Cotswold District Council votes to support the Climate and Ecology Bill

Cllr Nikki Ind, Vice Chair of Cotswold District Council, said: “I’m proud to have brought this motion forward to Council on behalf of a Tetbury resident who lobbied me to bring the motion to Council to support the Climate and Ecology Bill. This is an excellent example of true resident and community engagement and I encourage more residents to engage with their district councillors in this way.”

Councillor Rachel Coxcoon, Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Forward Planning, says that unless the UK acts swiftly on the climate emergency we are on track to exceed the Paris Agreement’s climate targets.

Cllr Coxcoon said: “Having declared climate and ecological emergencies we must now work to achieve our goals. We welcome the Leaders' Pledge for Nature, signed by the UK Government, which states that, if we fail to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, we increase the risk of further pandemics, rising global temperatures and loss of species.

“I am pleased that councillors have unanimously agreed to support this motion and that Cotswold District Council will request the Climate and Ecology Bill be supported in Parliament through our local Member of Parliament. As a local Council, we are doing all we can to combat the climate and ecological emergency and we are calling on the Government to do more.”

The World Wildlife Federation reports that the UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. More than one in seven of our plants and animals face extinction, and more than 40% are in decline. 

The Climate and Ecology Bill has been introduced in the UK Parliament on several occasions since 2020 and would require the development of a strategy to ensure that the UK’s environmental response is in line with the latest science.

The strategy would ensure that:

• the ecological crisis is tackled alongside the climate crisis via a joined-up approach;
• the Paris Agreement aim is enshrined into law to ensure that the UK does its fair share to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5°C; 
• we halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 to ensure that the UK’s ecosystems are protected and restored;
• the UK takes responsibility for its greenhouse gas footprint, including international aviation and shipping, and accounting for consumption emissions related to the goods and services imported and consumed in the UK;
• the UK takes responsibility for its ecological footprint in order to better protect the health and resilience of ecosystems, including along domestic and global supply chains; and
• an independent, temporary Climate and Nature Assembly is set up, representative of the UK population, to engage with the UK Parliament and UK Government to help develop the strategy.

Cotswold District Council is writing to Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP to provide notice that the motion has been passed and to request that the Climate and Ecology Bill be supported in Parliament.