Thank you for contacting me regarding the Climate and Nature (CAN) private members Bill.   

Tackling the climate and nature emergency is very important to our Labour Government and to me personally. My own commitment to climate and the environment is unwavering and my career before becoming an MP was dedicated to tacking both issues, unlike the last Government who was hugely reckless on climate policy.   

 
In one singular speech the Tories announced that they would delay the ban on petrol and diesel engines. They scrapped energy efficiency targets and disregarded recycling initiatives. These policies were the tip of an iceberg of the 14 years of climate denial, regression, and destruction that the last Government subjected us to.   
 
In stark contrast, we recognise the importance of integrating climate and nature policy objectives and since coming into Government have been working hard to introduce a world-leading agenda on climate and nature action.  

This Climate and Nature Bill risked delaying the delivery of the crucial commitments that we are currently introducing. So on Friday, we came to an agreement with the proposer that we would work together to ensure strong targets and actions on both climate and nature are implemented at speed. This is far preferable to a private members bill taking its time to go through Parliament and is why the Bill was adjourned.  
 

The climate crisis is ruthless, devastating and indiscriminate, it affects everyone. We therefore cannot risk any delay in addressing this.  
 

As a Labour Government, we are committed to a highly ambitious mission of making Britain a clean energy superpower - delivering clean power by 2030 and accelerating to net zero across the economy - which would put the UK ahead of all other major economies. 
 

The UK already has legally binding targets for climate under the Climate Change Act, and for nature under the Environment Act. Our focus is on delivering on these which include targets for cleaner waterways, biodiversity, resource efficiency and tree and woodland cover. We are also committed to halting the decline of British species by 2030. 

 
As a Labour party we were clear in our manifesto about the need to address this crisis quickly, and within 72 hours of coming into office we had lifted the 9-year ban on onshore wind, delivered the most successful renewables auction in history, set a world-leading target to reduce emissions by 81% by 2035 and reaffirmed our commitment not to issue new oil and gas licenses.  

We have remained steadfast in our commitment since and are taking ongoing action to address climate and nature emergency.  

As a nation we cannot stop the climate crisis on our own, but we can set the example to everyone else of how our efforts to mitigate the crisis brings gains.  

The green energy transition represents a huge opportunity to generate growth, tackle the cost-of-living crisis and give Wales and the UK energy security once again.  
 

For more updates on this and my work as your Member of Parliament, please follow my social media pages at the bottom of this email.  
 

As ever, I’m always available for a chat at one of my regular surgeries if you’d like to discuss this matter further.  

Thank you again for your interest.