues.”
The campaign behind the CEE Bill – Zero Hour – was previously called the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill Alliance, referring to the large number of high profile people and organisations which have pledged their support to the Bill. Zero Hour represents the same voices, now with an updated, more concise Bill which was tabled in a longer format in the previous parliamentary session, also by a cross-party group of MPs.
Zero Hour is calling on everyone to join the campaign, for supporters to get in touch with their local group, and for MPs to support the Bill by attending the debate on 21 September 2021 when it will be heard at Second Reading.
In addition to Zero Hour’s campaign for the CEE Bill, a separate group called the Blueprint Coalition are also calling for central government to provide more funding and support for local action on the climate crisis. The Blueprint Coalition includes Ashden, Friends of the Earth, the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London, ADEPT (the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport) and others.
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